̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Captain Scott

Exhibition reunites artworks from Captain Scott’s final expedition – a century on

sjr81 — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 08:53:35 +0000

Visions of the Great White South opens at Bonhams in Bond Street on August 2 and uses collections from the fateful Terra Nova expedition, held by the Scott Polar Research Institute at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

̽��ֱ��British Antarctic Expedition, better known by the name of its ship the Terra Nova, took place from 1910-1913. Captain Robert Falcon Scott appointed Dr Edward Wilson, a close friend and a fine watercolourist, as his chief scientist. He also invited camera artist Herbert Ponting to join the expedition as official photographer; a bold move in an era when high quality photography required great skill and careful attention in ordinary circumstances, let alone in the extreme environment of the Antarctic. Both Wilson and Ponting captured expedition life as well as keeping a visual record of scientific phenomena that the crew were studying.

Making use of the Scott Polar Research Institute’s historical collections, the exhibition will also show examples of Captain Scott’s photography from the expedition in a series of beautiful new platinum prints of his work, produced by Belgian photographic publishers Salto Ulbeek in collaboration with the Scott Polar Research Institute. Scott was taught photography by Ponting during the expedition, and, in the images he produced, the influence of both Ponting and Wilson can be discerned in the ways he captured the vast and compelling landscapes of the Antarctic.

Both Ponting and Wilson hoped to hold a joint exhibition. However, the catastrophic loss of the South Pole party including Scott and Wilson made that impossible.

Owing to the death of Dr. Wilson his pictures could never be reproduced for sale, as he had intended. His widow, therefore, considered it better that they should be exhibited separately. ̽��ֱ��whole beautiful series of his water colours was shown at the Alpine Club, whilst my photographs were exhibited at the Fine Art Society's galleries, London.

Herbert Ponting

Professor Julian Dowdeswell, Director of the Scott Polar Research Institute, said: “It is a great privilege to hold the remarkable paintings of Edward Wilson and the striking photography of Herbert Ponting in the Scott Polar Research Institute’s historic collection. By reuniting their work in this special exhibition we are pleased to give the public the opportunity to see their works together and at their best.”

Alongside the historic artworks, visitors will have the opportunity to see contemporary interpretations of the ‘great white south’. For several years the Friends of Scott Polar Research Institute, with the support of Bonhams and the Royal Navy, have run an artist-in-residence scheme which sends an artist to the Antarctic on board the icebreaker HMS Protector. Artists including Captain Scott’s grand-daughter Dafila Scott and renowned wildlife artist Darren Rees will exhibit their responses to the frozen wilds of Antarctica.

Robert Brooks, Chairman of Bonhams, said: “It is an honour for Bonhams to exhibit the art of two such extraordinarily talented and brave men and to be able to hang works together publicly for the first time ever. ̽��ֱ��Terra Nova expedition is famous, of course, for the tragic loss of Captain Scott and his companions. But its purpose was primarily scientific and Wilson and Ponting's work reminds us of the pioneering quest for knowledge that underpinned the venture."

̽��ֱ��chairman of the Friends of Scott Polar Research Institute, Rear Admiral Nick Lambert, said: “ ̽��ֱ��Friends are extremely grateful for Bonhams’ and the Royal Navy’s ongoing support of the Artist in Residence Programme enabling five artists to experience and record Antarctica’s fabulous environment hosted by HMS Scott and HMS Protector over the past five years. ̽��ֱ��exhibition is a brilliant opportunity to display modern works alongside those of the Terra Nova expedition.”

̽��ֱ��Friends are also pleased to announce that this summer their first Arctic artist-in-residence will be travelling to Svalbard, with the support of One Ocean Expeditions.

A new exhibition has reunited the iconic photography of Herbert Ponting with the watercolours of Edward Wilson – more than a century after the two Antarctic explorers first dreamt up their plan for a joint exhibition.

By reuniting their work in this special exhibition we are pleased to give the public the opportunity to see their works together and at their best.

Julian Dowdeswell

Emperor penguins drawn by Dr Edward Wilson on board the Terra Nova

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Licence type:

Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike

Diaries of Captain Scott's widow secured by Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library

sjr81 — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 16:30:26 +0000

Kathleen Scott, the sculptor and widow of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, married journalist and politician Hilton Young, 1st Baron Kennet, in 1922. Her papers include diaries covering a period of over 35 years, records of her sculpture and exhibitions as well as other writings. These include a major series of significant letters from some of the most distinguished and powerful politicans, writers, artists and explorers of her generation.

Of particular importance are the papers and letters relating to her first husband Captain Robert Falcon Scott. Together with her diaries covering the period of Scott's last Antarctic expedition, the material is of the utmost interest for our understanding of the legendary explorer.

̽��ֱ��papers also reflect the fascinating careers, interests and connections of Lord and Lady Kennet and are of importance for the study of British military and political history, as well as of literary and cultural attitudes and concerns during the first half of the 20th century.

Edward Hilton Young was a British politician and writer. He embarked on a career in financial journalism, working for various papers including ̽��ֱ��Economist and the Morning Post prior to serving for the Royal Navy in World War One, where he was awarded a Distinguished Service Order and Distinguished Service Cross.

He entered Parliament in 1915 as a Liberal MP, becoming Financial Secretary to the Treasury in 1921. After the 1922 election, he became Chief Whip for Lloyd George's Liberal Party and in 1926 joined the Conservatives, serving as Minister for Export Credits and then as Minister of Health. In 1935, Hilton Young accepted a peerage as Lord Kennet of the Dene. ̽��ֱ��archive at Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library includes his wartime diaries and logbooks and his political papers and correspondence.

Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Librarian Anne Jarvis said: “It’s a particular pleasure, as we celebrate our 600th Anniversary, to welcome this exceptional archive to the ̽��ֱ�� Library. Lord and Lady Kennet led fascinating lives and these papers will be of great interest to researchers.”

Also accepted were the papers of Wayland Hilton Young, 2nd Baron Kennet (1923-2009) which have been allocated to ̽��ֱ��Churchill Archives Centre at Churchill College.

Wayland Young’s papers detail his political career in both the Labour and Social Democratic parties. ̽��ֱ��files include working drafts, fragments of memoirs, notes for speeches and articles, and substantial correspondence and papers for Europe Plus Thirty, the EEC project he chaired in 1974-1975 forecasting how Europe would look in 30 years.

Allen Packwood, Director of ̽��ֱ��Churchill Archives Centre, said: “ ̽��ֱ��Churchill Archives Centre holds the personal papers of figures from across the political spectrum, and is pleased to offer a home to Wayland Young, who was an independent thinker and a lifelong campaigner.”

̽��ֱ��acceptance of the collected material settled £402,500 of tax. ̽��ֱ��Acceptance in Lieu scheme is administered by the Arts Council. ̽��ֱ��Acceptance in Lieu Panel, chaired by Edward Harley, advises Ministers on whether property offered in lieu is of suitable importance, offered at a value which is fair to both nation and taxpayer and whether an allocation wish or condition is appropriate. AIL enables taxpayers to pay inheritance tax by transferring important works of art and other important heritage objects into public ownership. ̽��ֱ��taxpayer is given the full open market value of the item, which then becomes the property of a public museum, archive or library. In the last decade the scheme has bought over £250m of cultural property into public collections.

̽��ֱ��diaries of Captain Scott’s widow – and the papers of her second husband, Lord Kennet – will be made accessible to researchers at Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library following their acceptance in lieu of inheritance tax.

Lord and Lady Kennet led fascinating lives and these papers will be of great interest to researchers.

Anne Jarvis

̽��ֱ��National Library of New Zealand

Kathleen Scott pictured with her husband Captain Robert Falcon Scott, 1910

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Licence type:

Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike

“Albatross!” ̽��ֱ��legendary giant seabird

amb206 — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 10:08:25 +0000

Scroll to the end of the article to listen to the podcast.

In June 1910 Dr Edward Wilson set sail from Cardiff to Antarctica on board the Terra Nova as the Chief of the Scientific Staff on the British Antarctic Expedition led by Captain Scott. On 1 November the following year a group from the Terra Nova set out from Cape Evans across the ice with the intention of reaching the South Pole. ̽��ֱ��venture ended in tragedy. ̽��ֱ��members of the British expedition perished on their return from the pole having discovered that the Norwegians had got there first.

Wilson was a talented artist as well as a doctor. He began drawing as a child and throughout his life he made meticulous sketches and watercolours of the natural world.

After his death, his final sketchbook was retrieved from the tent where he and his companions spent their last days. His watercolours were returned from the Cape Evans hut where they had been produced.

Artworks made by Wilson on both the Discovery Expedition of 1901 and the Terra Nova Expedition are testimony to the spirit of discovery and the splendour of the Antarctic.

̽��ֱ��Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) is fortunate in holding around 1,900 of Wilson’s drawings and sketches, the majority of them given to SPRI by his wife Oriana. Nineteen of these artworks depict the albatross – several species of which Wilson shows both in close-up studies and soaring above the ocean.

Mrs Heather Lane, former Keeper of the Polar Museum, says: "Wilson is undoubtedly one of the greatest artists of the heroic age of polar exploration. He was one of Scott’s closest friends and on expeditions the person to whom others looked for stability.

"As an artist he was self-taught yet he captured with stunning accuracy both the anatomical structure and the fragile beauty of living things. He was particularly fascinated by birds."

̽��ֱ��wandering albatross has the largest wingspan (up to 12 foot) of any bird. Its flight is so efficient that it expends as little energy soaring on currents of air (a type of flight known as 'dynamic soaring') as it does sitting on its nest. In all, there are 22 species of albatross, most of them living in the southern oceans. ̽��ֱ��majority are under threat, chiefly from longline fishing. Attracted by the bait, the birds become entangled by the hooks and drown. Estimates put the annual death toll at 100,000 birds.

PhD candidate Tommy Clay (Department of Zoology) is contributing to a British Antarctic Survey (BAS) programme that is creating a detailed picture of their migratory movements. ̽��ֱ��research is made possible by lightweight battery-powered devices capable of tracking the birds’ movements over multiple years.

Albatrosses pair for life: Wanderers raise at most one chick every two years. They spend a whole year incubating their one egg and looking after the chick. Once the chick is independent, its parents enjoy a recovery period before they breed again, returning to the same breeding spots on remote islands in the southern ocean.

"Until relatively recently, very little has been known about the pattern of albatross movements across their lifespans, which can be more than 60 years. We’re beginning to build up a picture of what individual birds do and why they do it. We now know that in the inter-breeding period, the birds cover huge distances. One Grey-headed albatross, for example, circumnavigated the southern hemisphere in just 46 days," says Clay.

"Albatrosses are regarded as sentinel species for the health of the marine environment. Albatrosses are scavengers – they follow ships and eat the debris thrown into the water. In the North Pacific, dead birds are found with plastic in their stomachs, showing just how widespread – and destructive – is our impact on the oceans."

̽��ֱ��long association between the albatross and the seafarer was cemented in 1798 with the publication of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s epic Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In the poem, which was dismissed by early critics as an extravagant cock-and-bull story, the eponymous mariner shoots an albatross in a seemingly motiveless act of cruelty.

When the ship is becalmed (Day after day, day after day,/We stuck, nor breath nor motion; /As idle as a painted ship/ Upon a painted ocean), the dead albatross is hung around the mariner’s neck by his shipmates.

̽��ֱ��poem was famously illustrated by Gustav Doré in the 1870s and became one of the most quoted ballads in the English language. Images of the crew dying of thirst out at sea (Water, water, every where,/And all the boards did shrink;/ Water, water, every where,/ Nor any drop to drink) and the dead bird hanging around a man’s neck became embedded in the public imagination.

In the 1930s, albatross entered the Oxford English Dictionary as a word to describe an unshakeable burden.

“ ̽��ֱ��indeterminacy of the mariner’s crime makes the story compelling: we don’t know what makes him pick up his crossbow and shoot a bird that the crew has befriended. Some scholars have read the poem as a Christian narrative in which evil is punished by God. Others, more recently, have argued for an environmental context in which mankind is punished for an attack on the natural world,” says Professor Heather Glen of the Faculty of English.

“Or possibly – and this is in keeping with the poem’s deliberately archaic ballad form – Coleridge is suggesting that the shooting of the albatross is a violation of a much more ancient tradition of welcome to the stranger. In the note with which he headed the poem in 1800 edition of Lyrical Ballads, Coleridge announces that it will portray ‘how the Ancient Mariner cruelly, and in contempt of the laws of hospitality, killed a sea-bird; and how he was followed by many and strange judgements’.”

For a short time, Coleridge was a student at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he described himself as ‘a library-cormorant’ greedily devouring as many books as he could. ̽��ֱ��device of the albatross was suggested to him by his close friend William Wordsworth during a walking holiday. Wordsworth had been reading George Shelvocke’s Voyage Round the World (1726) in which an albatross is shot. Both Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library and SPRI have early editions of the book.

Next in the Cambridge Animal Alphabet: B is for an animal that roamed Cambridgeshire 120,000 years ago, provided sport for the inhabitants of Madingley Hall, and became a friend to one eccentric poet at Trinity College.

Inset images: Diomedea melanophrys. Discovery 1901. Black browed albatross, by Edward Adrian Wilson. (Scott Polar Research Institute); Wandering albatross. (Robert Paterson, British Antarctic Survey); Gustav Doré's illustration from Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. (Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Library).

The Cambridge Animal Alphabet series celebrates Cambridge's connections with animals through literature, art, science and society. Here, A is for Albatross – in sketches retrieved from Antarctica, research into migratory patterns, and Coleridge’s famous ballad.

In the inter-breeding period, the birds cover huge distances. One Grey-headed albatross circumnavigated the southern hemisphere in just 46 days

Tommy Clay

A is for Albatross: sketches by Edward Wilson

Scott Polar Research Institute

Head of an albatross caught on Sep. 22 1901 by Edward Adrian Wilson

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Last letter of Captain Scott finally revealed in full - 101 years on

sjr81 — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 00:01:01 +0000

Written by Scott from his final Antarctic camp at the very end of his life in March 1912, the letter to Admiral Sir Francis Bridgeman speaks poignantly of Scott’s anxiety for his family and his hope that he and companions have set a good example. ̽��ֱ��acquisition of this letter is of considerable importance for the United Kingdom’s polar heritage.

It is being revealed to the public 101 years to the day since Captain Scott’s final diary entry (March 29, 1912).

Though previously quoted in part, its full contents have remained unknown to the wider public until today, having passed into private hands following delivery to Bridgeman

It will now take its place at SPRI alongside the other ‘last letters’ written to his widow Kathleen Scott, Mrs Oriana Wilson, Mrs Emily Bowers, Sir Reginald Smith and George Egerton. ̽��ֱ��only other last letter in private hands, written to Edgar Speyer, was sold last year at auction for £165,000.

Scott is known to have written to his friend, the author JM Barrie, but the whereabouts of this letter are completely unknown.

SPRI Archivist, Naomi Boneham said: “It seems very fitting that we should be able to announce this major acquisition exactly one hundred and one years after Scott’s final diary entry. We intend to put the letter on public display in the Polar Museum as soon as it has been conserved.”

Admiral Sir Francis Charles Bridgeman Bridgeman GCB, GCVO (7 December 1848 – 17 February 1929) was a Royal Navy officer. As a Captain he commanded a battleship and then an armoured cruiser and then, after serving as second-in-command of three different fleets, he twice undertook tours as Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet with a stint as Second Sea Lord in between those tours. He became First Sea Lord in November 1911. He had been Scott's Commanding Officer.

Thanks to donations from the V&A Purchase Grant Fund, the John R Murray Trust, the Friends of the National Libraries and Dr Richard Dehmel, the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge has been able to make the purchase for the sum of £78,816. ̽��ֱ��letter was sold by Lord and Lady Graham, descendants of Sir Francis Bridgeman.

̽��ֱ��Institute was delighted to be offered the opportunity to acquire Scott’s letter to Bridgeman, along with associated correspondence, as the majority of the surviving letters are already held in the collections of the Scott Polar Research Institute and are publicly accessible via its Polar Museum. They are among the museum’s greatest treasures.

SPRI’s Librarian & Keeper of Collections, Heather Lane, said: “Without the generous support of these organisations and individuals we would not have been able to secure this important manuscript. It is extraordinary to think that the letter will now be reunited with the others written by Scott in the Antarctic over 100 years ago.”

̽��ֱ��final letters written in March 1912 from the Antarctic to family and friends by Captain Scott and his companions, Dr Edward Wilson, Captain Lawrence Oates and Lt. Henry Robertson Bowers, are of major significance to the national heritage. No letters are known to survive from P.O. Edgar Evans, the fifth member of the Polar Party. In the case of Scott, this letter clearly expresses his feelings as he lay dying and is a testament to the qualities of endurance which propelled Scott to the status of a national hero.

We know much about the expedition from Scott’s personal journal, which was bequeathed to the nation and is held by the British Library, which kindly lent the final volume for a temporary exhibition at the Polar Museum in 2012 to mark the centenary of Scott’s achievement of the South Pole. As the extract below illustrates, the Bridgeman letter is an important addition to the story as it conveys Scott’s feelings at the very end of his life. It has never been reproduced in full in any of the editions of Scott’s writings.

Its purchase enables this letter to be reunited with the others written from the tent on the Great Ice Barrier, already in the Institute’s care, and with the photographs, sledging journals and personal diaries of Scott and his team, which form the most comprehensive record of the expedition held anywhere.

SPRI is the oldest international centre for polar research and is world-renowned for research and reference in a variety of fields relating to the environment, history, science and social science of the polar regions. ̽��ֱ��Institute was founded in Cambridge, as a memorial Scott and his four companions, who died returning from the South Pole in 1912. As well as research programmes, the Institute provides access to its library, archives and museum for the general public and has a strong educational outreach programme on the Arctic and Antarctic, ice and environmental change. It houses the largest public collection of historic archives, photographs and artefacts from polar expeditions in the United Kingdom.

Text of the letter:

To Sir Francis Bridgeman

My Dear Sir Francis
I fear we have shipped up – a close shave. I am writing a few letters which I hope will be delivered some day. I want to thank you for the friendship you gave me of late years, and to tell you how extraordinarily pleasant I found it to serve under you. I want to tell you that I was not too old for this job. It was the younger men that went under first. Finally I want you to secure a competence for my widow and boy. I leave them very ill provided for, but feel that the country ought not to neglect them. After all we are setting a good example to our countrymen, if not by getting into a tight place, by facing it like men when we were there. We could have come through had we neglected the sick.

Good-bye and good-bye to dear Lady Bridgeman

Yours ever

R. Scott

Excuse writing – it is -40, and has been for nigh a month

A letter written by the dying Captain Scott - one of only two remaining in private hands - can be revealed in full for the first time after being acquired by the Scott Polar Research Institute at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

I want to tell you that I was not too old for this job. It was the younger men that went under first.

Captain Scott

Scott Polar Research Institute

Captain Scott writing in his Antarctic hut, before the expedition that cost him his life

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.

Yes

Heroic Age campsite location discovered near summit of Antarctic volcano

sjr81 — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 11:23:14 +0000

̽��ֱ��first known visitor to the site since Scott's men left, his search was based on written accounts and historic images from the Scott Polar Research Institute.

Following his discovery, co-ordinated international action between the UK, USA and New Zealand is already underway to ensure the camp site is protected. An archaeological survey is also now expected to record the area and search for any items that may have been left behind by the 1912 party.

On Wednesday the 12 of December 2012, at 1am (New Zealand Time), Professor Oppenheimer re-enacted the ascent from the area of the camp to summit - exactly 100 years after Scott's men struggled through the thin air and freezing temperatures to the summit of the active volcanic crater.

Oppenheimer, a volcanologist, is in Antarctica as part of the United States Antarctic Program. He said: “Despite many scientific missions to Erebus over the past four decades, no one has ever discovered the original ‘highest camp’ – as it was described in a 1913 account called ‘Scott’s Last Expedition’.

“Looking through the thousands of photos on SPRI’s Freeze Frame portal, I saw several pictures of the 1912 site, tried to memorise them, then fired up a snowmobile and set off around the summit cone. I was beginning to think I was looking for a needle in a haystack when I noticed a gateway to an almost hidden area I had not previously spotted on many routine travels. Within another minute or two, somehow, I’d found it.”

In 1912, a team from the shore party of the Terra Nova Expedition climbed Mount Erebus. ̽��ֱ��team was led by geologist Raymond Priestley and included Tryggve Gran, a Norwegian ski specialist; Frederick Hooper, formerly a steward on the Terra Nova, Able Seaman Harry Dickason RN, Petty Officer George Abbott RN and geologist Frank Debenham. They undertook mapping and collected geological specimens.

̽��ֱ��climb is of historical significance as it was during his time on Mount Erebus that geologist Frank Debenham had the idea of a 'Polar Research Institute'. After serving in World War I, Debenham was the founding Director of Cambridge ̽��ֱ��’s Scott Polar Research Institute.

SPRI Director Professor Julian Dowdeswell said: “Debenham's idea for what was to become, through his efforts, the Scott Polar Research Institute, came during his time on Mt. Erebus exactly 100 years ago. It is fitting that this camp site should be revisited for the first time during the centenary of Scott's last expedition.”

Philippa Foster Back, granddaughter of Professor Frank Debenham and Chair of the ̽��ֱ��United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT) said: "Clive Oppenheimer's location of the original 'highest camp' is a wonderful addition to all the activity which has taken place throughout 2012 to mark the centenary of Captain Scott's expedition. It is a reminder of both the dangers and thrills of Antarctic science and a fitting tribute to the great legacies of exploration and discovery left to us by all the brave men of that party"

Added Oppenheimer: “I was tremendously excited to discover the camp site. In my mind’s eye, I saw the four men fussing around their tent – transposing again the historic photographs on to the snowy stretch in front of me, I couldn’t help smiling and saying ‘hello boys’.”

A century after members of Captain Scott's Terra Nova Expedition climbed Mount Erebus, the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Professor Clive Oppenheimer has located their highest campsite.

I was beginning to think I was looking for a needle in a haystack when I noticed a gateway to an almost hidden area I had not previously spotted on many routine travels. Within another minute or two, somehow, I’d found it.

Clive Oppenheimer

Scott Polar Research Institute

̽��ֱ��original 1912 camp

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.

Yes

Final letters mark centenary of Scott’s last march

fpjl2 — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 12:24:30 +0000

Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Dr Edward Wilson and Lieutenant Henry Bowers were found in their last camp, on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica, 100 years ago today. They had been trying to make their way back through 800 miles of frozen wastes after their successful attempt on the South Pole.

Defined by a potent combination of heroism and tragedy, their expedition has, over the last century, become the stuff of British legend.

̽��ֱ��Scott Polar Research Institute is currently attempting to raise £35,000 towards the purchase of one of the few of Captain Scott’s last letters still remaining in private hands. ̽��ֱ��letter, written to Sir Francis Bridgeman, is one of the most telling; in it Scott wrote, ‘I want to tell you that I was not too old for this job.’

̽��ֱ��Institute holds many of Scott’s last letters and those of his companions among its collections and makes them accessible through its Polar Museum.

̽��ֱ��book, ̽��ֱ��Last Letters: the British Antarctic Expedition 1910-13 has been compiled by the collections staff of the Scott Polar Research Institute, at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, to enable the public to learn more about the contribution made during the “Heroic” age of Polar exploration, 100 years on.

̽��ֱ��book’s launch will take place at 6.30pm at the Polar Museum on Thursday, 15 November. ̽��ֱ��event will be marked by a performance by singer-songwriter Jake Wilson of “All’s Well,” a collection of songs inspired by the Pole Party. Tickets, priced £5 (£3.50 concessions) are available on request by contacting museum@spri.cam.ac.uk. ̽��ֱ��book is also available from the Polar Museum shop and costs £10.

Naomi Boneham, Archives Manager at SPRI said, " ̽��ֱ��men wrote in the hope that one day their loved ones and friends would get to read their words. These are some of the most poignant letters ever to be written from the polar regions and I am delighted we can now bring them together for a wider audience to appreciate."

Scott, Wilson, Bowers, Captain Lawrence Oates, and Petty Officer Edgar “Taff” Evans, reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912. To their dismay, they had found traces of a camp made by the rival Norwegian team, led by Roald Amundsen, the previous day.

Scott noted in his journal: “ ̽��ֱ��Norwegians have forestalled us and are first at the Pole. It is a terrible disappointment, and I am very sorry for my loyal companions.” At the Pole, he continued: “Great God! This is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it without the reward of priority.”

̽��ֱ��five men had hauled their sledges up the Beardmore Glacier and over the Polar Plateau to reach the Pole. After taking careful measurements and photographing themselves and their “poor, slighted Union Jack”, they started on the arduous journey back on 19 January. Scott noted: “I’m afraid the return journey is going to be dreadfully tiring and monotonous”.

Their progress was good at first, and they covered about 300 miles in just 19 days before starting the descent of the Beardmore Glacier. Not all was well, however. Evans, whose condition was deteriorating, was a cause of particular concern. He had fallen over on 4 February and was, Scott noted, “dull and incapable”.

A further fall on 17 February left him comatose and he died near the foot of the glacier, where his companions buried him.

̽��ֱ��remaining four ploughed on, but as poor weather set in, frostbite, exhaustion and malnutrition took their toll. On 16 March, Oates, who had the previous day expressed the wish not to wake up, left the tent in a blizzard. He hoped that his actions – which have since become the iconic episode in a tale of determination and self-sacrifice – might give the remaining three the chance they needed.

According to Scott’s journal, Oates’ last words were: “I am just going outside and may be some time.” He also wrote: “We knew that poor Oates was walking to his death, but though we tried to dissuade him, we knew it was the act of a brave man and an English gentleman.”

His sacrifice was not enough. ̽��ֱ��remaining three companions struggled on a further 20 miles before making their final camp around 19 March, some 11 miles short of a depot that they had set up. Further progress was prohibited as a fierce blizzard set in. Wilson and Bowers hoped to make a dash for the depot, then return with supplies, but it was not to be.

Facing the end, the three wrote final letters to their families and friends, in the hope that these would be found and sent on.

When the search party led by Surgeon Atkinson found the tent on 12 November, 1912, the final wishes of the men were fulfilled and their letters were indeed sent home. Over the years, many of these have made their way to the Research Institute in Cambridge. Thus reunited, the edition brings them together in full for the first time, along with the texts of other letters known to survive elsewhere.

A new collection of the last letters of Captain Scott and the Pole Party has been released to mark the centenary of the discovery of their bodies in 1912. ̽��ֱ��book brings together the final thoughts of Scott and his companions in a single volume for the first time.

Great God! This is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it without the reward of priority.

Robert Falcon Scott

Scott Polar Research Institute

This photograph is a composite image made by Ponting to capture the desolation of the Polar Party.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.

Yes

Q&A with Scott Centenary Tour composer

sjr81 — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:42:49 +0000

Here, in a revealing interview, McDowall explains how the tragic, but deeply personal human story found in Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s last letter to his wife Kathleen became the starting point for a major new commission.

What made you want to take on this commission?

CM: About two years ago Heather Lane, Librarian and Keeper of Collections at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, invited me to visit the Institute and Museum. At the time the Museum was undergoing an extensive renovation programme. It really was a fascinating and atmospheric time to visit it because there was so much building work going on – bare wires coming out of the walls, a patina of dust everywhere and the outline of where the display cases would eventually be; intriguing stuff. And in the basement I saw artefacts which were being stored there out of the dust, just waiting to be brought back into the light once all was finished.

I remember one dark shadowy room especially, where I saw scientific equipment, snow shoes, goggles, bulky clothing, cameras in leather cases, huge wooden sledges – but what struck me then, seeing so much, was how Scott and his team hauled such substantial, heavy equipment across those vast icy distances in the Antarctic. I found the scale of their human endeavour quite breathtaking. Later that same day Heather introduced me to the diaries and letters found in Scott’s tent and, most poignantly of all, Scott’s tender letter addressed ‘To my widow’ written in pencil, made faint by time and ice. This acutely personal but stoical document lies at the heart of Seventy degrees below zero; it is a deeply moving testament.

How did the Scott material inspire the music and poetry? Was there a particular letter or diary entry that proved particularly inspirational?

CM: Well, as a starting point, the title comes directly from Scott’s last letter in which he writes so affectionately to his wife, ‘Dear, it is not easy to write because of the cold – 70 degrees below zero.’ Just thinking of what that means in terms of what we experience in our winters today seems, to me, unimaginable. ̽��ֱ��scientific entries and the descriptions of the encounters on the expedition in the Journals gave me a way into this beautiful but ferociously dangerous polar world. While I was writing the work it felt as though I was living in that icy place. (Perhaps it helped that my central heating wasn’t working properly at the time.) Every time I read through Scott’s ‘final’ letter it moves me deeply - those words are so alive, so ‘present’, so heartbreaking.

Can you tell us about the process of composing a new piece?

CM: I had read and already worked with some of Seán Street’s poetry and knew of his work as a leading broadcaster so I felt that he would know instinctively what it was I wanted to do, to bring something different to this Antarctic commission. It felt to me as though we were looking from our 2012 vantage point, through a telescope, back down a century to all the scientific work of those extraordinary men, Captain Scott and his expeditionary force, who kept meticulous records of scientific data, laying down the foundations for today’s research and exploration. And with that connection in mind I wanted to join Scott’s text (his letter to his wife and some of the entries from the Journals) with poetry of today, to fuse the past with the present. I asked Seán if he would write two poems; one which would be the centre of the whole work, something which could set the past in context (which he has done with his exquisite, delicate poem called ̽��ֱ��Ice Tree) and a second poem to incorporate something from Scott’s Journals, something which could bring a suggestion of scientific activity and a sense of the journey to the Pole, all of which he has done beautifully in a poem called We measure.

Was this way of composing unique for you or do you often use other sources of information for inspiration?

CM: There are two ways, I suppose of working with text; to use existing words or to collaborate in finding something new. In the case of Seventy Degrees Below Zero I used both. Working on Seventy Degrees Below Zero with Seán Street offered an opportunity for a lively exchange of ideas, for discussion and a re-imagining of a small part of this polar world in another time. I love this kind of collaboration – I have worked in this way with other poets and librettists before, Christie Dickason, Simon Mundy and the Scottish poet, Alan Spence. It’s such a rewarding creative process in this solitary business.

What you would like audiences to take away from your work?

CM: What I found interesting when writing the work, and I hadn’t anticipated this, was how strongly I felt where it should appear in the programme of the concert. It’s not always easy to imagine how a new work will turn out but I realized, as I was writing the last movement, that I really wanted the listener to have as much space as possible in which to hear the tenor sing Scott’s final words. So no music to follow on immediately – just the interval. I hope these potent words will have impact and speak for themselves. They are so powerful in their unaffected simplicity and I didn’t want to get in the way. Happily the City of London Sinfonia had decided on this placing!”

Cecilia McDowall’s Cantata Seventy Degrees Below Zero for voices and orchestra receives its world premiere at Symphony Hall, Birmingham, on Friday 3 February. ̽��ֱ��second half of the programme will include the iconic music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, whose film score for the 1947 film Scott of the Antarctic (later turned into his Symphony No. 7) depicts the vast wilderness and beauty of the Antarctic. SPRI will provide a stunning selection of iconic images by the expedition photographer Herbert Ponting, now digitally restored in high definition, to be projected during the performance.

CONCERT PROGRAMME

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Excerpts from Scott of the Antarctic film score (with readings from diaries and letters)

CECILIA McDOWALL Cantata for orchestra and voices: Seventy Degrees Below Zero (world première)

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Symphony No 7 (Antarctica) projecting original photographs taken during the Expedition

Stephen Layton, conductor • Hugh Bonneville, narrator • ̽��ֱ��Holst Singers

̽��ֱ��tour

CLS will tour 5 regional venues in the UK:

Symphony Hall, Birmingham - 3 February 2012
Corn Exchange, Cambridge - 4 February 2012
St David’s Hall, Cardiff - 7 February 2012
Town Hall, Cheltenham - 8 February 2012
Cadogan Hall, London - 3 March 2012

̽��ֱ��Scott Polar Research Institute is proud to have provided the inspiration for a major new composition by leading British composer, Cecilia McDowall.

Every time I read through Scott’s ‘final’ letter it moves me deeply - those words are so alive, so ‘present’, so heartbreaking.

Cecilia McDowall

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

Conquering the Antarctic: ̽��ֱ��Scott Centenary Concert Tour

sjr81 — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:27:47 +0000

This landmark concert tour seeks to retell the inspiring human story behind this epic expedition to the South Pole through music, words and photography, and features excerpts from Vaughan Williams’ film score Scott of the Antarctic, interwoven with moving readings from Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s expedition diary and letters read by Downton Abbey star Hugh Bonneville.

̽��ֱ��iconic music of Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 7 (Sinfonia Antartica) will also be performed, alongside stunning projections of expedition photographs by Herbert Ponting, now digitally restored in high definition.

At the heart of the programme is the world premiere of a new work by British composer Cecilia McDowall, entitled Seventy Degrees Below Zero. ̽��ֱ��cantata for solo voice and orchestra was inspired by a phrase written by Scott to his wife: “Dear, it is not easy to write because of the cold – 70 degrees below zero.”

Composer McDowall found “the restrained, personal writings of Scott, set against a backdrop of human endeavour and resilience in such inhospitable terrain, deeply affecting and a rich resource on which to draw.”

Featuring leading British tenor Robert Murray, the piece sets McDowall’s music to words by poet Seán Street, who uses as his inspiration entries in Scott’s expedition journals.

“Scott's journals are full of quotations from classical and Victorian poetry,” says Street. “His was a poetic, as well as a scientific journey."

̽��ֱ��tour visits Birmingham, Cambridge, Cardiff and Cheltenham between 3-8 February before coming to London as part of Music Nation a Countdown Event for the London 2012 Festival.

This tour is made possible through the generous support of Arts Council England, ̽��ֱ��Colwinston Trust, ̽��ֱ��RVW Trust, ̽��ֱ��Summerfield Charitable Trust and ̽��ֱ��Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust.

For full concert details visit: http://www.cls.co.uk

Tickets are available to purchase through the box offices of the individual venues.

City of London Sinfonia, in collaboration with the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI), will embark on an ambitious concert tour in February to celebrate the centenary of the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910-12.

His was a poetic, as well as a scientific journey.

Sean Street

SPRI

Captain Scott writing his journal during the Terra Nova expedition

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.

Yes