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Main Image Naked pictures sold as ethnographic studies were among the century old pictures discovered lately by workers from the Arctic Institute (Photo: Arktisk Institut)

Hidden photographic treasures found

Workers with the Arctic Institute have made a fascinating discovery of photographic material hidden for up to a century.

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By redaktionen Print
18-04 - 14:21

Sørine Gejl from the Arctic Institute made a discovery recently of a series of small brown packages that revealed photographs that hold military, environmental and ethnographic importance.

‘I found twenty small brown packages that contained, amongst other items, photographs and negatives from the Danish Expedition 1906-1908 as well as US military aerial photographs of the inland ice from 1953,’ said Gejl.

The Arctic Institute will now make a detailed study of all the items found in the packages.

Already next week a worker form the Geological Institute will be arriving to look at the photographs of the inland ice taken by the US military, to assess their significance and importance in tracing climate change.

Among the photographic finds were pictures taken during the Women’s’ Boat Expedition’s botanical and ethnographic studies from 1884-1885. Included among these photographs were some rather surprising finds of naked women posing in the landscape.

‘Several polar explorers have photographed naked Greenlandic womenfolk, and then sold them later as “ethnographic studies”, in typically western poses,’ said Gejl.

The Arctic Institute has been creating a database of information for more than fifty years, collecting pictures, books, documents and maps of Greenland.

The collections of the Arctic Institute are available to the public.