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.
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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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.
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