Antarctic conservation blog archive

Jane, Thursday 13 May 2010

Temperature: -19°C
Wind Speed: 5 knots
Temp with wind chill: -20°C
Sunrise: August 19th 12.26pm

Herbert Ponting was the photographer on the British Antarctic Expedition led by Captain Scott in 1910-13. He not only documented the expedition through photos and film but often entertained other expedition members by giving talks and showing images of his travels to foreign countries.

Ponting in his darkroom at Cape Evans © Antarctic Heritage Trust

As we begin to focus on conserving objects from the expedition’s galley and Ponting’s darkroom we have the opportunity to work on some of the materials that he would have used.

It was Scott who coined the phrase to ‘pont’ which meant to ‘pose until nearly frozen, in all sorts of uncomfortable positions’, an activity we are becoming well used to down here. Meares, who looked after the expedition dogs, even contributed a humorous poem to the South Polar Times entitled ‘Pont, Ponko, Pont’ about Ponting’s skill as a photographer and the talks he gave.

Among all the interesting artefacts we take out of the crates every week are glass plate negatives. Many of them have not been exposed but I have found a few with images, although often in quite poor condition. Among them are images of geological specimens and tables, maps and animals.

Glass plate negative with an image of a table of geological periods. The table has been drawn on a poster and pinned to a wooden board. It was probably taken by Ponting and used in a lecture for the expedition members © Antarctic Heritage Trust

Many of the expedition members would give talks on particular subjects as a form of entertainment. The glass plate negatives I have been conserving may have been used by other members of the crew to illustrate subjects on which they lectured.

This Antarctic pastime is as common now as it was then. Lectures by scientists on a wide range of Antarctic subjects occur regularly at McMurdo Station (the American science base over the hill).

Now, as the afternoon twilight dwindles, I am off to McMurdo to see a talk on night time photography.

The Scott Polar Research Institute, Royal Geographical Society and Natural History Museum have some of Ponting’s photos for you to see online.

Posted in Antarctica, Cape Evans, McMurdo, Photography, Scott

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