Classic Ponting photograph from Captain Scott's Terra Nova expedition (1910-1913). Showing Lieut. Henry Robertson Bowers, known as 'Birdie', one of the members of Robert Falcon Scott's polar party who all perished on their way back from the South Pole. Scott was so impressed by Bowers' organisational skills on the voyage out that he promoted him to the shore party and put him in charge of landing, stores, navigation and sledging rations.

The Terra Nova expedition was supposed to be the high-water mark of the Golden Age of Antarctic exploration; led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the expedition was to have been the first to reach the South Pole, marking the event with the planting of the Union Jack flag. However the more professionally equipped Norwegian expedition led by Roald Amundsen got there first. Nevertheless Scott's expedition will always be the one best remembered on account of the tremendous courage and bravery shown by Scott and his companions, Wilson, Bowers, Oates, and Evans on their return from the Pole in appalling conditions - perhaps best exemplified by Lawrence 'Titus' Oates who walked from the tent into a blizzard whilst suffering from frostbite and gangrene, knowing that he was not going to survive the journey but hoping that his self-sacrifice might help the others survive.

The photographs were originally published by the Fine Art Society in 1914 in larger format using a different process. It is difficult to date images such as ours, printed at a later date from the original negatives, however based on external evidence from previous examples we date the present image to circa 1935.

Silver gelatin print, mounted, framed and glazed, captioned below image on mount. Image size: 287 x 211 mm; framed: 355 x 279 mm.