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William Bruce y
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"Scotia Sailed Love Willy"
"Perito Moreno
100 years on"
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Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh

Perito Moreno and Patagonia
100 years on

Exhibition with Patagonian plants
Click photo to enlarge

Dates: 2000 November 17 - 2001 January 02
Organizers: CAPat with the Centro Cultural Borges and La Nación in association with the Royal Scottish Geographical Society

Principal Sponsors: Argentine Embassy London, Magic Penny Trust.

Editors: Germán Sopeña and Robin Willson
Co-editor: María Pía Moreira with Ignacio Giorgio, Mariela Stauder, María Victoria Canullo and Jorge Dignani.

Bruce´s 7 words home: Courtesy
Museo de la Patagonia Bariloche

The exhibition is just a small part, but from the point of view of Scotland a very significant part, of the exhibition held in Buenos Aires.
It was organized following an invitation from the Royal Scottish Geographical Society (Director: Dr David Munro) to celebrate Moreno´s many scientific achievements, including his valuable assistance with the 1902-1904 Scottish National Antarctic Expedition under William Bruce. Correspondence between Bruce and Moreno, unknown in Scotland, is displayed for the first time.

In 1899 Moreno was in Britain principally as the Argentine representative expert (Perito) in the controversy over the delineation of the Chilean border. Britain had been invited to arbitrate. Volumes relating to the arbitration, and containing many fine photographs of Patagonia, are displayed.

Lago Traful 100 years ago.

Several enlargements of the many other landscape images taken on Moreno´s explorations when photography was in its infancy, are also presented. Along side each are contemporary photographs taken from the same position in 1999, by Germán Sopeña.

Also displayed are documents illustrating Moreno´s collaborations with the Natural History Museum in London and in connection with his work in setting up the Argentine National Parks service one of the first countries in the world to have such an organization.

Alstroemeria patagonica
(Courtesy:Leopold Montes/Gabriel Oliva)

With respect to the Scottish Antarctic correspondence, their inclusion would have been impossible without the generous cooperation of the Museo de la Patagonia Bariloche (Cecelia Girgente and Tam Muro).

The assitance of the Argentine Embassy in London in transporting the photographs to Edinburgh is much appreciated.

It is hoped that the exhibition will be transferred to London in April. It is perhaps fitting, however, that the exhibition should first be shown in Edinburgh, for two reasons.

First, Moreno was a great admirer of David Livingstone, the famous Scottish explorer. He refers on the first page of his first book how from an early age he was inspired by "this true apostle who so well combined the ideas of Christ with science". Later in the same book he describes how, when looking out over a beautiful lake in southern Patagonia he understands how Livingstone must have felt looking out over Tanganika. (Since that day the lake has been called Lago Argentino, the same lake into which what is known today as the Perito Moreno glacier, slowly slides)

Perito Moreno Glacier (Copyright: Alberto Patrián ) Click photo to enlarge.

Finally, for the Magic Penny Trust who, through Magic Penny Patagonia have provided the driving force behind the exhibition, the Edinburgh venue and Bruce´s setting up of a magnetic observatory on South Orkney, brings back happy memories. The Trust might not have taken off in the way it has, if it had not been for the wonderful reception Magic Pennies with their magnetic escapades received at their initial presentation at the Edinburgh International Science Festival in 1993!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
CAPat, the Centro Cultural Borges and La Nación are greatly indebted to Dr David Munro and the staff of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society and of the Royal Botanic Gardens, for making this exhibition possible.

Unfortunately for financial reasons a large number of Moreno and other Patagonian photographs could not be shown as was originally hoped. We hope that this may be possible on another occasion and sincerely thank Leopold Montes and Gabriel Oliva (Instituto Nacional de Technologia Agropecuaria and the Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral) and Alberto Patrian, for making their beautiful floral, and other Patagonian photographs available to us.

Finally we would like to thank the Argentine Foreign office and Embassy in London for all their efforts in securing funds for the transport of the photographs. We know it was not easy in these difficult economic times.

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