Thursday, January 19, 2012

Scott's Lost Last Photographs


The last photographs taken by Captain Robert Scott, lost for most of the 20th century, have been bought for the nation in time for the centenary of his doomed expedition to reach the south pole on 17 January 1912.

From an article in the Guardian...

The Scott Institute was founded with money left over from the fund for the widows and orphans of Scott and his four companions, who starved and froze to death with him on their heartbreaking return after learning that the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had beaten them to the pole. It has bought the 109 photographs, never seen by Scott himself – they were developed after he set out on the last fatal stage – for about £750,000 with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund of £704,000. They will be reunited with Scott's camera, presented by his daughter-in-law Lady Philippa Scott, in 2008. Professor Julian Dowdeswell, head of the Scott Polar Research Institute, said: "Scott's photographs bring to life, in vivid detail, his party's sledging journey into the interior of Antarctica. From men and ponies struggling through deep snow, to panoramas of the Transantarctic mountains, the images are very powerful."

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