See Rare Images of Early 20th-Century Antarctic Expeditions

A trove of historic images from early 20th-century Australian and British expeditions to Antarctica is officially available to the public, the National Archives of Australia (NAA) announced this week.

Once held by the Australian Antarctic Division, the collection—hundreds of photos, lantern slides and glass plate negatives—has been transferred to the NAA. Staff members at the archives then digitized the images, creating detailed record listings for each one. Now, anyone can view them online.

“This collection is rare and fragile,” says Steven Fox, the NAA’s assistant director-general, in the archives’ statement. “Acquiring, conserving, digitizing and preserving it means it will be accessible now and for future generations.”

John King Davis—a skilled navigator who is sometimes called the “greatest captain in Antarctic history,” according to the Australian Antarctic Program—took the majority of the photographs during expeditions to the White Continent in the early 1900s.

Renowned Australian photographer Frank Hurley also snapped many of the shots that provide a “unique glimpse of the difficult conditions the explorers faced,” says Simon Froude, the NAA’s director-general, in the statement.

The striking black-and-white images show the hardy, cold-resistant creatures that the explorers encountered on their missions to Antarctica, including a colony of royal penguins on Macquarie Island, a remote island located between Australia and the Antarctic continent.

Another shot shows two seals resting below a massive glacier.

Some images offer an intimate look at what life was like for the men who ventured below the Antarctic Circle. In one, an unidentified man with frost covering his mustache and eyebrows stands in a hole dug in the ice. Another depicts English artist George Marston lying under a blanket and reading a book by candlelight.

Photographers also captured the dramatic Antarctic environment. In one image, an unidentified man stands next to three towering icebergs. In another, the British Terra Nova ship is surrounded by pack ice.

Although scholars had long hypothesized about the existence of a far southern continent, Antarctic exploration began in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Between 1768 and 1775, James Cook, a captain in the British Royal Navy, led an expedition that twice circumnavigated Antarctica, but never got close enough to see the continent, per the nonprofit American Polar Society. Then, between 1819 and 1820, Russian explorers became likely the first humans to lay eyes on Antarctica. American sealer John Davis is believed to have been the first person to set foot on the continent in 1821.

Starting in 1901, British and Norwegian explorers began the race to reach the South Pole. Despite the best efforts of British adventurers like Robert Falcon Scott, Ernest Shackleton and Edward Wilson, the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first to reach the geographic South Pole on December 14, 1911.

To this day, the continent continues to lure travelers from all over the world. According to the nonprofit International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators, more than 23,000 travelers visited Antarctica during the 2021-22 season.

Sarah Kuta | READ MORE

Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.