FrankHurley.Org

The Files Below were generated during my Endurance expedition studies between the late 1970’s and early 2000’s when, involved with several publishers and manuscripts, I put “the pile” of what I’d gathered into distinct folders for easier reference. My Endurance work entered quasi-retirement in 2008 when I began lecturing and driving Zodiacs on polar expedition ships. It was reorganized during the Covid 19 epidemic and now offered for use.

Wishing to ‘open source’ significant portions of my investigations, I’m making these files available in the spirit of global sharing. The files are available to anyone for reference and research without cost. I use a “write and request” approach to deliver what you’re interested in, but I’ve been given to understand people are, for some reason, uncomfortable with this method. The reason I do it that way is to meet and converse with interested others, not to intimidate anyone. I want to be part of the solution, not the problem.

Diagram. The Sphere, 1 August, 1914, and Buenos Ayres Herald, 17 October, 1914. Monochrome drawing; cutaway of Endurance from starboard stern looking forward; some labeling of features.

Endurance diary. Frank Hurley; Frank Hurley, ed. Typed manuscript. 268 pages.

Endurance diary. Frank Hurley. South American tour. 21 pages.

Endurance diary. Frank Worsley: 1914, 15 pages; 1915, 86 pages; 1916 through the James Caird voyage, 9 pages. Generally incomplete save for the voyage of the James Caird. Noon positions and weather report for the days cited.

Endurance diary. Harry McNish. 53 pages, complete.

Endurance diary. Reginald James. From the rescue to across the Andes by train to Buenos Aires. 16 pages.

Endurance diary. Thomas Orde-Lees. 418 pages; some missing end material.

^{Reginald James’s cracked lantern slide showing the departure of the James Caird, the only known image of the event. Leonard Hussey wrote of the Caird‘s departure, “We all pretended to have high spirits as we cheered and waved to our comrades, even though in our hearts we felt strangely forlorn….”}

Film. BFI. South! Brenda Hudson’s production notes, 2001. 8 pages.

Film. BFI. South! 106 Sequentially numbered thumbnail scenes from BFI’s 2001 exhaustive resurrection of Hurley’s expedition footage. 1 expandable page.

Film. BFI. South & The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration on Film, 17:48. 2022, with Endurance scenes. Available at shop.bfi.org.uk/.webloc.

Music. Gramophone Concerts. List of the music played, with the words to many songs. 9 pages.

Music. Topical Songs and a story told on Midwinter’s Day, 1916, Elephant Island. 8 pages.

Notes. An Antarctic Evening sponsored by Margot Morrell, April 9, 1999. 9 page booklet.

Notes. Correspondence from Hurley’s mother to Douglas Mawson regarding Hurley’s health, 1911. 3 pages.

Notes. David Miller. A quick timeline of Hurley’s life. 5 pages.

Notes. Endurance Library Books. Incomplete. Always will be. 3 pages.

Notes. Hurley Buenos Aires Herald interview, 1916. 4 pages.

Notes. Hurley’s “List of supplies for a sledging journey.” Eight detailed pages compiled at Patience Camp while he lived in Shackleton’s tent. Likely a close approximation of Shackleton’s original cross-continental design; numerous details including a thorough treatment of dog teams, workloads, weights, distances, &c. 12 pages.

Notes. The Shackleton Centenary Book, 2014, from the James Caird Society. First edition. Heavily illustrated with numerous articles. 223 pages.

Notes. Mitchell Library jottings on Hurley’s lantern slides (“Slides 22”) by call number. 3 pages.

Notes. National Library of Australia #TRC 2143. Interviews with people who worked with Frank Hurley by David Miller. 3 pages.

Notes. Orde-Lees, Buenos Aires Herald interview, 1914. 2 pages.

Notes. Robert Dixon, condensed. “Traveling Mass-Media Circus: Frank Hurley’s Synchronized Lecture Entertainments.” 21 pages.

Notes. Shackleton to Ernest Perris regarding Hurley’s attributes and shortcomings, latter 1916. 1 page.

Notes. Sydney Hurley sites, illustrated by my 2002 visit. Includes his Glebe birthplace. 4 landscape pages with photos.

Notes. Text from “Out of the Blizzard” documentary short, 2001. With Tim Bowden, Stephen Martin, David Miller, Hurley’s daughters. 16 pages.

Notes. The Manchester Guardian, June 2, 1916. Shackleton’s first communication since December 5, 1914. 1 expandable page.

Notes. Thoughts on Endurance Photographs.

Notes. Videotaped interviews with Frank Hurley’s Twin Daughters. 1998, Scottsdale, AZ. Digitized, 2023. 153 minutes. (Requires return envelope with postage for the thumb drive you provide.)

Notes. Yelcho Log & written report 8/30-9/3/16. 2 landscape pages.

Photographs. Endurance Magic Lantern show, c1924. 128 thumbnails. 1 expandable page. Marvelous!

Photographs. London Sphere, December 9 and 16, 1916. With the Shackleton Expedition: How I Took The Shackleton Pictures by Frank Hurley. 5 newspaper pages.

Photographs. A remarkable collection of Hurley’s pre-Antarctic hand-tinted postal cards. 83 thumbnails. 1 expandable page.

Photographs. Catalogue of Endurance Images: A Photographic Encyclopedia with Index. May 23, 2024. With 134 pages, endpapers, and specially thread-sewn to lie flat when open, which it does fairly well after a bit of practice. Over 500 thumbnails with their archival designations and related information are shown for each image, generally five per page, with an extensive Index. Numerous bits and pieces of supporting information are sprinkled throughout. This is the only globally-sourced guide to Weddell Sea Endurance photos. Designed for archival use, the hardbound document measures 9″ wide x 11” high. Weight, 2.4 lb.; includes shipment wrapping. 

The photos are arranged chronologically in forward-moving chapters, date-placing the images/series as accurately as possible using original diary entries, members’ personal photo album notes, visual clues, and other first-person tidbits. Copies are offered on a cost-sharing basis of US$186 (plus shipping to you from Rimrock, AZ). While the price seems exorbitant—as well as the shipping cost—know that you would pay the same for your copy as I have paid for mine, and I “bought” two copies. This project was envisioned as a ‘library book’ containing accurate-as-possible information presented on a cost-sharing basis. That’s where it’s remained. I’m not in it for the money, as the rest of this website clearly testifies. Further, this document will not be available electronically or otherwise made public in any form whatsoever. Two sample pages are shown below. Ten sample pages are available by request, and they are the only electronic copies that will ever be seen. The first three spreads concern what the document is and how it works; the dots-dashes, B’s and C’s etc, are explained in this section and by studying this ‘shorthand’ you’ll understand the information provided on the remaining five spreads. They come from different chapters, illustrating how the information displays and is treated. Shown below is the first Index page, and something from the move to Patience Camp (size reduced).

Photographs. Michael Gray’s examination of Hurley’s RGS monochrome glass and nitrate negatives by box and call number, c1998. 9 pages.

Photographs. Mitchell Library. Paget Colour plate titles; thumbnails; orientation diagrams. 3 expandable pages.

Photographs. National Library of Australia. Thumbnails of Hurley’s composite work; Endurance scenes. 1 expandable page.

Photographs. Orde-Lees collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, PA COLL 2094. Thumbnails, call numbers. 3 pages.

Photographs. References to Photographic Activity, Hurley’s supplies; notes of others on Hurley and his activities. 59 pages.

Photographs. Reginald James’s Red Album. 163 images on 115 expandable (but not adequate) page thumbnails; captions by James.

Photographs. Royal Archives Trust Blue Album, list of 79 image titles. 2 pages.

Photographs. Royal Geographical Society Library. 254 thumbnails by call number. 1 expandable page.

Photographs. Scott Polar Research Institute, P66/19/… Hurley’s personal photo album built aboard ship. Thumbnails, by page, with Hurley’s file designations; no captions. 1 expandable page.

Script. Cine-lantern show with Hurley notations. 20 pages.

Script. Endurance lantern show for 118 images, c1924. 10 pages.

Script. Talk by Frank Worsley. “Endurance — The Story of a Glorious Failure,” c1933. 8 pages.

Presentation. Frank Hurley’s Endurance Expedition Photos, October 1914 – April 1917. 2023. Over 500 images laced together in a start-to-finish timeline. Every known Endurance photo is shown once, accompanied by other subject-related images. Sources include postal cards, hand-tinted lantern slides, formal presentation and personal albums, newspaper articles, archives, and, private collections. ZOOM talk archived at GrandCanyonHistory.Org under the “Past GCHS Virtual Outings Presentations” link at https://vimeo.com/808311670.

Presentation. Icon Endurance Images, 2024, presented at S150.1, London. 28 frames in Apple Keynote.

Presentation. Icon Endurance Images, 2024. S150.1, the RGS in London. 28 frames in Microsoft Power Point.

Presentation. Iconic Endurance Images, 2025. S150.2, at the Explorers Club, NYC. mp4. 22 minutes.

Presentation. Iconic Endurance Images, 2025 S150.2 at the Explorers Club, NYC. 27 frames in Apple Keynote.

Supplemental. Shackleton’s Photographer: Photographs of Scenes and Diary of Incidents in Connection with Happenings to the Weddell Sea Party 12th October, 1914 — 16th October, 1917. ISBN 0-9703148-2-5 on CD-ROM. Foreword; Afterword; 8 appendices; exhaustive endnotes; extensive bibliography; heavily illustrated. Fully Printable. 343 landscape pages. 110 MB in 14 chapters. Requires postage of a dollar or two.

Shackleton’s “glorious failure” told primarily through the diaries of photographer Frank Hurley. Every day of the expedition is here, from 1914 Buenos Ayres onward to sheer disaster in 1915  and unbelievable salvation in 1916. Hurley’s taking, developing, and preserving his photographic plates, cinematographic films, and hard copies, is legendary. Of course, that’s only part of the story. But his images left a visual record authenticating one of the most fabled survival stories of all time. To allow a thorough expedition portrayal, the observations of significant others are incorporated into Hurley’s account. They lend pertinent background information, tell a broader expedition story, and detail the days when he wrote nothing. This “all-in-one” treatment informs a thoroughgoing report of daily affairs from start to finish. Shackleton’s Photographer is a concise biography of the life, times, and personality of Frank Hurley—and—the Endurance expedition.  

Useful Websites

Australian War Museum: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P11025578

Rob Stephenson’s site of all things Antarctic: http://www.Antarctic-Circle.org/

Mitchell Image Library, “Slides 22”: https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/1DrmXgN9/Lpmoe55k8Rzq4

Mitchell Library, other: https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/shackleton-expedition

National Library of Australia: https://NLA.gov.au/selected-library-collections/hurley-collection#

Paul Costigan’s Hurley site: http://Photo-Web.com.au/frankhurley/menu.htm

Pearls and Savages: produced and filmed by Hurley, 1921: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVUIq-wuT58

Shackleton Museum: shackletonexperience.ie

Scott Polar Research Institute: https://SPRI.cam.ac.uk/museum/shackleton

SPRI Picture Library: https://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/picturelibrary/catalogue/itae1914-16/browse/page1.htm

The James Caird Society: https://JamesCairdSociety.com

The Life and Work of Frank Hurley by Stephen Martin, Mitchell Library: www.youtube.com/watch?v=USgIaW7x8Q8

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