Earlier today, I presented my paper ‘Constructing Truth, Selling Heroism: Commercial Narratives of Captain Scott’s Antarctic Expedition (1910-1913)’ at the Open University’s Telling the Truth conference. The presentation explored how the expedition was portrayed and commercialised through product advertising, both during Scott’s lifetime and after his death, and how these advertisements helped shape his public image as a national hero.
You can listen to the presentation in full here:
Questions of truth and historical interpretation have been particularly at the forefront of my mind recently, as I’m currently reading Snow Widows by Katherine MacInnes, a very moving account of the women left behind by Scott’s ill-fated expedition. MacInnes offers a fascinating insight into how the story of the expedition was shaped in the aftermath of Scott’s death, particularly through the influence of his widow, Kathleen Scott, and the Royal Geographical Society (RGS). It explores how Scott’s diaries were carefully edited and published swiftly after news of his death reached Britain, helping to establish a particular version of events before other members of the expedition had the opportunity to publish their own accounts.
It also examines how Kathleen Scott and the RGS helped shape and promote the press narrative of Scott as a tragic martyr, while alternative perspectives and less favourable accounts were marginalised, sometimes at the expense of figures such as Petty Officer Edgar Evans and Scott’s second-in-command, Edward (Teddy) Evans. Equally fascinating is the account of Lawrence Oates’s mother, Caroline, and her determination to establish the ‘truth’ about her son’s final months through conversations with other members of the expedition and by consulting his diaries and letters.
Finally, while I am very much in the Huntford ‘camp’ when it comes to the BAE and its shortcomings, the book has done nothing to diminish my longstanding soft spot for Henry ‘Birdie’ Bowers. If it’s possible to have a favourite member of the BAE, he would certainly be mine. His enthusiasm, resourcefulness, courage and seemingly boundless good humour, even in the most difficult circumstances, are so admirable.
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