Tying in with this year’s centenary celebrations, from 20th January to 2nd September an exciting new exhibition is gracing London’s Natural History Museum.
Entitled Scott’s Last Expedition, it includes a life-size replica of Scott’s Antarctic hut where he and his men lived for months, which will be a fantastic and poignant experience. History and science lovers will also be able to read Scott’s last diary, as well as see thousands of photographs and artefacts from the ill-fated Terra Nova expedition.
Scott’s party made their way across the treacherous Transantarctic range only to discover having achieved the South Pole that they had been beaten there by Roald Amundsen and his men by 35 days. Making their way back home, the entire group tragically lost their lives. This is not, however, the end of the story. The group as a whole, made up of a heavy scientific contingent, made numerous scientific discoveries, which this exhibition quite rightly and in a timely fashion remembers and celebrates, 100 years on. At the exhibition you will be able to view more than 40,000 specimens Scott and his men collected, including the famous penguin embryos collected in the depths of the polar winter by Wilson, Bowers and Cherry-Garrard (read chapter three of Cherry-Garrard’s stirring account in ‘The worst journey in the world’).
If you can’t manage to get down to Antarctica yourself this year, South Kensington is a lot more convenient and this extraordinary exhibition will certainly prove inspiring!
