Topic description and stories

Left: James Wordie was chief scientific officer in Shackleton’s Weddell Sea party, which sought to walk across Antarctica via the South Pole in 1915. Right: Members of the Endurance South Pole 100 team training in the Cairngorms

Endurance descendants to mark centenary by completing ancestor’s unfinished business

18 Nov 2015

The family of the chief scientific officer from Ernest Shackleton’s famous Endurance expedition are to mark its centenary by completing part of his...

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Sir Ernest Shackleton, pictured during the Endurance expedition

By Endurance We Conquer: Shackleton and his Men

13 Oct 2015

Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance diaries and boots – as well as the largest remaining piece of the doomed vessel – have gone on display in Cambridge...

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Last letter of Captain Scott finally revealed in full - 101 years on

29 Mar 2013

A letter written by the dying Captain Scott - one of only two remaining in private hands - can be revealed in full for the first time after being...

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Xmas eve on Gjoa, 1903, taken from Roald Amundsen's book The North West  Passage, vol.1

Having a Polar Christmas

25 Dec 2012

With Christmas upon us, Cambridge historian Dr Shane McCorristine and geographer and psychologist Dr Jane S.P. Mocellin take us back to the heroic...

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This photograph is a composite image made by Ponting to  capture the desolation of the Polar Party.

Final letters mark centenary of Scott’s last march

12 Nov 2012

A new collection of the last letters of Captain Scott and the Pole Party has been released to mark the centenary of the discovery of their bodies in...

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Detail from ‘Lost on the Ice Caps’ by Albert Operdi

Dreaming polar lands with the haunted and damned

31 Oct 2012

The Scott Polar Research Institute invites you to take a trip through the psychic hinterlands of Polar exploration for this year’s Festival of Ideas...

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PO Edgar Evans with the pony Snatcher, Cape Evans, October 1911

A century on: Captain Scott’s ‘lost photos’ displayed for first time

17 Oct 2012

The ‘lost photos’ of Captain Scott have gone on display for the first time today.

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One of the photos taken by Captain Scott during the Terra Nova expedition

Lost Captain Scott photos dazzle Parliament

04 Jul 2012

The ‘lost’ photographs of Captain Scott’s final expedition to the South Pole, purchased by the Scott Polar Research Institute with the help of the...

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Foundering in soft snow: Bowers' sledge team; Wilson pushing; Oates and PO Evans repairing, Beardmore Glacier, 13 December 1911

Celebrating the centenary of Captain Scott reaching the South Pole

17 Jan 2012

Tuesday 17 January 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the first British team reaching the South Pole. Founded as a memorial to Captain Scott and his...

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Huskies by Christine Zenino

Doggie day at the Polar Museum

28 Oct 2011

As the centennial anniversary of the first arctic expeditions to the South Pole is celebrated, the Scott Polar Research Institute paid tribute to the...

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Access all Archives Poster small

Access All Archives

22 Oct 2011

On Monday 24 October five world-class Cambridge museums will open late and put on a one-night-only sensory display featuring live performances and...

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Amundsen

UK’s first Amundsen exhibition celebrates extraordinary explorer

02 Sep 2011

The snowshoes, knife and boots belonging to Roald Amundsen as he led the first team to reach the South Pole are among objects on display in the UK’s...

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