EVANS, COMMANDER EDWARD RATCLIFFE GARTH RUSSELL, FIRST BARON MOUNTEVANS.

The typescript of his 1913 Albert Hall Lecture on Scott’s second Antarctic Expedition, illustrated with 100 original photographs by the expedition photographer Herbert Ponting. 1913

Condition Note:

typescript carbon-copy of the lecture as read by evans on the occasion, comprising in its present form 77 numbered foolscap pages of text (330 x 203mm.), watermarked "Deerlake Mills", many pages or their blank versos bearing altogether 90 pasted-in and 10 loose silver gelatin contact prints by herbert ponting, (each approx. 119 x 170mm., or the reverse), for use as reference to slides shown during the lecture, some of the photographs annotated or captioned by evans with names identifying subjects, title-page “Albert Hall Lecture” with the erroneous date “May 21st. 1910” [i.e. 1913], lacking pages 73-76 and 49, the last possibly through mis-numbering, some wear and fraying



With a detailed and illustrated printed souvenir booklet, for Evans’s lecture given at the De Montfort Hall, Leicester, on 3 November 1913, 32pp., 4to, original pictorial wrappers

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CATALOGUE NOTE

Evans (1880-1957) "was selected by Scott himself as second in command of his second expedition and captain of the Terra Nova, which left England in June 1910. He accompanied Scott in January 1912 to within 150 miles of the pole, where he turned back. Struck down by scurvy he was saved only by the devotion of his two companions, Chief Stoker Lashly and Petty Officer Crean. After a brief period of convalescence in England, which he devoted to raising money for the expedition, he returned to take command of the Terra Nova in New Zealand and sailed south, only to find on arrival at Cape Evans in January 1913 that Scott had died in an unparalleled period of bad weather when returning from the pole in March of the previous year. After bringing home the expedition and clearing up its affairs Evans went on half pay and spent some time lecturing in Canada and the United States. He had been promoted commander in 1912." (ODNB)

Evans’s lectures did much to influence the public and ensure Scott’s enshrinement as a national hero and this first lecture in the Albert Hall was reported at length in The Age on 23 May 1913, where, it was noted, the “great audience” welcoming Evans home included not only Lord Curzon, presiding as President of the Royal Geographical Society, but also Lady Scott, Vice-Admiral Prince Louis of Battenberg, Lord Chelmsford, Lt.-General Sir Robert Baden-Powell, Mr T. Mackenzie, High Commissioner for New Zealand and numerous other luminaries.

In the lecture Evans gives tribute to Ponting, making the important point that "Thanks to Ponting, our photographic artist, we have a magnificent pictorial record of events. Ponting went everywhere with his camera and kinematograph machine. Even when we came South in the ship he [had] cinematographed the bow of "Terra Nova" breaking the ice. If a sledge party set out, a penguin appeared or a pony "played up", or even if a dog broke adrift - Ponting was there with his artillery!!! Ready for action. He even had a galloping carriage with is Q.F. cameras drawn by dogs. He would get seals to pose for him if he wished by his persuasive methods, or by exciting their curiosity... Ponting never missed an opportunity for making an artistic photograph."