Guide to the Papers of Frank Hurley, 1912-1963
Filter Online content
Online content
Collection context
Summary
- Collection number:
- MS 883
- Creator:
- Hurley, Frank, 1885-1962
- Extent:
- 1.12 metres and (8 boxes)
- Language:
- English
- Preferred citation:
- Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Frank Hurley, National Library of Australia, MS 883, [series and item number]'.
- Availability:
- Available
- Access conditions:
- Available for research. Not for loan.
Background
- Content Summary:
- The papers include diaries kept on Antarctic expeditions, New Guinea expeditions, during World War I and II, and during an Australian tour; typescripts of publications, radio talks and film script; personal papers; and newspaper cuttings covering his expeditions and career. There is also an account by Ross Macpherson Smith of his 1919 flight.
- Biographical Note:
-
James Francis Hurley was born in Sydney on 15 October 1885. He was educated at the Glebe Public School and later attended lectures at the University of Sydney. He became interested in photography, worked for a postcard business and in 1910 held his first exhibition.
In 1911 Douglas Mawson invited Hurley to be the photographer on the Australasian Antarctic Expedition. He took both still photographs and movie film and on his return to Sydney he produced the film Home of the blizzard. In November 1913 he returned to the Antarctic with an expedition to relieve Mawson. In 1914 he joined the Antarctic expedition led by Sir Ernest Shackleton and took the famous photographs of the destruction of the Endurance. He returned to England in 1916 where he assembled his photographs and produced the film In the grip of polar ice.
In 1917 Hurley joined the Australian Imperial Force as an official photographer and worked in France, Belgium and Palestine. At considerable risk, he photographed the Light Horse during the battle of Jericho. He returned to Australia in 1918 and in the following year joined Ross Smith on the final leg of his flight from England, filming Australia from the air. Between 1920 and 1923 He made two long expeditions to the Torres Strait Islands and Papua and produced both a film and a book with the title Pearls and savages. He made further films in Dutch New Guinea and the Torres Strait Islands, worked as pictorial editor for The Sun (Sydney) and in 1929 returned to the Antarctic with the British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition.
In the 1930s Hurley worked with the Cinesound studio, as a cameraman and as head of its special documentary unit. During World War II he was official photographer with the AIF in the Middle East, where he remained until 1946. On his return to Australia he published several books of photographs and travelled and lectured. He died in Sydney on 16 January 1962.
Hurley married Antoinette Leighton in 1918. They had a son and two daughters.
Bibliographic Reference(s)
- Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 9, pp 411-12
- Immediate Source of Acquisition:
-
The papers were presented to the Library by Mrs Hurley in 1963 together with several thousand photographs. Items 72-82 of MS 883 are papers originally located in the Pictures and Map collections and relocated in Manuscripts in 1974-2002.
- Container List:
-
Series Item Box 1 1-5 1 1 6-13 2 1 14-18 3 1 19-24 4 1 25-28 5 2 29 5 2 30 Folio Box 1 2 31 5 2 32 Folio Box 2 2 33 Folio Box 3 2 34-35 Folio Box 1 2 36 [missing] 3 37-61 6 4 62-71 6 4 71a Folio Box 4 4 71b-71c 6 4 71d-72 7 4 73 Folio Box 5 4 74-75 7 4 76-83 8
Indexed terms
- Names:
- Hurley, Frank, 1885-1962
Access and use
- Conditions Governing Access:
- Access conditions may apply to this collection, please refer to the collection's catalogue record for further information (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2247836).
- Conditions Governing Use:
- Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.
- Preferred citation:
- Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Frank Hurley, National Library of Australia, MS 883, [series and item number]'.
- Location of this collection:
-
Parkes PlaceCanberra ACT 2600, Australia
- Contact: