Exhibition of early Arctic photographs

The melting of the Arctic ice has been in the news lately with the Live Earth concert and the 18 minute swim at the North Pole last Sunday by Briton Lewis Gordon Pugh in just a pair of speedos.

The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich currently has an exhibition on called Freeze Frame looking at some of the earliest photos taken in the Arctic during the mid-19th century. The exhibition is being held in the Queen’s House, adjacent to the main museum building and features photos from expeditions to the Arctic in 1854 and 1875-76.

The 1854 pictures include shots of three ships on the west coast of Greenland under the command of a Captain Edward Inglefield and show Inuit, Danish and British people. The 1875 photographs were taken by two photographers on Royal Navy ships Alert and Discovery, which failed in their attempt under Captain George Nares to reach the North Pole.

Freeze Frame is open daily from 10am-6pm and runs until 3 September 2007. The National Maritime Museum and the Queen’s House are located on Romney Road in Greenwich, on the nortern side of Greenwich Park. Map