This collection of publications, related to the first, second, and most recent International Polar Year IPY (1882-83, 1932-33, and 2007-08) and the International Geophysical Year (1957-58), were digitized from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) holdings as part of NSIDC's International Polar Year Historic Literature digitization project called DAHLI.  This collection contains several types of document including publications, diagrams, data sets, recordings, photographs, and scientific logs.

Most of this collection is concentrated on research materials created as the result of scientific projects during the IGY.  Many of these projects were funded or led by Federal or United States-based scientific agencies and their work is now housed at the NSIDC facility in Boulder, CO.

One highlight of the collection is the publication “Geophysical Investigations conducted by the U. S. Geological Survey on Fletcher's Ice Island (T-3) during the International Geophysical Year” which was prepared for the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories Office of Aerospace Research United States Air Force and was published by the United States Department of the Interior, Geological Survey.  This publication contains eighteen images from 1963 from Fletcher’s Ice Island. Fletcher’s Ice Island, also called T-3, was a glacier which drifted around the Arctic Ocean and which served as a scientific research station used for taking atmospheric measurements in the Arctic before the satellites became the modern technology for this practice.

Also included in this collection is the International Geophysical Year, 1957-1958: Drifting Station Alpha Documentary Film which was made in 2008 during the most recent International Polar Year.  This film documents the activities that occurred on Drifting Station Alpha in the Arctic Ocean during the International Geophysical Year, 1957 to 1958.

For more information on items in this collection please see:  Roger G. Barry Resource Office for Cryospheric Studies.