Antarctic Expedition II
Byrd's Antarctic Expedition II Photos.
These are photographs of Admiral Byrd’s Second Antarctic Expedition 1933-1935. Most of these pictures were taken by Joseph Pelter, the Navy Aerial Photographer, chosen by Admiral Byrd for the expedition to the South Pole.
This collection of photographs was found in a couple of photo albums that belonged to Thomas Doughty.
The majority of these photographs, where Pelter is not in the picture, were taken by Joseph Pelter, the official Navy Aerial Photographer, chosen by Admiral Byrd to be the aerial cameraman. Joseph Pelter had a 4 x 5 Speed Graphic camera that he used to take the pictures on the ground.
After BAEII Joseph Pelter was assigned as an instructor at the Naval Photography School in Pensacola, Florida. On a "Photo Christmas Card" for the aerial photography class of 1-36, Joseph Pelter is shown as an assistant instructor. Thomas Doughty is shown as one of the students. To see the picture of the Christmas card, click the Joseph Pelter link, on the left.
Thomas Doughty and Joseph Pelter became very good friends. It was during this time that Joseph Pelter either gave Thomas Doughty these photographs or let him copy them. They were both photography specialists in the Navy and it would have been very easy to make prints of a few selected photographs. Most of the photographs are glossey 3x4, 3x5, 4x5 and 5x7 but there are also a few 8x10 and even a couple that are 11x14 with a matte finish.
Many of the photos have captions in the photo album, but a few of them do not. I will attempt to give some sort of caption to the photographs. If there is a wrong description, please let me know so I may correct it. Just click on the contact information at the bottom of the page.