BRITISH ARCTIC EXPEDITION 1875-76.

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Photograph album of the expedition, under the command of George Nares; photographer Thomas Mitchell, compiled by Reginald Baldwin Fulford. A spectacular album of original photographs from the 1875-76 British Arctic Expedition, from the library of Lieutenant Reginald Baldwin Fulford of the Discovery. Exceptional in scope, this album contains more than twice the number of images found in the 28-image album owned by the expedition's commander, George Nares.The British Arctic Expedition represented a major assertion of Royal Navy capability, and the ships Discovery and Alert were outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment at significant government expense. Ahead of departure, George White, assistant engineer on the Alert, and Thomas Mitchell, paymaster on the Discovery, received rudimentary photographic training at the Army School of Photography in Chatham. Despite the early stage of expeditionary photography, their output is of outstanding quality. Apart from a few earlier efforts, notably William Bradford's artistic voyage of 1869, no previous Arctic venture had produced so full and systematic a photographic record. These images stand among the earliest and most substantial scientific photographs of the region, laying the groundwork for the professional polar photography of Herbert Ponting, Frank Hurley, and their contemporaries. Many negatives are signed Thomas Mitchell or "TM".Commanded by the experienced George Nares, the expedition was nominally organized to support a polar

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