Oktoberfest 2014 - 10/30/2014
The House Committee invites you to attend a special fall event, Oktoberfest at The Explorers Club, featuring Special Host Fritz Selby FE’88. The evening will feature traditional Oktoberfest fare such as Knackwurst & Bratwurst accompanied by Sauerkraut, German Potato Salad, Braised Red Cabbage, Pickled Beets, Spaetzle and Dark Breads followed by a dessert of Black Forest Cake and other selections. We will also serve dark beers and a Special Oktoberfest beer and wine. Casual dress is encouraged. Also encouraged but not required is traditional Lederhosen attire, green jackets for men, and dirndls for the ladies. Members please invite guests.
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Press Conference announcing the discovery of 17th-Century shipwreck in Scarborough Harbour, Tobago - 11/03/2014
This past March, Dr. Kroum Batchvarov and his team including Jason Paterniti FN'10 and Douglas Inglis TM '13 located a 17th century shipwreck off the coast of Tobago. Based on the material discovered, this could be the 340 year-old remains of Huis de Kreuningen, one of the 12 vessels that were sunk on March 3, 1677 in what is now known as Scarborough Harbour. Come hear news of the discovery and see the evidence in support of identifying the vessel as the Huis de Kreuningen. This event is free and open to the public.
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NYC - Public Lecture Series feat. Eric Cline - 11/3/2014
1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed - In this illustrated lecture, Dr. Eric Cline tells the story of the collapse of the Late Bronze Age ca. 1177 BC, considering everything from climate issues and civil unrest to invasion by the so-called Sea Peoples and the cutting of major trade routes. He also describes what exactly it was that collapsed, since from about 1500 BC to 1200 BC, the Mediterranean region played host to a complex international world in which Egyptians, Mycenaeans, Minoans, Hittites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Cypriots, and Canaanites all interacted, creating a cosmopolitan and globalized world-system such as has only rarely been seen before the current day.
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Free Public Lecture featuring Ueli Steck, the "Swiss Machine" - 11/04/2014
World renowned Swiss alpinist and record-breaking rock climber Ueli Steck joins us to present his legendary experiences. In this lecture, the "Swiss Machine" - whose rapid ascents of classic routes are just as demanding as three-minute miles - will share stories of his extreme expeditions all around the world. Join us in listening to tales of his rocky adventures and meet the Swiss Superman in person! Space is limited and the event is free to attend. Brought to you by the Consulate General of Switzerland in New York.
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NYC - Film Screening - The Only Real Game - 11/05/2014
The Explorers Club cordially invites you to A New York screening of The Only Real Game. Mirra Bank's feature documentary reveals an almost unknown, hauntingly beautiful but troubled part of the world where, astonishingly, baseball has been played, and cherished, since WWII. The Only Real Game follows two gifted Major League Baseball Envoy coaches who journey to Manipur and, together with dedicated players there, help heal a wounded society through love of a great sport.
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The Four-Tusked Elephant: An Evening of Club Lore, Live Music and Dancing - 11/07/2014
The remains of the Congolese elephant with four tusks have long been an object of intrigue in The Explorers Club’s Trophy Room. On Friday, November 7, join us for a fun-filled night of storytelling and music, as we step back in time to understand this fascinating and truly one-of-a-kind relic. Music from the era, specially created for this evening, will be performed throughout the night.
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NYC - Lecture Series feat. Col. James Reid - 11/10/2014
A story worthy of a Hollywood movie, James Reid arrived in Vietnam from an intelligence assignment in SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe), Paris, as a US Army major, and was selected in late 1967 to brief Henry Cabot lodge Jr, who had come to oversee the South Vietnamese presidential elections. His activities involved consultations with high level personages, exciting intelligence gathering activities and a clandestine mission involving US Ambassador to India Chester Bowles' secret agreement with Cambodian ruler Prince Sihanouk ( fearful of a Chinese invasion of his country).
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NYC - Public Lecture Series feat. Doug Emlen - 11/17/2014
ANIMAL WEAPONS: The Evolution of Battle - Evolutionary biologist Douglas Emlen has always been fascinated by extreme weapons in animals, from dung beetles, fiddler crabs, and flies all the way up to walruses, caribou, and even extinct beasts like Irish elk, saber-toothed tigers, and mammoths. Why do animals grow weapons that are so stunningly outsized, even to the point where they hamper the bearers’ mobility and damage their overall health? It turns out that there are clear laws governing when arms races in the animal kingdom will arise—and they apply to the development of human weapons, as well.
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The Third Annual Explorers Club Polar Film Festival - 11/21/2014 & 11/22/2014
The Explorers Club is proud to announce our third annual Polar Film Festival, coming this November 21st & 22nd. Be sure to join us for the Friday kick-off event on the evening of November 21st, for Russell A. Potter's presentation Before Nanook: Fact and Fiction in Early Arctic Films, followed by a full day of spectacular polar films and Q&A's with filmmakers on Saturday the 22nd.
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NYC - Public Lecture Series feat. Warren Riess - 11/24/2014
The Ship That Held Up Wall Street — An underwater archaeologist exploring beneath the pavement of Manhattan? In 1982 more than 11,000 New Yorkers viewed a ship being excavated by archaeologists at 175 Water Street, then it was gone. Dr. Warren Riess co-directed the excavation of a colonial merchant ship and has researched and analyzed it over the past thirty-five years. In his illustrated lecture Riess will discuss the problematic excavation and the results of decades of research and analysis that led him to identify the ship and discover its history in the developing eighteenth-century Atlantic World.
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NYC - Public Lecture Series feat. Paul Rosolie - 12/01/2014
This presentation takes us into the wild western Amazon, the Madre de Dios (or Mother of God). The sacred headwaters of the Amazon Basin are the most ecologically significant place on our planet. For the last eight years Paul Rosolie has studied and explored this region of ancient forest amidst gold miners, drug runners, loggers, uncontacted tribes, and more biological diversity than anywhere else. An author, and award winning documentary filmmaker, Rosolie’s mission is to tell the story of this wild corner of the earth before it vanishes.
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NYC - President's Dinner feat. Caroline Alexander - 12/2/2014
Shackleton’s Endurance Expedition and the Shadow of the Great War: With the race to the South Pole won by Norway, renowned polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton set his sights on another prize, the first crossing of the Antarctic continent. This dream was dashed when the Endurance was crushed by ice and Shackleton and his 27 men found themselves castaways in the most remote place on earth. Shackleton’s quest for glory became a fight merely to survive. Caroline Alexander is the author of seven books of non-fiction including the international best-sellers The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition and The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty, now under development for a TV mini-series.
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NYC - Public Lecture Series feat. Simon Donato - 12/8/2014
100 Miles of Wild - the North Dakota Badlands Expedition: This talk will describe results of Flag expedition 112, where the Adventure Science team conducted the first-ever walking survey of the North Dakota Badlands. The purpose of the project was to document the current state of the wilderness that helped inspire Theodore Roosevelt to preserve wilderness areas in the United States. The rapid expansion of the Bakken oil boom threatens to alter the feeling and state of wilderness in this remote area, and as political controversy rages, a non-partisan baseline study needed to be conducted.
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NYC - Public Lecture Series feat. Emily Driscoll & Mara G. Haseltine - 12/15/2014
Art of the Invisible Ocean: Exploring plankton, micro-plastics and the design of sustainable living reefs through art, opera and film. The lecture includes two films, a presentation and Q&A with Emily V. Driscoll, a science video director/producer specializing in science and art documentaries, and Mara G. Haseltine, an internationally renowned artist known for her sculptural renditions of microscopic life forms.
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NYC - Public Lecture Series feat. John Bellezza - 01/05/2015
Some 3000 years ago, the relentless spread of civilization reached Tibet with dramatic consequences, ones that would alter the face of Eurasia forever. This was the time of the Late Bronze Age followed by the Iron Age, periods of profound technological and environmental change across Eurasia. Although we now often think of Tibet as a backwater, in antiquity it too was an active participant in the reshaping of this vast continent. The developments unleashed in Tibet and beyond three millennia ago reverberate down to the present day, helping to account for the cultural legacies of two-thirds of the world’s population.
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NYC - Public Lecture Series feat. Ryan Pyle - 01/12/15
The Middle Kingdom Ride - Ryan Pyle decided to leave the rat race behind and ride his motorbike around China. He covered over 14,000 miles over 60 days in a circuit of China that has never been attempted before. He has effectively become a Shanghai local, having lived there for 10 years. Pyle has now set his sights even higher. Crazy drivers, 40 degree plus heat, massive landslides, floods, inhospitable towns and dangerous falls will hamper his progress, as he strives to claim a Guinness World record for the longest continuous journey by a motorcycle within a single country. It's a quest to go where no one has gone before; a journey they call The Middle Kingdom Ride.
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NYC - Public Lecture Series feat. Ulyana Nadia Horodyskyj - 03/02/2014
In Search of Black Ice: Science and Exploration in the Nepalese Himalaya - From September 2013 through June 2014, Ulyana Nadia Horodyskyj had the unique opportunity to live and work in the Nepalese Himalaya on a US Fulbright fellowship. During this time, she explored mechanisms for ice mass loss in the Himalaya. From surviving a near-drowning in a glacial river, climbing to over 6100 meters (20,000 feet) in search of samples, and losing a member of her team in the Everest avalanche, Horodyskyj will take you on a journey of discovery, exploration, hardship and heartbreak during my collection of scientific data from the Roof of the World.
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NYC - Public Lecture Series feat. William Chapman - 03/09/2014
The ancient ruins of Southeast Asia have long sparked curiosity and romance in the world’s imagination. They appear in accounts of 19th-century French explorers, as props for Indiana Jones’ adventures, and more recently as the scene of Lady Lara Croft’s fantastical battle with the forces of evil. They have been featured in National Geographic magazine and serve as backdrops for popular television travel and reality shows. Drawing from his recent book A Heritage of Ruins: The Ancient Sites of Southeast Asia and Their Conservation (2013), William Chapman will explore the varied roles these monumental remains have played in the histories of Southeast Asia’s modern nations.
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News
Explorers Club makes historic move for its 111th Annual Dinner
Dear Fellow Explorer:
The magnificence of Exploration is discovery.
The magnificence of Exploration is innovation.
The magnificence of Exploration is embarking on a new road rarely traveled but there all the time.
After a glorious 67 years of history at the famous Waldorf Astoria Hotel, we are initiating a new and bold change that accentuates our mission to advance World Exploration in this century by hosting the 2015 Explorers Club Annual Dinner at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City—a venue indigenous to The Explorers Club mission, a venue that surrounds all of us with the very essence of discovery, innovation, and the magnificent history of exploration.
We will walk the halls of this extraordinary, world-renowned museum amidst what generations before us have unearthed in their quest, surrounded by the very essence of exploration. These hallowed rooms will excite and motivate us at this event. This is an enormous leap into the 21st Century Golden Age of Exploration.
I look forward to being with you at the American Museum of Natural History for the 111th ECAD on March 21, 2015.
Flags In The Field: Tom Ambrose
Explorers Club Flag expeditions represent the cutting edge of exploration. Our archive of past expeditions is a treasure trove of information and meaningful discovery, available to Club members, researchers, filmmakers and the interested public. In addition to the archives, many recent flag expedition reports may be found on the Flag Reports section of our website, along with our interactive flags-in-the-field exploration map.
A central mission of the Club is to promote the work our members accomplish while carrying Club Flags in the field, and to catalog their stories. We recently caught up with Tom Ambrose and Flag 99 to learn more about his survey of Cuban karst landscapes, his personal motivations, and why karst is so fascinating to him.
The Explorers Club and Diageo Announce Global Sponsorship and Licensing Agreement
Dear Fellow Explorer:
I am pleased to announce an important sponsorship and licensing agreement between The Explorers Club and Diageo, owner of the Johnnie Walker brand. We welcome Johnnie Walker as a corporate sponsor of The Explorers Club, and salute Diageo for their support of our crucial world mission.
The agreement, which settles ongoing litigation between The Explorers Club and Diageo, is the culmination of an intensive effort by the leadership of the Club and its lawyers at Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP: Josh Schiller; John Dema, himself a Club member; and Ben Margulis.
Under the agreement, Diageo will license The Explorers Club trademark for use in the Johnnie Walker Explorers’ Club Collection. The Explorers Club will be directly incorporated into the promotion of the product line, providing a unique global opportunity to raise awareness of the legacy and mission of the Club and its members.
This agreement ensures the continued protection of the history, tradition, and strength of The Explorers Club name and trademarks, and the sponsorship serves as an extraordinary new platform for The Explorers Club as the World Center for Exploration.
Please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions. Under the settlement agreement, the specific terms of the license and sponsorship are confidential.
