Lot Essay
Hurley accompanied Sir Douglas Mawson as official photographer on his Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-14. He was aboard the Aurora on her way to rescue some of Mawson's men from Knox Land in the Antarctic, when they came upon 'Thousands of mighty bergs ... grounded on a vast shoal and our way lay through their midst. No grander sight have I ever witnessed among the wonders of Antarctica.' (F. Hurley, Argonauts of the South, [New York], 1925, p.103)