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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

As are the similarities to Caspar David Friedrich’s “Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog” in which the figure can be interpreted as contemplating the awe and terror of nature’s sublime

A picture of the painting titled “Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog” depicting a man standing on a mountaintop facing away from the viewer and gazing over a foggy, wild landscape

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Sir Edward Belcher, a searcher who didn't find Franklin AND infamously abandoned a whole bunch of seaworthy ships in the Northwest Passage, one of which was later turned into the U.S. president's Resolute Desk ...

A color photo of Barack Obama talking on the phone at the Resolute Desk, an oak desk with ornate patriotic carvings, in the Oval Office.

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Perhaps because of that, all of Britain's famous #Arctic personages attended the opening—including the explorer's widow Lady Jane Franklin AND John Rae, who had reported that her husband's starving crew has resorted to "the last dread alternative"—cannibalism! If those gallery walls could talk ...

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Church created "The Icebergs" soon after the world learned of Franklin's fate, and the tragedy was still in people's minds. Church initially painted "The Icebergs" without the broken ship's mast in the foreground but added it for the painting's London debut (likely) as a memorial to Franklin ...

A detail of Frederic Edwin Church's painting "The Icebergs" showing the broken ship's mast and crow's nest in the foreground of the scene.

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

"The Icebergs" was also a product of Church's fascination with #ArcticExploration and especially the lost #FranklinExpedition. He owned Elisha Kent Kane's books describing his search for Franklin and was friends with Isaac Israel Hayes, the surgeon on Kane's voyage (that's Kane, below) ...

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

"The Icebergs" (1861) was inspired by Church's expedition to Newfoundland, where hired a rowboat to get up close and personal with actual icebergs (even though he was seasick). He made over 100 sketches, like this one in the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt's collection ...

A colorful oil sketch by Frederic Edwin Church showing a blue-ish iceberg against a red-orange sky and a gray sea

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

setting up my group chat on bsky

“The Arctic Council,” a 19th-century group portrait of various British Arctic explorers in military uniforms sitting and standing around a table covered with expedition plans

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

A bust of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, looking appropriately ghostly at the @metmuseum.org

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Found a little friend hiding in my compost bin (common garter snake I believe)

A small common garter snake, mostly black with light yellow lengthwise stripes, partially curled up and resting in the sun on a pile of compost

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

OK one more: I found this cool official Rand McNally moon map in Dad’s collection! I didn’t want to flatten it too much so this is just a quarter of it unfolded. So neat!

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

Issues of Look Magazine and Newsweek with the first #moon landing on the covers, saved by my dad in 1969

An issue of Look Magazine with a picture an astronaut on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969

An issue of Newsweek with a close up picture of an astronaut on the moon during the first moon landing in 1969. A banner of the cover reads Moonwalk in Color

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

OK I started going through more of Dad’s #moon landing collection … here’s LIFE magazine’s spread

The cover of LIFE magazine dated August 8, 1969 featuring the 1969 moon landing

A two page magazine photo spread depicting an astronaut and American flag on the moon in 1969

The famous photo of Buzz Aldrin in a spacesuit on the moon in 1969

Another photo spread showing the first photos of astronauts on the moon in 1969

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

When I was going through my dad’s things after he passed away in 2022, I found a stack of newspapers reporting Apollo 11’s moon landing. I wish he was here to see #ArtemisII

A yellowed copy of the The Washington Post newspaper dated July 21, 1969 with the large headline “The Eagle Has Landed—Two Men Walk on the Moon”

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

For the whole story, including what we know of White’s life before the Arctic and as the governor of the Lost Colony of Roanoke, read the latest edition of my newsletter, Arctic Archives—and subscribe for free so you don’t miss an issue! ~Fin~ katlong.substack.com

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Finally: White later became the leader of the Lost Colony of Roanoke and painted many Indigenous peoples of Virginia. I don’t think he would have been chosen for that endeavor without actual experience on a voyage of discovery, all but proving he was the first Elizabethan artist in the Arctic. 14/15

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

If White wasn’t on the voyage, he would have had to travel from London (where he lived) to Bristol, roughly 120 miles, to paint the Inuit. And he would have had to get there by around the 3rd week of October 1577 (Elizabethan roads being what they were) because … 10/15

A section of a map of Elizabethan London showing a mess of buildings and streets in red along the north side of the River Thames.

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

White also painted a skirmish between Inuit and Frobisher’s men at a site called “Bloody Point.” David Beers Quinn, top John White expert, believes it was done “by someone who was present” at the Arctic battle, thus “the only evidence that White was a member of the expedition.” … 8/15

John White's watercolor painting of an Arctic battle between Inuit and English sailors. Some Inuit in the background are in kayaks in an ice-strewn waterway. One person in a large kayak is in the foreground. Four more Inuit are on a headland over the water and shooting arrows at a boat containing English sailors. The Englishmen are firing muskets and a large English flag is waving from the boat's bow.

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Either Frobisher or Michael Lok, the court-connected agent who organized the voyage, could have picked White to go on it as one of the 30 or so “gentlemen-adventurers” who accompanied the crew. They were unpaid—explaining why White isn’t listed on the crew manifest … 7/15

A portrait of the Elizabethan privateer Martin Frobisher, a white guy with brown hair and a short beard. He wears a gold-colored doublet with a white ruff collar and poofy white sleeves. His gold pantaloons are even poofier. He's wearing white shoes and holding a pistol.

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

The expedition landed in Bristol in October 1577 with 200 tons of the gold-flecked ore and the three captives. The man and woman soon died. They were buried in the city’s St. Stephen’s Church. The baby died in London. 5/15

An old-timey sepia-toned illustration of the Bristol harbor with warehouses and sailing ships in the river. The tower of St. Stephen's church is in the background to the left.

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

White’s name is not on the list of crew members, which suggests he wasn’t on the voyage … 3/15

A summary of the names of the crew members on the Ayde, one of Martin Frobisher's ships that sailed to Baffin Island from England in 1577. They are all spelled in goofy Elizabethan style.

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Elizabethan artist John White drew the first pictures of Inuit people that Europeans had ever seen. But scholars debate how he did it. Some say White merely painted the Inuit in England, after they arrived as captives in 1577. Here’s why I believe White was actually in the Arctic … 1/15

Two portraits of an Inuit man and woman by the Elizabeth artist John White, superimposed on a map of Baffin Bay.

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

John White is known as the governor of the Lost Colony of Roanoke, Sir Walter Raleigh’s ill-fated settlement in America. But before that, White showed Europeans their first paintings of Arctic people. Who was John White—and how did he end up in the Arctic? katlong.substack.com/p/an-elizabe...

An illustration of an Inuit man in a fur parka imposed on a blue-green map with a compass rose at the top, with text saying "An Elizabethan Artist in the Arctic: Before John White led the Lost Colony of Roanoke, he painted the first detailed images of Arctic people that Europeans had ever seen. Plus: Scoresby book research and polar news. Arctic Archives. Katlong.Substack.com"

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

Gateway Arch shrouded in fog from my visit to St. Louis today

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Visited Natural Bridge State Park in Virginia on my road trip from Maryland to Oklahoma for the holidays. A popular 19th C. tourist attraction that was painted by Frederic Edwin Church and once owned by Thomas Jefferson!

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

Pre-Thanksgiving Day hike along the Potomac. It’s 70 degrees!!!

A stream with a gentle riffle from submerged rocks. It’s a beautiful sunny day in November and the trees and grasses along the stream are various shades of brown.

A big cool mushroom growing out of a dead log on the forest floor. It is cream colored with fluted edges and looks like several mushrooms growing in a bouquet.

Two tall tulip trees and some shorter trees, all without leaves, against a bright cloudless blue sky in a Maryland forest.

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Visited a remnant of the last ice age in NE Illinois! Volo Bog is the southernmost open-water quaking bog in North America, created in a kettle hole left by a receding glacier about 10,000 years ago. Now a rare habitat for carnivorous plants!

A sign leading to the Volo Bog Interpretive Trail.

A tussock of sphagnum moss with some twigs poking out of it in Volo Bog.

A big pitcher plant with many small “pitchers” that catch insects as prey.

Branches of red winterberries among marsh reeds and grasses.

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 01/11/2025

John Playfair taught my biography subject #WilliamScoresbyJr in his natural history course at the U of Edinburgh in 1806—the epicenter of the Neptunism vs. Vulcanism geological debate. Scoresby leaned Neptunist! His notebook from Playfair's lectures (yes he misspelled Edinburgh on the cover):

Notebook cover with elaborately handwritten title: "Lectures on Natural Philosophy at the College of Edinburgh by Professor Playfair 1806"

Notebook page with handwritten notes on natural history from 1806, notes are very hard to read

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

Senescence at Sugarloaf Mountain (near Comus, Md.)

A large angular rock outcropping in the foreground with red and gold fall foliage in the background

A close up photo of a small maple tree branch with bright red leaves

An almost fluorescent yellow cluster of sassafras leaves against the forest floor

The view from the top of Sugarloaf Mountain with rocky outcroppings in the foreground, some small conifers a little farther back, and an expanse of farmland in the background

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

Great Falls of the Potomac never gets old

A postcard shot of Great Falls off the Potomac River, a series of rocky waterfalls and stony shoreline

A huge cream colored mushroom, possibly an oyster mushroom, that looks like it has petals like a flower

Another photo of Great Falls that is angled diagonally so I can get as much of the waterfalls in the photo as possible

A sign on a wooded trail that describes Matildaville, a village built in 1790 that is just ruins now

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

I HAVE GROWN TOMATOES IN MY GARDEN

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

One benefit of the daily thunderstorms and record humidity in D.C. this month is 🍄 Mushroom Mania 🍄 in my local woods! Please help ID. All taken today at Lake Needwood in Rockville, Md.

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

My sweetbay magnolia bought from Home Depot’s clearance shelf last fall is actually blooming! 🥹

A small sweetbay magnolia shrubs planted in my backyard with two white blooms

Sweetbay magnolia shrub with glossy green oval leaves and a big white flower

Sweetbay magnolia shrub with a white bud about to bloom

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

A charming seal mask made of wood with a baleen halo and quill whiskers! 🦭 Crafted by an Inuit artist in Alaska in the 1800s for ceremonial dances. (Collection of/photo by the Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma)

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

Hike #2 of my personal 52 Hikes in 2025 Challenge. Criteria: the hike has to be at least 1 mile, outside, and purposeful (wandering around the grocery store doesn’t count). Took advantage of the snow to try out my new poles

Woman (me) wearing a green ski jacket, tan pants and tall snow boots standing in snow and holding hiking poles

A scene of a snowy path through the woods and a small footbridge over a stream

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Kat Long @katlong.bsky.social · 04/01/2025

New Year’s resolution: Share more of my adventures big and small! Today I’m in downtown D.C. to see “Paris 1874: the Impressionist Moment” at the National Gallery of Art. On the way in, this fountain, which I’ve seen countless times, suddenly resembled icebergs to me

A sculpture of pyramid-like glass structures next to a fountain with the national gallery of art in the background

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