Century-old Photos of Antarctic Expedition Found & Developed

[Lord Avalon]

In a corner of a century-old supply depot, buried deep under Antarctic snow, a team from the Antarctic Heritage Trust has uncovered a cache of undeveloped photos of Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.

The expedition launched in 1914 and was an attempt to make the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent, following Amundsen's successful conquest of the South Pole in 1911.

Amundsen's rival, Scott, established a series of supply depots for his return journey, and these huts were again used in 1915 by the Ross Sea Party of Shackleton's expedition. The Ross Sea Party's job was to leave supplies for the second half of the land crossing.

However, they were left stranded after their ship was blown away from the shore. In harsh conditions, the men continued to lay food and equipment stations, unaware that Shackleton had been forced to abandon his expedition after his ship was crushed in pack ice.

By the time the Aurora was able to return to rescue the men the following year, three had died, including Arnold Patrick Spencer-Smith, the party's photographer. His photos were stored in one of the huts and have only now been rediscovered.

They show views of Ross Island, McMurdo Sound, and two new pictures of the expedition's chief scientist Alexander Stevens. Impressively, despite a century under ice, the negatives were relatively undamaged and could be effectively restored.

Ars Technica link.


Photos can be seen at the Antarctic Heritage site.