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A present day glacier at work, in this case, the Unteraar glacier of the Alps, from James Geikie, The Great Ice Age, 1874 (item 55).
We chose the time span of 1818-1860 for this exhibition because it encompasses the first great wave of Arctic exploration, the silver age of Antarctic discovery, and the initial proposal and reception of the glacial theory, and the closing date coincides with the end of the search for Franklin.
To carry it beyond 1860 would have meant including the many attempts of the 1860s and 1870s to reach the North Pole by sea, which would have made the exhibition undesirably large. And the chosen time period of 1818 to 1860 has indeed seemed to work very well.
It would have worked even better if someone in this period had brought together the discoveries about Arctic, Antarctic, and glacial ice, and applied them to the concept of an Ice Age. No one did.
So to provide a resolution, we resort to the stratagem of an Epiloque, so that we may bring in one more book. It brings the exhibition to a satisfying close.
