Description | Inscribed above: 'OFFICERS OF THE "EREBUS" AND "TERROR"'
Top row: Lieut. Des Voeux, C. Osmer (Purser), Lieut. Fairholme, Lieut. Couch, Middle row: Com. Fitzjames, Capt. Sir J Franklin, Capt. Crozier, Lieut. Le Vesconte, S Stanley (Surgeon), Bottom row: Lieut. Graham Gore (Com.), H.F. Collins (Ice Master), H.D.S. Goodsir (Asst. Surgeon), James Read [Reid] (Ice Master), Lieut. R.O. Sargent
Inscribed underneath: 'SAILED FROM ENGLAND 19TH MAY 1845 IN SEARCH OF THE NORTH WEST PASSAGE. "THE WHITE NORTH HAS THEIR BONES"'
The originals of these photographs were daguerreotypes, commissioned by Lady Franklin from Richard Beard. They were taken on 16 May 1845 on H.M.S. Erebus at Greenhithe, Kent, as the ships were readying for departure. The daguerreotypes were subsequently themselves photographed and three sets of prints created; the other sets are at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich and the Scott Polar Research Institute.
The photographs in this mount are albumen prints, a photographic process that was invented in 1847. The use of the phrase "The White North had their bones" deliberately echoes the use of Tennyson's words on Sir John Franklin's memorial monument (where 'thy' is inscribed rather than 'their') makes it likely that the photographs were mounted in or later than 1875, when the memorial was erected.
On the reverse is a label for "Gray & Davies, Photographers, from H. Dixon & Sons, 92, Queen's Road, Bayswater, W." |