Man's conquest of nature in photographs - exhibit of Frank Hurley's photographs at the American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York

Magazine Antiques, April, 1999 by Allison Eckardt Ledes

Two tales of man against nature have recently been the subject of best-selling books: Into Thin Air and The Perfect Storm. Narratives of such hair-raising historical events are made even more so when they are accompanied by a visual record. Such is the case in an exhibition on view at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City from April 10 to October 11. Entitled The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition, it comprises some 150 photographs taken by Frank Hurley along with items that survived such as Bibles, Shackleton's sextant, diaries, film footage, and even a twenty-two-foot lifeboat, the James Caird.

The harrowing expedition, which began in 1914 and ended nearly two years later, encompassed a succession of misadventures - each seemingly more insurmountable than the last. Caroline Alexander, the guest curator of the show, is also the author of a book that serves as its catalogue, which is illustrated with Hurley's haunting photographs.

The story begins in England with Sir Ernest Shackleton, an esteemed polar explorer with an impressive, if somewhat mercurial, track record, trying to raise the money for a voyage to the Antarctic, which he then proposed to cross on foot. On August 1, 1914, the misnamed ship Endurance set sail from London. In Buenos Aires, they arranged to pick up sixty-nine Canadian sledge dogs. On November 5, the crew of twenty-eight had arrived at South Georgia island, one of the Falkland Islands, where there were whaling stations, and where they provisioned for the journey ahead. It was their last encounter with other humans.

Working their way south, they soon encountered ice floes and pack ice. In January 1915, a mere days sail from Antarctica, the Endurance became trapped in the ice of the Weddell Sea and for ten months was carried away from land by the ice pack. In May and June (when it is winter in this part of the world), there was scant daylight, yet despite the tedium, the crew maintained their optimism. Hurley spent much of his time taking photographs of the endless landscape of snow and ice and the crew at work or at leisure, both inside and outside the vessel.

In October, warmer weather forced the ice against the ship, and on the twenty-seventh Shackleton gave the order to abandon ship as it broke up under the pressure of the ice. Now 350 miles from land, they set up camp on an ice floe and rescued what they thought they would need for what turned out to be five months. Hurley hacked through the walls of the foundering ship's refrigerator and rescued the sealed tins with his negatives, which were under four feet of mushy ice.

On April 9, 1916, after shooting the dogs, the men set off in three open lifeboats for Elephant Island, an inhospitable place with treacherous winds. Shackleton soon realized that they would not survive there, and he and five of his men set off in the James Caird for what turned out to be a seventeen-day, eight hundred mile trip back to South Georgia island. They endured a hurricane only to land on the far side of the island, forcing them to trek over a mountain to reach the whaling settlement. Not until August 30, 1916, was the remainder of the ship's company rescued from Elephant Island. Miraculously, they were all alive, although some were in a sorry state. Astonishingly, Hurley captured every aspect of the expedition most eloquently - all but the lifeboat in the hurricane, for he was not on board the James Caird.

The book is published by Alfred A. Knopf with the American Museum of Natural History. It is available from the museum shop at 212-769-4744.