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Welcome to Freeze Frame
Historic Polar Images, 1845-1982, from the Scott Polar Research Institute
The Scott Polar Research Institute in the University of Cambridge holds a world-class collection of photographic negatives illustrating polar exploration from the nineteenth century onwards. Freeze Frame is the result of a two-year digitisation project that brings together photographs from both Arctic and Antarctic expeditions. Here you can discover the polar regions through the eyes of those explorers and scientists who dared to go into the last great wildernesses on earth.
Detailed catalogue entries are provided for each image. All image captions are taken from original sources, where known. In digitising this resource the Scott Polar Research Institute has enabled browsing through the collection by date, expedition, or photographer, or by searching the content directly. Documents relating to the digitisation and web development process may be accessed via the project tab.
The Freeze Frame project is funded as part of the JISC digitisation programme and is hosted by the University of Cambridge in collaboration with DSpace@Cambridge.
- CONSERVE: Preserving the images for future generations
- DIGITISE: Providing access to some of the most important visual resources for polar research
- EXPLORE: Encouraging discovery of the polar environment
RSS News Feed News and Events
Exhibition - On thin ice
The National Maritime Museum has a new exhibition in Cornwall which includes material from the Scott Polar Research Institute. Open 8th April to 9th October 2011
Polar expedition journal on Twitter
The Scott’s last expedition Twitter page is linked with the Last Expedition blog on the Scott Polar Research Institute website. The blog follows Captain Scott’s expedition day by day through his diary entries from the British Antarctic (Terra Nova) Expedition 1910-1913. Read more…
Exhibition: British Graham Land Expedition 1934-37
The Scott Polar Research Institute celebrates the 75th anniversary of the BGLE. The exhibition will be open from the 20th January - 29th April 2011. Read More

Face To Face Polar Photography in Print:
Written to accompany a touring exhibition, this unique book is the first to examine the history and role of polar exploration photography and showcases the very first polar photographs of 1845 through to images of the present day. Face to Face: Polar Portraits £50/£40/£25
The Freeze Frame web site launch takes place at the Scott Polar Research Institute
Posted: 4th March 2009.
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Sir Ranulph Fiennes chooses his favourite polar images.
Posted: 4th March 2009.
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Exhibition - Face to Face: Polar Portraits goes on display in Dundee.
Posted: 4th March 2009.
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