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02.07.2010
Last Seen... With Shackleton's Helmet —
On my recent trip to London I went on a behind the scenes tour at the Royal Geographical Society. Founded in 1830, this institution has supported explorers from Darwin to Livingstone, Shackleton to Hillary. I went there with the British Guild of Travel Writers.
We were taken to the library, which houses original artifacts in a temperature-controlled environment. There was the aluminium water bottle carried by Sir Edmund Hilary on his ascent to Everest next to Mallory’s boots. It’s unlikely Mallory ever did reach the summit. Further along were items from the 1907 British Antarctic Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton: the original Harrod’s food lists included ox tongues, marmelade and jugged hare and 60 tins of tea. They knew how to travel in style in those days!
A 1462 Ptolemy Atlas was on display, but with no sign of Australia. Back then nothing was known of the Southern hemisphere.
As part of the Africa collection was Livingstone’s black tattered cap and Stanley’s faded topi. Contrary to popular opinion, Stanley never did say, ‘Livingstone, I presume?’ on their first encounter. This was coined by an American journalist who spent $40,000 tracking them down. All in the name of a good story.