Her scholarly articles and lectures/presentations focus on Antarctica and the "heroic age of exploration", and cover many countries and she has documented individuals and organizations as well as cities and historical events. As part of her research for her series of films and books on Polar exploration, Mary R. Tahan traveled to Antarctica by invitation of the Dirección Nacional del Antártico (Instituto Antártico Argentino), where she performed on-site photography and videography of the Antarctic landscape and historical sites, as well as conducted interviews with scientists and curators. Her research has also taken her to Argentina, Norway, France, Russia, and England, where she has also interviewed Polar historians and descendants of the early explorers of the Arctic and Antarctic.

Mary R. Tahan obtained her bachelors degree in English at the University of California at Los Angeles and participated in the UCLA masters program in Motion Pictures & Television, with an emphasis in Critical Studies. Her current memberships and activities include the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG); the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) History, Humanities and Social Sciences Expert Group; Dirección Nacional del Antártico; Historiadores Antárticos Latinoamericanos; and the National Library of Norway. She was nominated as Honorary Historian with the Argentine Navy.

Chapter 1: Introduction: Norwegians and Germans in Spitsbergen (Svalbard).- Part I: Visions of Northeast Land: The Failed Herbert Schröder-Stranz Expedition.- Chapter 2: German Interest in Spitsbergen.- Chapter 3: Herbert Schröder-Stranz's Training Expedition for His Planned Northeast Passage (1912).- Chapter 4: Three Long Christmas Treks, Wilhelm Eberhard's Disappearance, and Captain Alfred Ritscher's Lonely Journey Across the Ice.- Part II: The Stranded: Seven Men Marooned on an Iced-In Ship and in Hunter's Huts.- Chapter 5: The Remaining Expeditioners: Hermann Rüdiger, Christopher Rave, Einar Rotvold, Knut Stave, August Stenersen, and Julius and Jørgen Jensen.- Chapter 6: The Scramble to Form Rescue Expeditions, and the Plight of the Stranded Expeditioners (February 1913).- Chapter 7: The Arve Staxrud Expedition Coalesces: Local Norwegian Experts, Sämi Guides, Experienced Sled Dogs, Reliable Reindeer, and an Ice-Worthy Vessel.- Chapter 8: The Stranded Expeditioners' Efforts to Save Themselves, and the Detrimental Rescue Activities of the Kurt Wegener Expedition.- Chapter 9: The Arrival of the Schröder-Stranz Expedition's Four Norwegians in Advent Bay, and the Welcoming of Staxrud's Hertha at Green Harbour.- Part III: Interspecies Cooperation and Perseverance: The Arve Staxrud Rescue Expedition.- Chapter 10: Staxrud's Rescue Expedition: Embarking on the Northward Journey to Treurenberg Bay - with Daniel Nøis, Per Hansen, Klemet Samuelsen, Lussi, and Storm.