Great White North (Arctic; Canada)
The Arctic and later the entire country of Canada have been called the “Great White North.”
“The reports that Lord Lonsdale was frozen to death in ‘the great white North’” was printed in The Public Ledger (Memphis, TN) on March 28, 1889. “In the “Great White North” there would not seem to be any necessity for putting up the price of ice” was printed in the Atchison (KS) Daily Champion on February 19, 1891. “Children have so strong a desire to hear Lieutenant Peary tell of his journey to the great white north” was printed in the New-York (NY) Daily Tribune on February 18, 1893. The Great White North: The story of polar exploration from the earliest times to the discovery of the Pole (1910) is the title of a book by Helen S. Wright.
Second City Television (SCTV) was a Canadian television sketch comedy show that ran between 1976 and 1984. Great White North was the title of a fictional cable television show by brothers Bob and Doug McKenzie, with Bob played by actor Rick Moranis and Doug played by actor Dave Thomas. The 41 McKenzie Brothers Great White North sketches ran from September 19, 1980 until October 15, 1982. These sketches led to Canada itself being called the “Great White North.”
The Great White Way (1901) is the title of a novel about Antarctica that was written by Albert Bigelow Paine (1861-1937). After a snow storm in New York City, Broadway was called the “Great White Way” in a headline in the New York (NY) Evening Telegram on February 3, 1902, and the nickname was later applied to the bright lights of Broadway theaters.
Antarctica has infrequently been called the “Great White South.” “Upon the whole, these singular feathered people of the great white south exhibit manners that men might not be ashamed to imitate” was printed in the “People of the South Pole” article in the El Paso (t) Herald on August 8, 1912. The Great White South: Being an account of experiences with Captain Scott’s South Pole expedition and of the nature life of the Antarctic (1921) is the title of a book by Herbert George Ponting.
(Oxford English Dictionary)
Great White North n. (a) the Arctic; (b) (in later use, chiefly North American) Canada.
1895 A. W. Greely Addr. 6th Internat. Geogr. Congr. in E. B. Baldwin Search for North Pole (1896) i. 16 If one would gain an adequate idea of the true aspects of such voyaging, he must turn to the original journals, penned in the great White North by brave men.
1910 H. S. Wright (title) The Great White North: the story of polar exploration from the earliest times to the discovery of the Pole.
1981 Film Comment May 77 These two guys, Bob and Doug McKenzie..sit on a mock-up set with a map of Canada, the Great White North, behind them and a dozen cases of Molson’s Canadian surrounding them.
Wikipedia: Second City Television
Second City Television, commonly shortened to SCTV and later known as SCTV Network and SCTV Channel, is a Canadian television sketch comedy show that ran intermittently between 1976 and 1984.
(...)
Bob and Doug McKenzie
Ironically, the most popular sketch in the program’s eight-year history was intended as throw-away filler. Bob and Doug McKenzie, the dim-witted, beer-chugging, and back bacon-eating brothers in a recurring Canadian-themed sketch called Great White North, were initially developed by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas, respectively, as a sardonic response to the CBC network’s request that the show feature two minutes of “identifiably Canadian content” in every episode. The two-minute length reflects the fact that American shows were two minutes shorter than Canadian ones (to allow more commercials), leaving two minutes needing content for the Canadian market. The Bob and Doug McKenzie segments first appeared in 1980 at the start of season three and continued in every episode until Thomas and Moranis left the series.
Newspapers.com
28 March 1889, The Public Ledger (Memphis, TN), pg. 7, col. 6:
The reports that Lord Lonsdale was frozen to death in “the great white North” seem not to be well founded, London Truth says concerning this lusty lord.
Newspapers.com
18 February 1891, The Evening Standard (Leavenworth, KS), pg. 2, col. 4:
In the “Great White North” there would not seem to be any necessity for putting up the price of coal.
Newspapers.com
19 February 1891, Atchison (KS) Daily Champion, pg. 6, col. 5:
In the “Great White North” there would not seem to be any necessity for putting up the price of ice.
18 February 1893, New-York (NY) Daily Tribune, “Meetings and Entertainments,” pg. 12, col. 2:
Children have so strong a desire to hear Lieutenant Peary tell of his journey to the great white north that he has consented to give another matinee at Chickering Hall on Monday afternoon at 4 o’clock.
Google Books
Handbook of Arctic Discoveries
By Adolphus Washington Greely
Boston, MA: Roberts Brothers
1896
Pg. 3:
If one would gain an adequate idea of the true aspects of such voyaging he must turn to the original journals, penned in the great White North by brave men whose ‘purpose held to sail beyond the sunset.’
Newspapers.com
25 June 1896, Waterloo (IA) Daily Courier, pg. 5, col. 3:
Saturday Prof. E. B. Baldwin, of the late Perry expedition, will be here and deliver his lecture on “Life in the Great White North,” at 2:30 in the afternoon.
OCLC WorldCat record
The Great White Way. A record of an unusual voyage of discovery, etc.
Author: Albert Bigelow Paine
Publisher: New York : J. F. Taylor & Co, 1901.
Edition/Format: Print book : English
OCLC WorldCat record
The great white North : the story of polar exploration from the earliest times to the discovery of the Pole
Author: Helen S Wright
Publisher: New York : Macmillan, 1910
Newspapers.com
8 August 1912, El Paso (t) Herald, “People of the South Pole,” pg. 7, col. 5:
Upon the whole, these singular feathered people of the great white south exhibit manners that men might not be ashamed to imitate.
OCLC WorldCat record
The Great White South: being an account of experiences with Captain Scott’s South Pole expedition and of the nature life of the Antarctic ... With 164 photographic illustrations, etc.
Author: Herbert George Ponting; Robert Falcon Scott
Publisher: Pp. xxvi. 305. Duckworth & Co.: London, 1921.
Edition/Format: Print book : English
Newspapers.com
23 April 1922, New York (NY) Herald, Spring Book Number, pg. 13, col. 1:
‘The Great White South’
THE GREAT WHITE SOUTH. By Hebert G. Ponting. Robert M. McBride & Co.
IN “The Great White South” by Herbert G. Ponting, the photographer of the ill omened British Antarctic expedition of 1910-13, we have a book which has a value quite other and greater than its value to science and history.
Newspapers.com
30 June 1933, Hartford (CT) Daily Courant, pg. D3, col. 1:
‘Wyatt Earp’, Ex-Herring Boat, Assumes Important Role
Will Transport Ellsworth Party To ‘Great White South’
OCLC WorldCat record
The great white North
Author: Bob McKenzie; Doug J McKenzie
Publisher: Mississauga, Ont. : Anthem Records, [1981]
Edition/Format: Audiobook on LP : LP recording : English
OCLC WorldCat record
Rethinking the Great White North : race, nature, and the historical geographies of whiteness in Canada
Author: Audrey Kobayashi; Laura Cameron; Andrew Baldwin
Publisher: Vancouver : UBC Press, ©2011.
Edition/Format: Print book : Biography : English
Summary:
“Canada’s claim to a distinct national identity is bound to the idea of a Great White North. Images of snow, wilderness, and emptiness in our most cherished narratives seem innocent, yet this path-breaking volume shows they contain the seeds of contemporary racism. Rethinking the Great White North moves the idea of whiteness to the centre of debates about Canadian history, geography, and identity. Informed by critical race theory and the insight that racism is geographical as well as historical and cultural, scholars from multiple disciplines explore how notions of race, whiteness, and nature helped shape the nation, from travel writing to treaty making, from scientific research to park planning, and within small towns, cities, and tourist centres. Four themes—identity and knowledge, city spaces, Arctic journeys, and Native land—serve as entry points to trace how Canada’s identity as a white country was built on historical geographies of nature. This insightful collection not only reassesses Canadian history and identity, it offers a vocabulary for thinking about whiteness, nature, and nation as Canada enters into new debates about the North and the meaning of the nation.”—Pub. desc.