In 1860, polar explorer Isaac Israel Hayes led an expedition north aboard the schooner United States, searching for the fabled open polar sea. Ice closed around the vessel. When Hayes returned, he shared his sketches with Frederic Edwin Church, who transformed them into Aurora Borealis in 1865.
Church places the ship and sled team almost beyond notice beneath a sky split by blue and red fire. The scale makes the people seem terribly vulnerable, yet the dogsled suggests the possibility of rescue, and a small light still shines from the icebound ship.
That is why the image still matters. It holds the feeling of standing before forces larger than ourselves and choosing not to surrender hope.
