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Venues and dates

2012

- Llandudno Museum - 18th April to 25th June

For further information about hiring this exhibition please contact Heather Lane at museum@spri.cam.ac.uk

The Antarctic photographs of Herbert Ponting

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BAE group photo

The Touring Exhibition

30 framed and mounted prints taken directly from the original negatives are available for hire.

The exhibition, with captions and interpretative panels if required, can be scaled to fit a variety of venues.

P2005/5/5 P2005/5/13 P2205/5/18 P2005/5/41

The travelling exhibition is comprised of:

7 single images (portrait format) 67cm x 54cm
9 single images (landscape format) 55cm x 68cm

1 triple image (portrait) 73cm x 38cm
2 quadruple image (landscape) 54cm x 64cm

The prints were taken directly from the original glass plate negatives by the photographic department at the Cambridge University Library, using the 'old fashioned' photographic wet process. The framing is to conservation standard, using non-reflective glass and the mount boards used are of archival quality.

The Collection

The Herbert G. Ponting collection of over 1700 large-format glass plate negatives is an outstanding example of early Antarctic photography. This special exhibition provides a glimpse of some of the truly wonderful images in the collection. It tells the story behind them and of the significant contribution made by the Antarctic expedition on which they were taken.

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.

After Ponting's death in 1935, the negatives were sold to a photographic and literary agent who established a successful photographic library business. The company changed hands several times from the 1960s but the negatives always remained in their possession. In 2004, the collection was offered to the Scott Polar Research Institute, who were able to acquire the negatives with the aid of a grant of £533,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The Scott Polar Research Institute was founded in 1920 as a memorial to those who died returning from the South Pole and is the oldest international centre for polar research. It is therefore appropriate that the negatives are saved for the nation and housed here for posterity.