Shackleton’s expedition continues to make headlines

Philatelic Foreword by Jay Bigalke

Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition has been at the top of my mind recently for a number of reasons, both philatelic and nonphilatelic.

In 1914, Shackleton (1874-1922) and his crew of 28, including photographer James Francis “Frank” Hurley, embarked aboard the Endurance on a trip to Antarctica. Although the expedition did not achieve its intended goal, the endeavor is celebrated as one of history’s most remarkable survival stories.

Shackleton’s ship Endurance was honored in November by three British overseas territories with new stamp issues. Linn’s associate editor Dave Hartwig highlights the three issues in an article that appears in the Dec. 23 issue. Hartwig nicely details Shackleton’s legacy and the expedition in the article.

The ship also recently made headlines with two new Lego sets released in November. One of the sets is a build of the Endurance with more than 3,000 pieces. The other is a smaller set of the ship’s lifeboat. The lifeboat set was an added gift with the purchase of the Endurance set and includes miniature figures of Shackleton and photographer Hurley.

I have already purchased the Lego sets and am looking forward to adding the stamps to my collection. I plan on displaying the Lego sets in my office with some small posters of the stamps behind it. For me this is a great way to connect the two hobbies and perhaps provide a gateway for others to also showcase the stamps differently.

All of this brought back a fond memory from the Monacophil 2017 stamp show where the British Postal Museum brought a postmark device that was used on the 1921 Shackleton-Rowett Expedition. That expedition was Shackleton’s last to Antarctica.

While at the stamp show, attendees were able to use the postmark device to cancel a souvenir postcard made by the museum. That canceled postcard is now a prize item in my collection.

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