Shackleton’s Polar Medal gifted to NZ’s Canterbury Museum
Media release
August 2024
Public Trust and Canterbury Museum
CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND: Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Polar Medal, one of the world’s most significant treasures from the heroic age of Antarctic exploration, has been gifted to Canterbury Museum by the Adson Trust.
The medal, purchased in a private sale in the United Kingdom, will be displayed in the new and greatly enlarged Antarctic Gallery when the Museum’s Rolleston Avenue buildings reopen towards the end of 2028 after a major five-year redevelopment.
The Adson Trust, a posthumous $10 million bequest left to the Museum by Arthur Henry Harrison, a retired company secretary from Blenheim, is managed by Public Trust. Under the terms of Mr Harrison’s bequest, funds can only be used to acquire objects for the Museum’s collection.
Museum Director|Tumuaki, Anthony Wright says that the Museum is eternally grateful to Mr Harrison for his extraordinary gift which at the time, came as a complete surprise. Without his generosity Shackleton’s Polar Medal would have been well beyond New Zealand’s financial reach.
“This cements Canterbury Museum’s international standing as the repository of one of the most significant collections of heroic age Antarctic objects in the world”, says Wright. “And it underscores Ōtautahi Christchurch’s pivotal role as a gateway to the great southern continent for well over a century.”
“The value of the medal to the Museum is immense,” he says. “It is an iconic object of enormous interest worldwide. As far as we know it has only been exhibited twice – both times in London – since Shackleton died over 100 years ago.
“The redeveloped Canterbury Museum will be the only place that Antarctic enthusiasts, researchers and tourists will be able to see the Polar Medals awarded to two of Antarctica’s most widely recognised explorers, Captain Robert Falcon Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton.”
Christchurch has been a gateway to Antarctica for more than 100 years since Scott’s Discovery Expedition (1901–1904). The city’s links with Shackleton were instrumental in the success of his Antarctic expeditions. An estimated 50,000 people turned out to watch the Nimrod sail south from Lyttelton port on New Year’s Day in 1908.
Canterbury Museum became strongly associated with expeditions to the Antarctic in the early 1900s and is now home to the largest collection of heroic age artefacts in the Southern Hemisphere and one of the most significant in the world. The collection includes a range of objects left with the Museum by Antarctic explorers and scientists on their way home.
“Shackleton’s Polar Medal is the biggest donation in the Adson Trust’s history. It carries so much meaning given Christchurch’s long involvement with Antarctic exploration and research, and its direct connection to Shackleton’s story,” says Public Trust Chief Executive, Glenys Talivai.
“The Trust’s benefactor Arthur Henry Harrison had a singular vision for the Adson Trust, and his bequest reflects that he loved spending time at the Museum when he was in Christchurch. As Trustee, it is our privilege and responsibility to ensure his generous and public-spirited intentions are carried out. The donation ensures the medal will be displayed for people to see, learn from and enjoy.
“This is an extraordinary example of how a will can be a powerful tool to support the causes a person cares deeply about and make a lasting impact.”
The Polar Medal, which has three bars, was awarded to Shackleton by Edward VII in 1905 for his participation in Sir Robert Falcon Scott’s Discovery Expedition (1902–1904). Shackleton was awarded a second bar in 1909 for his Nimrod Expedition (1907–1909) which was the first expedition to come within 100 miles of the South Pole, and a third in 1917 for the Endurance Expedition (1914–1917).
Given its historic significance, Shackleton’s medal had to be offered to UK institutions before the sale could proceed and an export licence granted. The purchase price and seller are confidential under the terms of the sale agreement.
“Shackleton is one of the greatest, and arguably the most revered Antarctic explorers of all time. His dogged determination to save his men after the Endurance was trapped in pack ice, and the epic voyage of the James Caird lifeboat from Elephant Island to South Georgia – without loss of life – secured his place in history as a great leader,” says Wright.
“Shackleton and the remarkable tale of the Endurance Expedition will be a pivotal story in the Museum’s new Antarctic Gallery.”
In 2015, Canterbury Museum acquired nine of Shackleton’s full-sized medals at auction in London and his set of 12 miniature medals in 2022. The Museum has an example of every medal awarded to the explorer by heads of state and governments. Some are full-size and others are miniatures. None of these have yet been on public display in the Museum.
About Adson Trust
The Adson Trust was set up in 2010 with a $10 million posthumous donation from Arthur Henry Harrison, a retired businessman from Blenheim, who specified the money was to be used for additions to Canterbury Museum's collections. The gift from the Adson Trust – the biggest ever received by Canterbury Museum in its history – has been pivotal in financing some major acquisitions in the years since Mr Harrison’s death. These have included diaries belonging to Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s Norwegian skiing expert Tryggve Gran in 2018, a rare and large collection of pounamu boulders in 2013, the Ivan Mauger Speedway collection in 2016, a Theo Schoon mural in 2020 and Shackleton’s 12 miniature medals in 2022. The Adson Trust is named after Harrison and his late wife, June Adams. The Trust is administered by Public Trust.
About Public Trust
Public Trust is New Zealand’s largest provider of trustee and estate administration services. Its unique role is to empower all New Zealanders to build and protect their legacies. Public Trust provides trustee and comprehensive estate administration services for individuals through its Retail business, and corporate trustee, supervisory and custodial services through its Corporate Trustee Services business.
It also has an important part to play in the charitable trust sector. In the past year, Public Trust granted $14.36 million through the charitable trusts it administers, supporting a wide range of community groups. Its investment team manages around $1.1 billion of funds, primarily for charities, estate beneficiaries, and students (through its Fee Protect service). Established 150 years ago, Public Trust is a self-funding autonomous Crown entity.
About Canterbury Museum
Canterbury Museum – one of the oldest in Aotearoa New Zealand’s – cares for more than 2.3 million artefacts of human and natural history with a particular focus on Waitaha Canterbury and Antarctica. Founded by Dr (later Sir) Julius von Haast it opened to the public on what is now Rolleston Avenue on 1 October 1870. The Museum buildings are currently undergoing a $205 million redevelopment which will strengthen the historic buildings, create a large collection storage area in a base-isolated basement under a new building, all linked to the Robert McDougall Gallery, the city’s former 1930s built art gallery.
The redeveloped Museum will provide 6,500 square metres of exhibition space – half as big again as the old Museum – with international standard displays and security provisions to showcase priceless artefacts such as Shackleton’s medals.
In the meantime, the Museum has opened a pop-up in the Centre of Contemporary Art Toi Moroki building on Gloucester Street and continues to operate Quake City and Ravenscar House Museum in the central city. Back of house staff and the collection have been relocated to a large office and storage complex in Hornby in the west of Ōtautahi Christchurch.
