Shackleton's Endurance Expedition in Photos

Frank Hurley's photographs are the reason the men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition can still be seen, not just read about. This gallery keeps to pictures with expedition members in frame and follows the story in order: the crew aboard Endurance, the long drift after she was beset in the Weddell Sea in January 1915, the camps on the floe after the ice crushed her, and the 22 men who waited on Elephant Island while Shackleton went for help. Hurley pulled his glass plates out of the sinking ship, then kept about 120 and smashed roughly 400 more because the boats had no room or weight to spare for them, so every surviving frame was a choice. Where a photo's camp or moment is disputed, the caption says so. Pictures of the ship alone and of the expedition's Ross Sea party are left out.