Historic Artefact Returns Home
Appreciating an artefact is one thing, but helping conserve and return one is quite another, as members of the 2025 Inspiring Explorers Expedition™ discovered.
The eight young explorers were tasked with returning a classic book to the icy continent and hoped conditions would permit them to get to the base where heroic era explorers had read it, Scott’s Discovery hut at Hut Point on Ross Island.
The copy of “The Count of Monte-Cristo”, written by Alexandre Dumas and published around 1844, was given to the Trust by a donor who received it as a school prize in 1965.
Before leaving New Zealand, the young explorers readied it for its next phase of life in icy conditions.
Inspiring Explorer Daniel Bornstein, a conservator at the National Museum of Australia, says the condition of the book highlights the hardships experienced by early Antarctic explorers. The book is missing its cover and a few pages, is well thumbed, covered in sooty fingerprints and smells strongly of the seal blubber that fuelled stoves and lamps.
“This was an intervention treatment. We repaired some little tears and stitched some pages that had separated from the book back into place. We humidified and flattened it – and made sure it was safe for the rest of time.”
Returning the book wasn’t plain sailing. Heritage Architect Lucy Hayes-Stevenson says the group almost didn’t get to Discovery hut because of sea ice blocking their vessel’s passage.
“On the first attempt to return the book, ice blocked our way and we had to turn back. Reality in Antarctica is dictated by the movement of the ice and it changes in a second. On the second to last day, the ice
had fully cleared and we were finally able to return it to its home in Scott’s hut. We were all so invested in its return, because we got to be a part of that story.”
Daniel says “This was an incredible opportunity for someone in my profession. I had the privilege of working on this object associated with Antarctic exploration and take it back to where it can be most meaningful.”
Inspiring Explorer and Conservation Technician Louise Piggin describes the experience as very special. “You see the book and it feels like a very old piece of history that doesn’t fit in with normal surroundings, but when we returned it to the hut, it fitted right in. It was home.”
Each year the Trust is gifted artefacts from around the world that were originally from the historic huts. The Trust welcomes their return, and thanks to our donors, we are able to conserve these artefacts and return them back to the expedition bases in Antarctica.
