Polar evening Friday, November 2nd at 7:00 PM

Next Friday, the Ishavsmuseet will round off a long season of polar evenings. This time it is Burny Iversen who will be visiting with the lecture: "The capture and sale of live polar bears". Iversen has studied this history for a long time and has gained a good overview of the history of live polar bear capture from the end of the 1800th century until the polar bears were protected in 1973. Iversen comes to the Ishavsmuseet with a glimpse of the trade in live polar bears, and their fate in circuses and zoos. Who sold? Who bought? Who trained them? And what were they trained for?

Burny Iversen comes from Elverum, is a photographer, and has worked as a photographer at the Glomdal Museum, and has a great interest in the polar regions. While some pensioners go to Spain to enjoy the warmth, Burney Iversen turns his nose up at Svalbard in search of a good photo subject. Polar bears are a natural subject for a photographer in Svalbard, and he has gotten several quick shots of these animals during his many visits there.

He has collected an impressive collection of old postcards, photographs and circus programs, documenting the reality the polar bear encountered on its way from the white wilderness to life in the circus ring, on tours and in the zoo.

The topic should be of interest to many in Sunnmøre, and there are still many people here who have been involved in capturing live polar bears. There are many wild stories in the community around us about polar bears that were brought home alive and were kept in cages on the seawalls awaiting sale. Some of them managed to break the sound cages and escape by jumping into the sea, or you could meet them trudging around on the seawalls and even on the quay when the ferry docked. No wonder then that the people who came by bus from Larsnes were anxious to take the ferry from Brandal…

As early as 1900, the first live polar bears arrived in Brandal. The small ships "Minna" and "Havfruen", both around 56 feet long, brought home 10 live polar bears that year (and 70 dead ones). Before they came home to Brandal, they had an exhibition in Ålesund with live polar bears and musk oxen, and when the city of Ålesund was to celebrate its anniversary in 1948, one of the ships was tasked with bringing home a live polar bear to be displayed during the city anniversary. Bringing live polar bears home was quite common when the crew had the chance, and it could be a welcome extra income if the seal hunt was poor. In 1902, they could get as much as 500 kroner for a live polar bear, while they were paid 36 øre for a sealskin, and about the same for blubber.

After Iversen's lecture, dinner will be served as usual in the café, and this evening the menu includes seal, herring and soup, in the form of seal meat pies, herring cake and milk soup. Registration for food is required.