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1 of 253523 objects
Louis Charles Bernacchi (1876-1942)
The South Polar Times. Volume 2, April to August 1903. 1907
Printed on paper | 28.3 x 22.8 cm (book measurement (inventory)) | RCIN 1044543
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Pictorial binding in dark blue cloth
In the preface to the South Polar Times, Scott wrote that ‘our thoughts turned naturally to the long dark period before us and the means by which we could lighten its monotony’. It was decided to follow the example of previous polar expeditions and have a monthly newsletter, ‘the first Antarctic Journal’. Shackleton was editor, Wilson was illustrator, and contributions were invited from all hands, to be left in a wooden box outside Shackleton’s office. The first number appeared in April 1902, its tone a mixture of London daily newspaper and public school magazine, with a variety of serious scientific articles, poetry, acrostics, caricatures and silhouettes; a series of mock heraldry named ‘Arms and the Man’; and decorative illustrations of the officers’ sledging flags' . The wooden box was soon so full, especially with lighter humorous and ephemeral titbits, that Shackleton was forced to announce a stable mate, The Blizzard, into which the overflow could safely go without upsetting fragile tempers. Its first and only number appeared in May 1902, and it then died a natural death. After Shackleton was invalided home with scurvy at the end of the 1902–3 season, the physicist Louis Bernacchi took over as editor. Following the end of the expedition, the South Polar Times was handed to Smith, Elder & Co. for facsimile publication in a limited edition, as part of the wave of Antarctic publishing for which the public had such an appetite.Provenance
Probably acquired by Edward VII, 1907
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Creator(s)
(introduction writer)(series)(publisher)Acquirer(s)
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Medium and techniques
Printed on paper
Measurements
28.3 x 22.8 cm (book measurement (inventory))
