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Joinville Island

island

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 14, 2026
Entity authorityQ887590
Source-derived summary

Joinville Island (63°15′S 55°45′W) is the largest island of the Joinville Island group, about 40 nautical miles (74 km; 46 mi) long in an east–west direction and 12 nautical miles (22 km; 14 mi) wide, lying off the northeastern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, from which it is separated by the Antarctic Sound.

Location

Joinville Island lies in Graham Land to the east of the tip of Trinity Peninsula, which is itself the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.

The Antarctic Sound separates it from the Trinity Peninsula.

D'Urville Island is to the north, Danger Islands to the east and Dundee Island to the west.

Northern features include Cape Kinnes, Boral Point, King Point and Fitzroy Point.

Southern features include Mount Percy, Mount Quilmes, Tay Head and Moody Point.

Sailing directions

The US Defense Mapping Agency's Sailing Directions for Antarctica (1976) describes Joinville Island as follows:

Joinville Island is the largest of [the Joinville Island Group], being about 41 miles in length east and west, from Antarctic Sound to Moody Point, its eastern extremity. It is about 12 miles north and south at its greatest breadth. The island is completely ice-capped, the summit of which is Mount Percy, about 2,510 feet high, a flat cupola with twin-peaked feature. Bare rock is visible only where the surfaces are nearly perpendicular or to steep for snow to lodge upon it.

Editorial summary

“Joinville Island” enters the record as island. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Joinville, Island and island can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA valuable geographic starting point for tracing changing names, boundaries, uses and administrative responsibility. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1976—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Joinville, Island and island.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Joinville Island” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Joinville, Island and island provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q887590. Authority coordinates are -63.250, -55.750. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1976.

Critical limits

A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Joinville Island”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Joinville Island primary sources, Joinville Island archive and Joinville research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Joinville Island”?
  2. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
  3. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Joinville Island” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.