100-Year-Old Box of Negatives Discovered Frozen In Block of Ice

Conservators of the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust discovered a box frozen in a block of ice that contained cellulose nitrate negatives clumped together. The negatives were removed from Antarctica and painstaking conservation treatment in New Zealand revealed twenty-two never-before-seen Antarctic images documenting the life of Antarctic explorers a century ago.

The box of photographs was probably left in Captain Scott’s hut by Ernest Shackleton’s 1914-1917 Ross Sea Party, an expedition that was stranded after their ship floated away to the sea during a massive blizzard. The group was finally rescued but only after three men were already lost. The photographer is thought to be expedition photographer Arnold Spencer-Smith.


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