![]() (The car, built and donated by Arrol-Johnston company of Paisley, Scotland, ultimately failed to perform in the cold and the snow.) Day fashioned wooden covers from provisions cases, made spines from harness leather, and bound the perforated pages with green silk cord. The book was bound by Bernard Day, the electrician and mechanic, seen here taking the first motor car in Antarctica for a spin on the sea ice. Frank Wild (center) and Ernest Joyce (right, foreground) printed the text with the benefit of only 3 weeks' training in lieu of the usual seven years of print shop apprenticeship. He created and printed Aurora Australis's title pages and twelve illustrations by algraphy - printing from aluminium plates. Shackleton edited the 120-page book, wrote its two prefaces, and contributed an ode to Mount Erebus under the pseudonym "NEMO." George Marston (left) was the official expedition artist. Aurora Australis is an anthology of the party's personal writings, poetry, and narratives both fiction and non-fiction. ![]() The composing stick on the left is used for setting type prior to positioning it in the press. They hauled what Shackleton describes as a "complete printing outfit" to Antarctica including a hand-press similar to the one shown here for printing movable metal type, and an etching press to print the illustrations. Before departing England, Shackleton conceived the idea of printing a book as an activity to occupy his men during the dark, cold winter months in their Ross Island hut. Left to right: Frank Wild, Ernest Shackleton, Eric Marshall, and Jameson Boyd Adams. The Southern Party shown above made the attempt on the Pole. The expedition's other accomplishments included the discovery of the location of the South Magnetic Pole, first traverse of the Trans-Antarctic mountain range, first travel on the South Polar Plateau, discovery of the Beardmore Glacier, and the first ascent of Mount Erebus. He made it to within a hundred miles of his goal, setting a new record for southernmost travel. The voyage was led by Ernest Shackleton with the aim of making the first successful journey to the South Pole. Aurora Australis was created during the British Antarctic Expedition of 1907-09, also known as the Nimrod Expedition. Here it is, as a prelude to tomorrow's visit to Shackleton's Hut at Cape Royds where this book was born. I talked briefly about its significance to my project and promised more information on the edition's creation. Back in this blog's first post, I introduced Aurora Australis, the first book ever published in Antarctica.
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