Ms. Alexander, who now lives in New Hampshire, developed an “obsessive interest” in Shackleton’s experience after reading his account, South. A freelance writer with no experience in photography or museums, she had only seen “clouded, rough” work prints of Hurley’s glass negatives. “I was completely dazzled when I saw how many—and how surreally good they were. I was amazed that they had never been exhibited.”

Hurley’s photographs are dazzling. They are detailed depictions of white-on-white landscapes, where glaciers in the distance and ice crystals in the foreground are equally focused. Hurley considered himself a “tough Aussie” amid a bunch of soft British sailors. More so, he adored the Antarctic landscape, and repeatedly revered it in his eloquent diary entries. “Hail to thee, thy wondrous land,” he wrote. “It was,” says Ms. Alexander, “the landscape God made for him.”

He depicts the day-to-day life of the men, their teams of sled dogs, and the slow demise of their home for ten months, the Endurance. He worked without hat and gloves, always on the move, always looking for the next composition. “His eye for light was flawless,” says Ms. Alexander.

The Endurance exhibition was developed by the American Museum of Natural History with generous underwriting support from Mr. and Mrs. Joseph F. Cullman, 3rd. Images by Frank Hurley from the collections of The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), the Scott Polar Research Center, and the State Library of New South Wales. Please include this information when citing the exhibition.