Levick's Notebook

In the Antarctic summer of 2012, Antarctic Heritage Trust Artefact Programme Manager Lizzie Meek made a surprise discovery while working at Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s 1911 expedition base at Cape Evans, Antarctica; a photographic notebook not seen for over a century.

Each year the summer snow melt around the building causes variations in run-off patterns and ground erosion. That particular summer melt revealed a Wellcome Photographic Exposure Record and Diary 1910 which belonged to George Murray Levick - surgeon, zoologist and photographer. His name can be seen written in the opening pages. Levick was a part of Scott’s 1910-1913 expedition and a member of the Northern Party. The Northern Party of six men summered (1911-1912) at Cape Adare, and is notable for surviving the winter of 1912 in a snow cave on Inexpressible Island before sledging back to the Cape Evans base, incredibly, all alive.

The notebook is a missing part of the official expedition record and contains Levick’s pencil notes detailing the date, subjects and exposure details for the photographs he took during 1911 while at Cape Adare. Close examination reveals links between the notations in the notebook and photographs held by the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge and attributed to Levick.