Phyllis Wager: A Typewriter's Tale

Lewis Harrower and Andrea Elder's soundscape explores the story behind Phyllis Wager's Typewriter in the Polar Museum's collection. When Phyllis Wager travelled to East Greenland as part of a British expedition in 1935, it was so unusual for women to travel to the Polar regions that special permission was needed from the Foreign Office. What can her typewriter tell us about her work? Lewis and Andrea write: "We share an interest in old technologies and were excited to tell a different story of the Polar expedition showcasing the day to day as well as the hiking in freezing conditions. Our approach was to imagine the lives of these researchers behind the reports. The stories we tell through the soundscape were gathered from the obituary of Phyllis and other research. We hope to have encapsulated the whole experience in just a short time and allow the listener to imagine for themselves what it may have been like." Charlotte Connelly, Museum Curator at the Polar Museum responds: "I really enjoyed listening to this and imagining Phyllis typing up her notes while she reflected on travelling through the Greenlandic landscape or socialising with her fellow expedition members. It felt like a brilliant whistle-stop tour of the expedition, thank you!" This track is part of the Museum Remix: Unheard project. Find out more at www.museums.cam.ac.uk/museumremix You can find out more about Phyllis Wager's typewriter here: https://www.museums.cam.ac.uk/magic/phyllis-wagers-typewriter