An excellent example of these rare and early images of the Arctic.
Expedition photographer, William Grant (1851-1935), already had experience of photographing the Arctic, making him one of the first to do so. He sailed with Allen Young on the Pandora in 1876 and his photographs are included in Young’s account. He received the Arctic medal for his efforts.
On his return, he exhibited his images at the Royal Photographic Society and then joined the Dutch schooner Willem Barents on four Arctic voyages to Nova Zembla, the Barents Sea, and Spitsbergen.
The Willem Barents was specially constructed for this expedition and between 1878 and 1884, seven voyages were made. Grant served as official photographer (and unofficial fundraiser) on four of them: 1878, 1879, 1881 and 1883. As such, these images served to not only document the voyages but also to capture sufficient public interest and additional funds.
Grant used both wet and dry photographic plates on the first expedition, but only dry plates on the following three which could be developed afterwards. The images here are draw from all four voyages and include group portraits of the crew, Indigenous people they met, as well as images of the ship, landscapes, and makeshift huts.
The Amsterdam photographer, Paulus Alexis Mottu (1840 - after 1887), produced 1000 prints (in total) from Grant’s negatives, allowing for 300 or so albums of 37 prints each. This copy is unusual for having the captions printed on the lower left corner rather than placed centrally and directly beneath the image.
Grant made two further Arctic voyages, both on British yachts. The first was with Benjamin Leigh Smith on the Eira in 1880 and again with Smith on the Kara in 1882. He produced a photographic record of both trips. Curiously, in 1886 he abandoned photohgraphy entirely.
