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Archive for category: Borchgrevink’s Hut

Century-old Fruitcake

August 10, 2017 - Borchgrevink's Hut, Famous Discoveries, Media Releases, News Story

Antarctic Heritage Trust conservators found a 100 year old fruit cake among the artefacts from Cape Adare.

Made by Huntley & Palmers, the fruit cake is still wrapped in paper and encased in the remains of a tin-plated iron alloy tin. The cake probably dates to the Cape Adare-based Northern Party of Scott’s Terra Nova expedition (1910 – 1913) as it has been documented that Scott took this particular brand of cake with him at that time. Although the tin was in poor condition, the cake itself looked and smelt (almost) edible.

Fruit cake after conservation treatment.Antarctic Heritage Trust

Fruit cake after conservation treatment.

Conservation treatment involved rust removal, chemical stabilisation and coating of the tin remnants. Deacidification of the tin label and some physical repair to the torn paper wrapper and tin label was also carried out. The cake itself was in excellent condition. Programme Manager-Artefacts Lizzie Meek said “With just two weeks to go on the conservation of the Cape Adare artefacts, finding such a perfectly preserved fruitcake in amongst the last handful of unidentified and severely corroded tins was quite a surprise. It’s an ideal high-energy food for Antarctic conditions, and is still a favourite item on modern trips to the Ice.”

Huntley and Palmer's fruit cake in wrapper.Antarctic Heritage Trust

Huntley and Palmer’s fruit cake in wrapper.

Fruit cake found at Cape Adare thought to be from Scott's Northern Party (1911).Antarctic Heritage Trust

Fruit cake found at Cape Adare thought to be from Scott’s Northern Party (1911).

Since May 2016, a team of four conservators have been working in the Canterbury Museum lab on the conservation of Antarctic artefacts from Cape Adare. The team recently finished the large project in July this year, conserving almost 1500 artefacts. The Trust is now planning to begin the conservation work on the buildings at Cape Adare. The huts were built by Norwegian Carsten Borchgrevink’s expedition in 1899 and later used by Captain Scott’s party in 1911. The buildings were the first in Antarctica and are the only examples left of humanity’s first building on any continent. The permit the Trust was granted to collect the artefacts stipulates that all of the items must be returned to the site following conservation, in accordance with the site’s status as an Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA). This will happen once the huts themselves have been restored. The Trust is very grateful for the support it receives from its funders, Norwegian Government, Canterbury Museum for its facilities and logistical support from Antarctica New Zealand to get the artefacts out of and back to Cape Adare. Check out the Huntley and Palmers online archive.

https://nzaht.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/fruit-cake598a4de2408c68.28255362-1500x.jpg 1000 1500 Comms https://nzaht.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/logo-dark.png Comms2017-08-10 23:01:242019-04-30 08:40:49Century-old Fruitcake

Dr Edward Wilson Watercolour

June 12, 2017 - Borchgrevink's Hut, Famous Discoveries, Media Releases, News Story

 

New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust has discovered an almost perfectly preserved 118 year old watercolour painting among penguin-excrement, dust and mould covered papers found in an historic hut at Cape Adare, Antarctica.

 

Canterbury Museum

The water colour was painted by Dr Edward Wilson who died with Captain Robert Falcon Scott and three others on their return from the South Pole in 1912.

 

Dr Edward WilsonCanterbury Museum

Dr Edward Wilson

“I opened it and there was this gorgeous painting… I got such a fright that I jumped and shut the portfolio again. I then took the painting out and couldn’t stop looking at it – the colours, the vibrancy, it is such a beautiful piece of work. I couldn’t believe it was there.” The painting is labelled ‘1899 Tree Creeper’ and has the initial ‘T’ on it. It depicts a Tree Creeper bird specimen. The discovery was made in September 2016, but has been kept confidential until now to enable the team to focus on restoring all of the 1,500 artefacts from Cape Adare.

 

Antarctic Heritage Trust

 

Antarctic Heritage Trust

The Trust’s Programme Manager – Artefact Conservation, Lizzie Meek says it wasn’t immediately clear who the artist was given that two expeditions had based themselves at Cape Adare. “The Cape Adare huts were built by Norwegian Carsten Borchgrevink’s expedition in 1899 and later used by Captain Scott’s party in 1911. We knew the artist was likely to be among the men on those expeditions,” says Lizzie.

 

Borchgrevink’s hut at Cape Adare is built amongst a colony of over 400,000 breeding pairs of Adelie penguins.Antarctic Heritage Trust

Borchgrevink’s hut at Cape Adare is built amongst a colony of over 400,000 breeding pairs of Adelie penguins.

As the Trust was working to identify the artist, Josefin attended a lecture at Canterbury University on Dr Wilson. “The presenter showed some of Dr Wilson’s artwork… as soon as I saw his distinctive handwriting, I knew he had painted the Tree Creeper. This made sense as there was also a 1911 newspaper article from the Lyttelton Times in the papers and Scott’s party went to Antarctica via New Zealand.”

 

Antarctic Heritage Trust

Lizzie Meek says Dr Wilson was a remarkable man. “He was not only a talented painter, but a scientist and a medical doctor who was an integral member of both of Scott’s expeditions to the Ice.” Josefin is not surprised the painting survived in such excellent condition. “Water colour paintings are particularly susceptible to light so the fact this work has spent more than a hundred years tightly packed between other sheets of paper in completely dark and cold conditions is actually an ideal way to store it.” Lizzie Meek says how the painting came to be in the hut is still something of a mystery. “It’s likely that Wilson painted it while he was recovering from tuberculosis in Europe. Clearly, he could have taken the painting to Antarctica on either of Scott’s expeditions but we think it’s more likely the artwork travelled with him in 1911, and somehow made its way from Cape Evans to Cape Adare.”

 

Antarctic Heritage Trust

The permit the Trust was granted to collect the artefacts stipulates that all of the items must be returned to the site following conservation, in accordance with the site’s status as an Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA). This will happen once the huts themselves have been restored. The Trust’s General Manager Operations and Communications, Francesca Eathorne says finding the painting is a poignant reminder of the inspiring legacy the early polar explorers left behind. “More than a century later we are still sharing stories about those expeditions. We’ve been able to create a high quality facsimile of the painting so we are now looking forward to sharing it with the rest of the world. We are in no doubt this will attract global interest – particularly from our friends in the UK.” Visit Cheltenham’s art gallery and museum The Wilson: www.cheltenhammuseum.org.uk

https://nzaht.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/the-water-colour-pai593efc0c14ec73.21611806-785x.jpg 593 785 Comms https://nzaht.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/logo-dark.png Comms2017-06-12 23:43:152019-06-11 23:30:42Dr Edward Wilson Watercolour

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Check out the interactive technology in our new ap Check out the interactive technology in our new app. Designed for school-aged explorers, use My Explorer Journal to watch augmented reality and 360° videos come to life off the page by scanning codes throughout the booklet! 

Jam-packed full of fascinating Antarctic history, brave first explorers, and unique wildlife, log your own explorer journal entries as you navigate the icy continent right from your own home.

The app is available to download for free from Google Play or the App Store.

Download the My Explorer Journal printable PDF for free on our website nzaht.org

@staples_vr @quarkexpeditions @anzac.biscuit 
#ARapp #applaunch #ar #AntarcticApp  #AntarcticJournal #3Dartefacts #Artefacts #CapeAdare #inspire #explore #discover #conserve #antarctica #ice #polarhistory #shackleton #hillary #scott
#OnThisDay in 1873 Shackleton’s right-hand man, #OnThisDay in 1873 Shackleton’s right-hand man, Frank Wild was born. Wild was a key member of five Antarctic expeditions led by Shackleton, Robert Falcon Scott and Douglas Mawson. He was awarded the polar medal with four bars, making him the most decorated polar explorer of the heroic age of exploration.

One of Wild’s most well know adventures took place on Elephant Island, where he remained in command of the Endurance crew while Shackleton and five others made the incredible journey to South Georgia Island to seek rescue at the Whaling Station. Each man in his diary wrote of great admiration for Wild. Without any doubt, each man stranded on Elephant Island owed their life to him and his ability to inspire during their isolation.

📸 Frank Wild, National Library of Australia
#OTD #inspire #explore #discover #conserve #Antarctica
#OnThisDay in 1904 Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton and #OnThisDay in 1904 Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton and Emily Mary Dorman were married at Christchurch, Westminster, London.

Shackleton first met Emily, one of his sister's friends, in the summer of 1897. Emily was 29 years old, six years his senior. Shackleton took an instant liking to Emily and the relationship blossomed with shared interests in gardening and poetry. Shackleton was in love for the first time, so to improve his standing with Emily, Shackleton left his position as third officer on the Welsh Shire Line and took a position with the Union Castle Line in 1899. The new role meant Shackleton could prove to Emily's father that her welfare was in safe hands and he could come home every two months instead of long and undetermined absences.

In February 1900, Shackleton celebrated his 26th birthday. With that milestone came the realisation that 10 years of hard labour at sea had lost its appeal. Shackleton desired a cause which would stimulate his interests, make a fortune and secure a respectable future with Emily. That March, Shackleton was on his second trooping voyage to South Africa when he met Lieutenant Cedric Longstaff, whose father, Llewellyn, was the principal benefactor of the National Antarctic 'Discovery' Expedition 1901-03. Through this connection, Shackleton saw the chance to join the Antarctic venture, cultivate his interest in exploration and somehow make a name for himself so he could marry Emily. Going to the ends of the earth to impress her was a gesture later explained by his daughter Cecily as "he was going to lay the world at her feet".

After Shackleton was invalided home from the expedition due to falling ill, Emily agreed to marry him. Shackleton wrote to Emily, "I am so happy dearest thinking about all the times which are to be in the future...we do want to settle down and have our own house at last after all these years of waiting".

Shackleton's proposition of settling down with Emily changed when he embarked on the idea of spending the next winter in Antarctica as part of his British Antarctic 'Nimrod Expedition' 1907-09.

📸 Emily Dorman (Lady Shackelton), Public Domain.
#OTD #inspire #explore #discover #conserve #Antarctica
#OnThisDay in 1887, Sir Charles Seymour Wright, KC #OnThisDay in 1887, Sir Charles Seymour Wright, KCB, OBE, MC, Canadian physicist & polar explorer, was born in Toronto, Canada. Wright was an appointed scientific staff member as part of Captain Robert Falcon Scott's British Antarctic 'Terra Nova' Expedition 1910-13.

Born and educated in Canada, Wright went on to study at Gonville and Caius College Cambridge, England after he won a scholarship for postgraduate study. In Cambridge he met Douglas Mawson, who had just returned from Shackleton's British Antarctica 'Nimrod' Expedition 1907-09. Hereafter, Wright applied for Scott's second Antarctic expedition. When his application was rejected Wright walked an astonishing 65 miles from Cambridge to London to see Scott in person at which point he was accepted as Physicist and Glaciologist. 

In 'Scott's Last Expedition', published by the Natural History Museum, Scott refers to Wright as "one of the greatest successes... he is very thorough and absolutely ready for anything". Wright carried out numerous experiments and observations on the physics of ice and snow, gravity, the aurora and magnetism. He was also part of a four man team who mapped the western mountains of Victoria Land and made geological observations. Unfortunately for Wright, at the time, he was part of the first support party sent back on the 22nd of December 1911 from Scott's Southern Journey. However, almost a year later, in November 1912, he was the one who noticed "a small object projecting above the surface", which turned out to be the tip of a tent, the last camp of Scott, Bowers and Wilson.

Wright visited and worked in Antarctica again in 1960-61 during the 50th anniversary of Scott's expedition. While in Antarctica he refused to talk about Scott's expedition. 

📸Charles Seymour Wright 1912, Photographer Herbert Ponting, Public Domain.
#OTD #inspire #explore #discover #conserve #Antarctica
#OnThisDay in 1916, SY Aurora arrived back in Dune #OnThisDay in 1916, SY Aurora arrived back in Dunedin, New Zealand, after breaking away from its mooring chains during a storm the previous year. As a result, Aurora had been stuck fast in the sea ice and taken out into McMurdo Sound where she drifted helplessly in the pack. Unfortunately, she was laden with stores and provisions that were badly needed by the Ross Sea Shore Party, a critical component of Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic 'Endurance' Expedition 1914-17. 

Aurora was repaired and refitted by December 1916, just in time for the return of Shackleton who sailed alongside the crew for McMurdo Sound. When the men arrived in Antarctica Shackleton went ashore at Cape Royds with a party to look for any records possibly left in the hut. A letter was found stating that the Ross Sea Party was housed at Cape Evans. Of the ten members left behind when the Aurora first broke away, only seven had survived.

📸 Aurora berthed in Sydney Harbour loading stores for the Ross Sea Party, December 1914. William Hall Studio. Australian National Maritime Museum Collection, gift from Mr and Mrs Glassford.

#inspire #explore #discover #conserve #Antarctica #shackleton #rossseaparty #aurora #endurance
#OnThisDay in 1904, Captain Robert Falcon Scott's #OnThisDay in 1904, Captain Robert Falcon Scott's first Antarctic expedition ship 'Discovery' arrived back in Lyttelton Harbour, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Scott's National Antarctic 'Discovery' Expedition 1901-04 was a joint initiative between The Royal Geographical Society and The Royal Society. It was the second expedition to winter over on the Antarctic continent, following Carston Borchgrevink's Southern Cross Expedition 1899-1900. In addition, it was the first to carry out significant exploration, including a ‘furthest south’ record of 82º16’ S, and the first to carry out comprehensive scientific observations in the field of meteorology, geology, glaciology, botany, marine biology and cartography.

You can read more about the history of Scott's first Antarctic expedition on our website, nzaht.org.

📸 Discovery Hut, the expedition base located at Hut Point, with the ship Discovery in the background. Canterbury Museum.

#OTD #inspire #explore #discover #conserve #Antarctica #RobertFalconScott #discovery
If you're in Mt Cook this Easter break this is you If you're in Mt Cook this Easter break this is your chance to step inside Sir Edmund Hillary’s Antarctic Hut with Antarctic Heritage Trust’s fully immersive virtual reality (VR) experience. 

We will be at The Hermitage Hotel on Saturday 3 April and Sunday 4 April between 9 am - 12 pm and 1 pm - 5pm.

Bookings are essential for the 10 minute VR experience. Please come and see the AHT team at the Hermitage to make a booking.

Hillary’s Hut was the first building erected at New Zealand’s Scott Base in Antarctica in 1957. Join us and step inside the five rooms of Sir Ed’s Antarctic hut and find out what life was like living in the world’s most extreme environment as these men furthered science and exploration.

@autuni @autartanddesign @duluxnz @staples_vr @antarctica.nz 
#hillaryshutvr #virtualreality #hillary #vr #heritage #conserve #inspire #explore #Antarctica
📸 VR experience © AHT.
#OnThisDay in 1900, Borchgrevink's British Antarct #OnThisDay in 1900, Borchgrevink's British Antarctic 'Southern Cross' Expedition party returned to New Zealand from Antarctica after two years.

Borchgrevink’s party of 10 men was funded by magazine magnate Sir George Newnes. The aim of the expedition was to collect scientific data and study wildlife, be the first team to intentionally overwinter on the continent and explore the continent’s interior. Borchgrevink also wanted to investigate the commercial possibilities of the region, focusing on whaling, mineral prospecting and the mining of penguin guano for fertiliser.

Many of the expedition’s scientific records were lost but they did achieve some exceptional ‘firsts’, for example, they were the first to erect a building in Antarctica, winter over, and use dogs, sledges and skis for travel over land and sea ice. Expedition members Bernacchi and Colbeck also produced a detailed map of the area that was used by later expeditions. Finally, under Bernacchi’s leadership, the first full year of weather readings was recorded. Their data set the baseline for Antarctic climate science.

Read more about Borchgrevink's expedition on @canterburymuseum's online exhibition Breaking the Ice: The First Year in Antarctica - https://breakingtheice.canterburymuseum.com/

📸 The Southern Cross expedition members pictured just before spending the first winter on the Antarctic continent, 1899. Canterbury Museum

#inspire #explore #discover #conserve #Antarctica #borchgrevink #capeadare
#OnThisDay in 1912, Scott, Wilson and Bowers, the #OnThisDay in 1912, Scott, Wilson and Bowers, the remaining three members of Scott's Polar Party wrote their final letters. Alongside these letters to loved ones, all members of the Polar Party, apart from Evans, had kept private journals. Captain Robert Falcon Scott's last journal has been on permanent display since 1914 and is now on display at the British Library. Scott's final sentence, ‘for God’s sake look after our people’ was reiterated in his last message to the nation.

Scott's Polar Party reached the South Pole 17 January 1912, 34 days after Amundsen and his Norwegian party. During the journey home Edgar Evans suffered a fatal concussion and passed away 17 February. Thereafter, in March, Scott’s diary records the heroic end of Captain Lawrence 'Titus' Oates who, stricken with frostbite, walked out from the camp to his death.

For Scott and his remaining men, a successful march home depended on the decisions made and the depots laid months prior to the expedition. On 21 March, Wilson and Bowers planned to set off for the next depot, in the hope that they could bring food and fuel back to Scott, who lay in the tent nursing his right foot. However, according to Scott a severe storm raged throughout their final nine days. The distance to One Ton Depot (20.4 km) was now an irrelevancy, with the men sharing what little food was left as they waited out the inevitable. 

📸 Snow Cairn erected over the final resting place of Scott, Wilson and Bowers, Antarctica New Zealand Pictorial Collection.

#OTD #inspire #explore #discover #conserve #Antarctica #RobertFalconScott #terranova #southpole
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