Canterbury Museum
Christchurch, New Zealand
Media Release

17 November 2009

Her Majesty The Queen to lend early Antarctic photographs to Canterbury Museum

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Tabular iceberg off Cape Royds, 13 February 1911, Herbert Ponting.

A major exhibition of early Antarctic photography will be loaned from the Royal Collection by Her Majesty The Queen for the 2010 New Zealand Antarctic Festival. The Heart of the Great Alone: Scott, Shackleton and Antarctic Photography will open in the Robert McDougall Gallery at Canterbury Museum on 20 August 2010. Canterbury Museum will be the only other venue for the exhibition between seasons at The Queen’s Galleries at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh (where it is now showing) and Buckingham Palace, London.

The Heart of the Great Alone comprises a breathtaking collection of photographs by Herbert Ponting from Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova expedition of 1910-13, and by Frank Hurley from Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Transantarctic Expedition, 1914-16. The 2010 exhibition falls within the 100th anniversary of Captain Scott’s expedition, which included his journey to the South Pole.

Presented to King George V and today part of the Royal Photograph Collection, these sets of photographs are among the finest examples of the artists’ works in existence. The exhibition will launch at the same time as the expanding New Zealand Antarctic Festival, which has moved dates from September to August to coincide with winter every second year. The Christchurch City Council are thrilled that such a special and important international exhibition will be part of the 2010 festival, especially as the NZ Antarctic Festival’s new direction is to attract more international and major speakers to showcase New Zealand’s relationship with the Ice.

The Heart of the Great Alone: Scott, Shackleton and Antarctic Photography will be on display in the Robert McDougall Gallery at Canterbury Museum from 20 August 2010 through to late February 2011, before heading back to The Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace. Canterbury Museum is located on Rolleston Avenue in Christchurch’s Cultural Precinct.

Image: Tabular iceberg off Cape Royds, 13 February 1911, Herbert Ponting. Presented to King George V, 1914. The Royal Collection © 2009, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, RCIN 2580019.

ENDS