JISC

This collection is now live at the Freeze Frame website

The archival collections held by the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, are among the richest in the world for the study of polar environments. The photographic negatives recording historic polar expeditions are a unique resource but also an extremely fragile one. Until this attempt to capture and preserve the archive in digital form, the information in the collection ran a very real risk of extinction.

This project will develop a repository of freely available visual and textual resources to support learning, teaching and research into topics relating to the history of Arctic and Antarctic exploration and science. It will provide access to hidden collections for use at all educational levels.

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The project

The International Polar Year 2007-08 is the first of its kind for 50 years. The timing of the IPY, coupled with growing interest in climate change, provides a unique opportunity for the Scott Polar Research Institute's resources to reach a wider learning community than ever before.

Over 20,000 photographic negatives from 1845-1960 will be digitised, representing some of the most important visual resources for research into British and international polar exploration. Digitisation of related documentary resources, giving information from the personal journals of expedition members and official reports from the expeditions on which these photographs were taken, will provide historical and cultural context for the images. To ensure that the most important archival resources are available to coincide with the centenaries of their attempts on the South Pole, the manuscript reports and personal papers of the members of the Antarctic expeditions led by Captain RF Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton will also be made available.

Almost all these resources have, until now, been inaccessible to the educational community via any electronic means. With the polar regions as a geographical focus, the subject range will be of value to many audiences, for cultural as well as educational use. Through a series of interpretative web pages, e-learning and online learning resources, the project will encourage discovery of the resources by users from a range of educational contexts.

The content

The project aims to produce at least 20,000 images through new digitisation. To this base collection some 3-5,000 historic polar images (of art works as well as photographs) will be added through the aggregation of existing digital image collections.

The major focus of the digitisation programme will be on the collection of photographic negatives, as these are unique, are in highest demand as research tools and are in most urgent need of protection as the facilities for reproduction are disappearing.

Among the most well-known of these are the 1700 glass plate negatives produced by Herbert Ponting during the British Antarctic Expedition 1910-13, led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott. However, SPRI also holds the negatives from other members of this expedition, Frank Debenham, George Murray Levick and Charles Wright, providing an unparalleled record of the living conditions and scientific efforts of the men involved.

The Institute will also digitise key items from our archival and historic printed collections, such as photographs, letters, expedition reports and tables of observational data.

The range of subjects represents the history of British exploration and science in the Arctic and Antarctic during the period 1845-1960. It also covers early European and international collaborative ventures in the polar regions, portraiture, shipping and aerial reconnaissance.

The process

The method of digitisation is dictated by the nature of the material selected. Scanning will be the preferred method of image capture for the negatives, photographs, private papers or correspondence. A small proportion of fragile or tightly bound documentary resources or artefacts may be digitised only via copy stand photography, but the Institute has already developed expertise in this area.

Metadata-rich catalogue records will be produced for each digital image by specialist cataloguers.

An Open Source system for the delivery, discovery and long-term storage of high-quality digital images and their associated metadata records will be provided by DSpace@Cambridge.

The future

A dedicated education outreach officer will be employed during the second year of the project to produce a range of learning and teaching materials. These will include teaching and learning packs in several formats (web and DVD-based as well as print) focusing on specific topics, such as the conquest of the South Pole, polar technologies or the impact of climate change. Resources will include timelines of key dates in the history of British polar exploration, linked to relevant images.

The Final Report

The Project Plan

Download the project plan to find out more about the detail of the project.

Lead site: Scott Polar Research Institute