Introduction to Pete's Polar Place
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Pete's Polar Place is a web site dedicated to the literature and philately of polar regions and to a lesser extent to non-polar philately. Pete's Polar Place is run by Pete Cranwell, a bookseller, philatelist and collector of material dealing with polar history and philately. My major philatelic interests are in the stamps and covers of the Australian Antarctic Territory (AAT) and the Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises (TAAF). My literary interests include books and ephemera about the polar regions especially books concerning polar exploration and in particular the expeditions of Sir Ernest Shackleton, Sir Douglas Mawson and Sir Hubert Wilkins plus the photographs of Frank Hurley and Sir Hubert Wilkins.
Postcards are one of the most fascinating types of pictorial record of Antarctic Expeditions. In late 2007 Margery Wharton published a revised and updated edition of her book entitled Postcards of Antarctic Expeditions - A Catalogue: 1898-1958. A detailed description of this comprehensive photographic record of Antarctic Exploration can be found in the Books section. Sadly, Margery Wharton died on September 17th 2008. A tribute to her life and accomplishments can be found following the description of her book in the Books section.
Following is a brief description of the areas covered by this website. Please click on the heading, or the appropriate menu item along the top of the page, to go to those sections.
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POLAR PHILATELIC COVERS AND OTHER MEMORABILIA FOR SALE
1. SPECIAL ANTARCTIC COMMEMORATIVE COVER & POSTMARK Mawson’s Huts Foundation Conservation Expedition, Cape Denison Antarctica 2008-9
To celebrate the 97th Anniversary of the arrival at Cape Denison, Commonwealth Bay on the 8th January 1911 of the 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) led by Sir Douglas Mawson, the Mawson’s Huts Foundation, in conjunction with Australia Post, has designed a commemorative cover and postmark. The covers, to be cancelled at Cape Denison on 8th January 2009, will be sold by the Foundation to raise money to help fund the conservation programme for the Huts.
The special commemorative postmark (Figure 1), which was designed by Lena-Maree Stocks from Australia Post in Hobart, is based on a photograph of the Main Hut taken by Geoff Ashley in January 1997 (Figure 2). This same photograph can be found on the front page of the colour version of the Mawson’s Huts Foundation 2009 Calendar and also on the front cover of the book “Mawson’s Huts – The Birthplace of Australia’s Antarctic Heritage” both of which can be ordered from the Foundation’s website: http://www.mawsons-huts.org.au/cms/ (see below).
The cover was designed by the Foundation in conjunction with Pete Cranwell from Melbourne, who is assisting with the marketing of the covers. The printed cachet, which is on the left side of the cover, features a headshot of Mawson in corporate green above the Foundation’s logo, which includes an acknowledgement to the Patron, Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce AC, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia. At the base of the cover are the words “CONSERVATION EXPEDITION /CAPE DENISON 2008-9. The cover numbers are in the bottom right hand corner of the covers (Figure 3). The covers were printed by the New Zealand Printing Co., Hamilton, NZ.
Five hundred numbered commemorative covers will be cancelled at Cape Denison on 8th January 2009 by the designated “postmaster” Dr Chris Henderson (Figure 4), who is one of the Foundation’s eight person team, which will spend six weeks at the site conserving the huts and artefacts.
The covers, which are serviced with se-tenant horizontal pairs of 55c and/or $1.10 AAT IPY 2008 stamps, have had cachets applied at Macquarie Island and on board the Marina Svetaeva, the Aurora Expeditions cruise ship which took the team south (Figure 5). On the return voyage onboard the French Antarctic supply vessel L’Astrolabe (Figure 6), a selected number of the covers will be serviced with a French Antarctic Territory (TAAF) stamp, cancelled with a TAAF postmark and marked with a cachet from the ship. All covers will contain a personally signed insert from the eight expeditioners.
You can follow the exploits of the expeditioners from the time they sailed from Hobart onboard the Marina Svetaeva on Saturday 13th December 2008 by going to the 2008-9 Expedition Blog – Live from Antarctica via Iridium Satellite:http://www.mawsons-huts.org.au/cms/conservation-expeditions/blog/
Click here to download more details about the covers and an order form (PDF file 800kb). |
Figure 1
Commemorative postmark.
(click to download order form)
Figure 2
Photograph of the Main Hut,
taken by Geoff Ashley.
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Figure 3
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Figure 4
Dr Chris Henderson.
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Figure 5
Marina Svetaeva in pack ice (photograph taken during an earlier voyage to Antarctica).
(click for larger view)
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2. Mawson's Huts Foundation 2009 Calendars
Those of you who love superb photographs of Antarctica would do well to consider purchasing one or both of the calendars produced by the Mawson’s Huts Foundation for 2009. Two editions have been printed. The black & white edition contains photographs taken by Mawson’s official photographer, Frank Hurley and other members of the Australian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-14, as well as a photograph by Hurley taken when the BANZAR Expedition visited the Huts in 1931. Photographs in the colour edition were taken by members of expeditions financed and organised by the Mawson’s Huts Foundation since 1997. Photographers include Simon Mossman, Geoff Ashley and Alasdair McGregor, who is the author of the biography “Frank Hurley – A photographer’s life.”
Copies of any of the colour photographs can be purchased through the Foundation (http://www.mawsons-huts.org.au) and requests for other images should be directed to the Mitchell Library of the State Library of NSW which gave permission to the Foundation to use the historic photographs in the calendar.
Click here to download more details about the calendars and an order form (PDF file 494kb). |
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BOOKS FOR SALE
Click on any book title or picture for more detailed information on it.
At the present I am able to offer for sale four books with a polar theme. These are:
Other philatelic books of a non-polar nature that are available are as follows:
A series of monographs dealing with Australian Pictorial and Commemorative Postmarks of specific areas and subjects. The authors of these monographs are Colleen A Woolley and Janet S Eury and they are published by DC Desktoppers, Melbourne, Victoria. The monographs currently available are:
GALLERY
Illustrations and information about some of my favourite Postcards, Covers, Stamps and Memorabilia.
Prices and ordering information about the books. There are separate forms for customers in Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia, the UK, the European Union, North America & the Middle East, and the Rest of the World.
Contact information for some Polar Philatelic Societies and links to other
Antarctic websites which may
be of interest.
FRANK HURLEY
A page dedicated to the works of Frank Hurley (Mawson's and Shackleton's Photographer).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
My thanks to Shane Murphy for permission to reproduce the two photographic compositions depicted here.
The one at the top of the page he entitled Ship-Map and it is an amalgamation of two of Frank Hurley's photographs of the Endurance as it was crushed by the ice in the Weddell Sea. These pictures can be found on pages 115 and 119 of Shackleton's Photographer. The map of part of South Georgia was drawn by Frank Worsley, who accompanied Sir Ernest Shackleton and four others in the voyage of the James Caird from Elephant Island to King Haakon Bay, South Georgia. The map can be found on page 184 of Shackleton's Photographer.
The composition preceding the Books for Sale section he entitled Two-Ships and it is an amalgamation of two of Frank Hurley's pictures of the Endurance and artwork depicting the James Caird. The top picture can be found on page 68 and the middle picture on page 100 of Shackleton's Photographer. The James Caird is a portion of artwork by Norman Wilkinson, which is held by Dulwich College, London and is depicted in full on page 173 of Shackleton's Photographer. |
Figure 6 
