Over 1,000 original glass-plate negatives of photographs taken during Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s expedition to the Antarctic between 1910 and 1912 are to be housed at the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge.
Created by photographer Herbert G Ponting, the negatives were bought with a £500,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant, without which the collection might have gone abroad or into private hands.
Click on one of the links below to flick through a selection of the stunning images that evoke both the spirit of adventure and the magnitude of the landscape Scott and his colleagues were attempting to conquer.
Herbert G. Ponting and cinematograph on the ice in Antarctica, January 1912. © Herbert Ponting.
Capt. Robert Falcon Scott CVO, RN in his den, October 7 1911. © Herbert Ponting.
A sledging party cross the frozen sea-surface on their way to Scott’s ship, Terra Nova. The sledges were called 'pulks.' © Herbert Ponting.
Capt. Oates (Lawrence EG Oates, Captain 6th Inniskilling Dragoons) and some of the ponies aboard the Terra Nova. © Herbert Ponting.
The Castle Berg with dog sledge, September 17 1911. © Herbert Ponting.
Dr Edward L. Atkinson, Surgeon, RN, Parasitologist in his scientific laboratory. September 15 1911. © Herbert Ponting.
Grotto in iceberg, Terra Nova in distance. T. Griffith Taylor – Geologist & Charles S. Wright – Physicist (interior), January 5 1911. © Herbert Ponting.
An exhibition of the glass plates and images printed from them is planned to go on show at the Institute in 2005.
