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introduction of new machines and new purposes was matched by the introduction of new men. While Britain institutionalized its experience by the creation of the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge, which was endowed with money left from public donations to support the widowed families of the
Terra Nova expedition, and while there were plentiful published journals and memoirs with which to inspire and instruct aspiring Antarcticans, new players dominated the scene. Among the commanders of the heroic age, only Mawson really survived to lead another expedition. In fact, it may be said that between the heroic age and the advent of the International Geophysical Year (IGY), Antarctic exploration was dominated by one nation, the U.S., and American interest was largely the product of one man, Richard E. Byrd. Byrd took his first expedition south in 1928–1930; his second in 1933–1935; his third, transfigured into a governmental body, the U.S. Antarctic Service, in 1939–1941; his fourth, the Antarctic Developments Project of the U.S. Navy, of which he was cheerleader and titular head, in 1946–1948; and, to complete the transition, the American Antarctic contribution to the International Geophysical Year (1954–1958), of which he was honorary chief. Almost single-handedly he reestablished an American presence and created a cadre of explorers who would staff future American expeditions.
