Spence 502; Rosove 147.B2 (“Uncommon”). The privately sponsored Belgian Antarctic expedition of 1897-99 aboard the Belgica explored the waters to the west of the Antarctic Peninsular. The crew became the first men to winter in the Antarctic when the Belgica was beset by ice and drifted in the Bellingshausen Sea. This copy of the leader’s narrative was presented to Bertha Pelseneer, wife of the Belgian art nouveau architect Edouard Pelseneer (1870-1947); it also bears Bertha Pelseneer's ownership inscription to the front blank beneath the inkstamp of 55 avenue Brugmann, the family residence designed by Edouard Pelseneer.