"Early Encounters with Penguins," Ellen Arnold

Join Ellen Arnold to learn about the many different roles that penguins took on as Europeans first began to encounter them in the mid-1500s, from quirky oddity to salvation for the starving. Over the course of the following centuries, Europeans had many different interactions with penguins, and these shaped how they understood what the birds were. Sailors and scientists alike brought back accounts of the strange birds, which were only slowly understood to be unique to the South.

Ellen Arnold is an environmental historian and Senior Lecturer, Department of History, The Ohio State University

Nicholas Breyfogle (Moderator), Professor of History and Director, Goldberg Center for Excellence in Teaching, The Ohio State University