THE AUTOCHROMES OF GEORGE HUBERT WILKINS

Shackleton-Rowett (Quest) Expedition 1921-22

A series of colour autochrome images was made by George Hubert Wilkins in 1921 and 1922 during the Shackleton-Rowett Expedition, Sir Ernest Shackleton’s final expedition. The collection consists of 29 half-plate glass plates.

The Quest autochromes depict a range of scenes from the Shackleton-Rowett Expedition. There are stunning records of Quest berthed in St Katharine Docks, prior to departure from London in September 1921, and images of Quest anchored in the harbour of Funchal, Madeira. Wilkins went on to capture magnificent landscapes of South Georgia, and scenes in and around the island’s whaling stations. And there are images following Sir Ernest Shackleton’s death at Grytviken, at Hope Point where the men of Quest constructed the memorial to their late leader, in May 1922, and at their visit to the graveside of the explorer, in Grytviken’s cemetery.

French brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière were the first to develop a workable colour process – Autochrome Lumière - which became commercially available in 1907. The system involved glass photographic plates coated with a light sensitive emulsion with a top layer consisting of tiny granules of potato starch. The granules were pre-coloured in a mixture of red, green and blue in equal proportions. Upon exposure, light reaching the photosensitive emulsion layer would be filtered by the different starch granules. Processing then created a positive image which, when viewed, appeared in colour. At viewing distance, the microscopic, coloured granules are invisible and the primary colours blend to form a broad natural colour range.

For a century, the Quest autochrome plates have lain in the archive of the family of John Quiller Rowett, the businessman who financed the expedition. The plates were conserved in 2022 and in 2023 high-resolution digital scans were made by Salto Ulbeek.