Beschreibung:

Shackleton family A collection of letters, diaries, photographs and printed matter relating to Lady Shackleton, Edward and Cecily Shackleton, and family genealogy, comprising: Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton. 3 autograph letters signed ('"Micky"') to Lady Shackleton on the birth of Edward, Budapest, [c.16 July 1911], 6½ pages, 8vo , with two autograph postcards signed to his children Cecily and Edward, [7 November 1910 & 10 July 1913], one postcard a photograph depicting Shackleton feeding pigeons in Berlin, together with a photograph of Shackleton in a suit and hat, aboard ship, 9.5 x 7.4cm; Lady Shackleton. Two autograph manuscript journals, 29 December 1909 - 21 January 1910 and 23 March - 12 June 1910, describing lecture tours with Shackleton in central Europe and the USA, approximately 274 pages, 8vo ; together with two autograph letters signed, one, [October 1909], describing a royal reception for the Shackletons in Copenhagen, a sealed envelope inscribed in her hand 'Bog myrtle sent by E - from N. Russia 1918', a journal as a schoolgirl, 20 November 1883 - 26 September 1889, a sketchbook containing 13 watercolours, chiefly of Australia, n.d., and a collection of letters of condolence, and printed obituaries and other tributes, 13 manuscript items and a group of printed matter ; [Edward and Cecily Shackleton]. A group of telegrams, including two from Sir Ernest, sending congratulations to Lady Shackleton on the birth of Edward, three autograph letters signed by Sandor von Hegedus declining to stand as godfather to Edward, childish notes of Edward and Cecily, letters addressed to Edward and Cecily in later life, and miscellaneous Shackleton and Dorman family papers, including letters, newspaper cuttings, funeral and greetings cards, birth certificates and 4 photographs, approximately 72 items in total ; Shackleton and Dorman families. A collection of 27 letters, typescripts and printed documents concerning the genealogy of Sir Ernest and Lady Shackleton, including a printed family tree showing Shackleton's descent from Louis VIII, King of France, John, King of England and Alphonso IX, King of Leon, and a document signed by John Franklin, Governor of Van Diemen's Land, appointing Charles Lachlan a temporary commissioner, 18 March 1889; altogether 5 folders and 3 bound volumes . PROVENANCE: Lady Shackleton, and thence by descent. The diaries of Lady Shackleton are of particular interest, showing something of the atmosphere of Shackleton's first flush of fame and his exploitation of it in his European and North American lecture tours in 1909-10. The US leg of the tour in particular was expected to raise sufficient money not only to pay off the debts of the Nimrod expedition, but also to fund Shackleton's already projected next excursion to the Antarctic. After an enthusiastic reception in New York and Boston, however, the diary records the falling off of interest as the tour continued, blighted perhaps by the presence of Robert Peary, then at the height of his dispute with Frederick Cook over their precedence at the North Pole: 'The best description I heard of [Peary] is that he looks like a circus master, & as if he ought to be cracking a big whip in the ring ... People here are sick of the N. Pole'; Lady Shackleton herself shows barely-suppressed signs of South Pole sickness - 'I am so sick of being asked how I felt when E. was away. I long to say "very happy ..."'. Lady Shackleton's 'distinctly original personality' and 'unusual force and intelligence' in fact attracted markedly favourable notice in the American press in the course of the tour.