2025 Fairbrother Lecture

In 1912 a group of explorers returning from the South Pole huddled together in their tent. Suffering the effects of scurvy, frostbite and exposure, one of the men turned to his companions and said, ‘I am just going outside and may be some time’. Moments later he walked out into a blizzard and was never seen again.

These were the words of Captain Lawrence Oates, who is remembered today - alongside Scott and Shackleton - as one of the early explorers of the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration. Through their bravery and endurance in the icy continent, these figures create a myth of individual heroism that overshadows the diverse network of people whose knowledge, labour and skills made such feats of exploration possible.

From the working class shipbuilders of Dundee to the indigenous peoples of the Arctic, whose knowledge of survival in extreme cold was called upon for use on a brand new continent, prepare to meet a cast of actors spanning, literally, pole to pole.

Through her work on the anthropology of heritage and her study of museum collections related to the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration, doctoral researcher Henrietta Hammant will explore who – and what – impacts the way that we think about historic explorers, and how our understanding of heroes can change over time.