Publications
Each resource package has a reading list, here we highlight image based books available on the polar world:
People
Face to Face, Polar Portraits
By Huw Lewis-Jones
Written to accompany the Face to Face 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. Focusing on portraiture, Face to Face draws attention to the collections of historical images held by the Scott Polar Research Institute which have been captured and preserved in digital form by the FREEZE FRAME project. Almost all the historic imagery – daguerreotypes, magic lantern slides, glass plate negatives and images from private albums – have never been before the public eye. The book also looks at the contemporary polar world with a range of new commissions by the leading expedition photographer, Martin Hartley.
The book is available for sale through the Scott Polar Research Institute Museum Shop.
Paperback £25.00 / Hardback £40.00 / Special Edition Hardback £50.00
To enquire about placing an order please use the Contact Page
or Telephone: +44 1223 336548 / Fax +44 1223 336549
Edward Wilson’s Antarctic Notebooks
By David Wilson
Assistant surgeon and Vertebrate Zoologist to the British National Antarctic Expedition (1901-1904) aboard Discovery, under Robert Falcon Scott and later Chief of the Scientific Staff for the British Antarctic Expedition,1910-13. He died with his comrades on the return from the South Pole in 1912.
The book is available for sale through the Scott Polar Research Institute Museum Shop.
Published: 2012 by Reardon Publishing, Cheltenham, England
Price: £39.99
British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901-04 (Scott)
Discovery Illustrated
By David Wilson and Judy Skelton
500 images from one of the great heroic age Antarctic Expeditions with diary quotations from Chief Engineer R.A. Skelton and Dr E.A Wilson
The book is available for sale through the Scott Polar Research Institute Museum shop
Published: 2001 by Reardon Publishing, Cheltenham, England
Price: £39.95
British Antarctic Expedition, 1907-09 (Shackleton)
Nimrod Illustrated
By David Wilson
To celebrate the centenary of one of the most exciting expeditions of the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration comes “Nimrod Illustrated”. The book is a remarkable collage of expedition photographs, paintings and ephemera in a deliberate reminiscence of the expedition scrapbooks kept by so many of the expedition participants at the time. Many of the images are rarely seen, if ever before published, whilst others are better known. Together with quotations from the diaries of expedition participants, they tell the story of the British Antarctic Expedition 1907-1909 which saw the first use of ponies and motor cars in the Antarctic; achieved the first ascent of Mount Erebus; achieved the first attainment of the south Magnetic Pole; and, took Shackleton within 100 miles of the South Geographic Pole to attain a dramatic new ‘Farthest South’ record. This was the expedition that made Shackleton’s name as an explorer and for which he was awarded his knighthood. Edited by Dr D M Wilson, “Nimrod Illustrated” is a treat for anyone interested in Shackleton, the Antarctic, polar exploration or the atmosphere of the Edwardian age. It is a part of the well regarded series commenced with “Discovery Illustrated: Pictures from Captain Scott’s First Antarctic Expedition” (2001).
The book is available for sale through the Scott Polar Research Institute Museum shop
Published: 2009 by Reardon Publishing, Cheltenham, England
Price: £39.99
British Antarctic Expedition, 1910-130 (Scott)
The Antarctic Photographs of Herbert Ponting
By Heather Lane and Lucy Martin
The Herbert G Ponting collection of over 1700 large-format glass plate negatives is an outstanding example of early Antarctic photography. Herbert Ponting was one of the most renowned photographers of his time and these photographs were taken whilst he was on the British Antarctic Expedition, 1910-13. This venture, on which Captain Robert Falcon Scott and four of his companions perished, is one of the most important early expeditions to the Antarctic and resonates throughout the British psyche.
The negatives give an unrivalled view of what polar exploration and research was like at the time. Exploration was a keystone of the British Empire, and going to the Antarctic was on a parallel with visiting the moon today. Ponting himself thought of the whole enterprise as one of the most thrilling events of his life. In the first chapter of his book ‘The Great White South’, he wrote “Before going to the far South with Captain Scott’s South Pole Expedition, my life – save for six years’ ranching and mining in Western America, a couple of voyages round the world, three years of travel in Japan, some months as war correspondent with Kuroki’s army in Manchuria, during the war with Russia, and in the Philippines during the American War with Spain, and save too, for several years of travel in a score of other lands – had been comparatively uneventful.”.
The book is available for sale through the Scott Polar Research Institute Museum Shop.
Published: 2006 by FCO Publishing Services.
Price: £5.00
With Scott to the Pole
By Herbert Ponting
The Terra Nova Expedition 1910-1913. The photographs of Herbert Ponting from the archives of the Royal Geographical Society, London, and the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge. Foreword by Sir Ranulph Fiennes.
The book is available for sale through the Scott Polar Research Institute Museum Shop.
Published: 2004 by Bloomsbury Publishing, London
Price: £35.00
The Lost Photographs of Captain Scott
By David Wilson
Until now the legend of Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s fatal Terra Nova expedition has been based upon his diaries and those of his companions, the sketches of his friend, Edward Wilson and the celebrated photographs of Herbert Ponting, the expedition’s professional photographer. What has not been recognised is that during the final, fateful months of that polar journey the principal visual record intended to be left to posterity was provided by Scott himself through his own photography.
The book is available for sale through the Scott Polar Research Institute Museum Shop
Published: 2011 by Little Brown Book Publishers
Price: £30.00
Still Life – Inside the Antarctic Huts of Scott and Shackleton
By Jane Ussher
Despite the extensive decay which the buildings and contents are suffering, these humble wooden buildings contain the most evocative treasure troves of objects from early Antarctic exploration still in situ. They are the jewels in the crown of Antarctic heritage.
The book is available for sale through the Scott Polar Research Institute Museum Shop.
Published: 2010
Price: £30.00