Rothschild Island

Rothschild Island (69°36′S 72°33′W) is an island 24 miles long, mainly ice covered but surmounted by prominent peaks of Desko Mountains, 5 miles west of the north part of Alexander Island in the north entrance to Wilkins Sound.

The island was sighted from a distance by the French Antarctic Expedition, 1908-10, and named by Charcot in honor of Baron Edouard de Rothschild (1868-1949), head of the Rothschild banking family of France and president of de Rothschild Frères. In subsequent exploration by the British Graham Land Expedition (BGLE), 1934-37, the feature was believed to be a mountain connected to Alexander Island, but its insularity was reaffirmed by the US Antarctic Service (USAS), 1939-41, who photographed and roughly mapped the island from the air. It was mapped in detail from air photos taken by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition (RARE), 1947-48, by Searle of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS) in 1960, and from U.S. satellite imagery taken in 1974.

 This article incorporates public domain material from "Rothschild Island". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey.