Antarctica Maps Share History

The story of Antarctica can now be explored in the UTA Libraries Special Collections Department through a recent donation of 150 antique maps and hundreds more stamps and postal covers. The collection came to the university from NBC 5’s meteorologist David Finfrock.  

Finfrock stated that these items tell the history of Antarctica, the explorers who braved unknown dangers, and the scientists who continue to work there today.  

His interest in geography started at a young age, growing to encompass Antarctica.   

“My father was a geologist, and we had traveled across the country. We had maps that we would color in each state we visited,” Finfrock said. “That really teaches you a love of geography and maps when you can associate a place with something on a sheet of paper or now a digital map.”  

Finfrock’s interest in Antarctica grew as he learned about some explorers who made the trip into the unknown. Explorers such as Sir Ernest Shackleton led three British expeditions to Antarctica in the early 20th Century and survived a shipwreck that grabbed Finfrock’s attention.  

Over the years, Finfrock wrote letters to scientists working at research stations on the continent. He got replies from them with the correspondence postmarked from Antarctica. Some of these stamps were from American, Russian, and British scientists.  

Finfrock’s map collection grew not only to encompass Antarctica but Texas. He noted that his wife, Shari Finfrock, has deep Texas roots. She is a descendant of one of Stephen F. Austin’s settlers.  

About 20 years ago, Finfrock got the chance to visit the place he had learned so much about for years.  

“On my 50th birthday, my wife said, ‘why don’t you go to Antarctica?’ because it was something that I always wanted to do. I got to take a tourist trip flying down from DFW to the southern tip of South America and sailing across the Drake Passage,” he said. “Exploring Antarctica, I got to see the different wildlife there and the different varieties of penguins, birds, and seals.”  

With his connection to the university through the Texas Map Society and as a member of the advisory board with the Center for Greater Southwestern Studies, Finfrock thought that UTA would be a great permanent home for the collection. He noted that the collection contains maps from several different eras of exploration and discovery. There are maps from the earliest expeditions of Captain James Cook through the present day, including British Admiralty charts, and maps chronicling Charles Wilkes and Admiral Richard Byrd’s expeditions.  

“It is a pretty extensive collection that I was proud to bring together and even prouder to provide here so that there will be a home to these maps,” he said. “Scholars and students will be able to benefit from them instead of them sitting in a drawer.  

The Antarctica maps and stamps collections can be viewed in the Special Collections Department on the Sixth Floor of the UTA Central Library building. Special Collections is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.