Person

Hurley, James Francis (Frank) (1885 - 1962)

OBE

Born
15 October 1885
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Died
16 January 1962
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation
Antarctic explorer, Explorer and Photographer
Alternative Names
  • Hurley, Frank

Summary

Frank Hurley, a self-taught photographer and film-maker, participated in three Antarctic expeditions as Photographer. These expeditions were: the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911 - 1914) under the command of Douglas Mawson; the Imperial Transantarctic Expedition (1914 - 1916) under the command of Ernest Shackleton; and Mawson's British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (1929 - 1931). Many of Hurley's photographs and films of these expeditions have become iconic images of Antarctica. Hurley was an official photographer for Australia during WWI and WWII. For his endeavours in Antarctica Hurley was awarded the Polar Medal and two bars.

Details

Chronology

1911 - February 1913
Career position - Photographer, Cape Denison, Australasian Antarctic Expedition
1914 - 1916
Career position - Photographer, Imperial Transantarctic Expedition
1915
Award - Polar Medal (Silver)
December 1920 - January 1923
Career event - Filming (two visits) on Torres Strait islands and in Papua
1929 - 1931
Career position - Photographer, British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition
1941
Award - Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)

Colleague

Related Events

Related People

Archival resources

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

  • Angus & Robertson - Records, 1824 - 1933, ML MSS 314; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

  • Frank James Francis Hurley - Records, 1912 - 1962, MS 883; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

South Australian Museum Archives

  • Frank James Francis Hurley - Records, 1912 - 1914; South Australian Museum Archives. Details

Published resources

Books

  • Dixon, Robert; and Lee, Christopher, The diaries of Frank Hurley, 1912 - 1941 (London, New York: Anthem Press, 2011), 259 pp. Details
  • Elias, Ann, Coral empire: underwater oceans, colonial tropics, visual modernity (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2019), 296 pp. Details
  • Ennis, Helen, Man with a camera: Frank Hurley overseas (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 2002), 101 pp. Details
  • Ennis, Helen, Frank Hurley's Antarctica (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 2010), 148 pp. Details
  • Hurley, Frank, Argonauts of the south: being a narrative of voyagings and polar seas and adventures in the Antarctic with Sir Douglas Mawson and Sir Ernest Shackleton (New York: London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1925), 290 pp. Details
  • McGregor, Alasdair, Frank Hurley: a Photographer's Life (Camberwell (Vic.): Viking/Penguin Australia, 2004), 460 pp. Details
  • Millar, David P., From snowdrift to shellfire: Capt. James Francis (Frank) Hurley, 1885 - 1962 (Sydney: David Ell Press, 1984), 160 pp. Details
  • Specht, Jim, When the cause of science is not enough: Frank Hurley in Papua (Armidale, NSW: University of New England, 2003), 40 pp. Details
  • Specht, Jim; and Fields, John, Frank Hurley in Papua: photographs of the 1920-1923 expeditions (Bathurst, N.S.W.: Robert Brown & Associates in association with the Aunstralian Museum Trust, 1984), 193 pp. Details

Book Sections

Journal Articles

  • Mundy, Robyn, 'Writing with Light: a Photographer's Vision: Frank Hurley and the 1911-1914 Australasian Antarctic Expedition', Polar Journal, 4 (2014), 127-49. Details
  • Mundy, Robyn, 'Pioneering Antarctic Photography: Herbert Ponting and Frank Hurley', Polar Journal, 4 (2014), 389-406. Details

Newspaper Articles

Resources

Reviews

  • McGregor, Alasdair, Frank Hurley: a Photographer's Life (2004)
    Hince, Bernadette, Historical Records of Australian Science, 17 (2), (2006), 297-298, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR06009. Details

Seminar Papers

  • McGregor, Alasdair, 'Frank Hurley: Photographing for science' in given in The Discovery Room, Australian Museum, Tuesday 6pm (Sydney: Australian Science History Club, 2005). Details

See also

  • Chester, Jonathan, Going to extremes: Project Blizzard and Australia's Antarctic heritage (Sydney: Auckland: Doubleday Australia, 1986), 308 pp. Details
  • Jensen, David, Mawson's remarkable men: the personal stories of the epic 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expediton (Sydeny: Allen and Unwin, 2015), 183 pp. Details
  • Lewis-Jones, Huw and Herbert, Karl, In search of the South Pole (London: Conway, 2011), 192 pp. Details
  • Mawer, Granville Allen, South by Northwest: the Magnetic Crusade and the Contest for Antarctica (Kent Town: Wakefield Press, 2006), 319 pp. Details

Gavan McCarthy [P004098] and Helen Cohn

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