Image provenance — /expedition
==============================

One image per adventure. Every one is a public domain photograph or painting,
retrieved 2026-09-29 from Wikimedia Commons at web resolution via
Special:FilePath, then cropped to 4:3 and recompressed.

Nothing here came from a picture agency or an institution's commercial
reproduction service. Downloading from one of those binds you to its contract
terms regardless of the copyright status of the work underneath.


endurance.jpg                                          THE FIRST ADVENTURE
  Endurance in Antarctica, 6 January 1915
  Frank Hurley (1885-1962), expedition photographer
  State Library of New South Wales (record 411964)
  File: Endurance in Antarctica, 1915 Hurley a090007.jpg
  LICENCE — SPLIT. The photograph is public domain (Australian origin, term
  expired; published pre-1931 in the US). The SLNSW digital scan is tagged
  CC BY-SA 3.0 AU. See "The scan-licence problem" below. Credited in-page.

eagle.jpg
  Eagle's ascent stage returning from the lunar surface, 21 July 1969
  Michael Collins, photographed from the command module Columbia
  NASA, frame AS11-44-6643
  File: Earth, Moon and Lunar Module, AS11-44-6643.jpg
  LICENCE — Public domain. Work of the US federal government.

serum-run.jpg
  Gunnar Kaasen with his lead dog Balto, 21 March 1925
  Staff photographer, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
  Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI 4619)
  File: Gunnar Kaasen and dog Balto, Seattle, March 21, 1925 (MOHAI 4619).jpg
  LICENCE — Public domain, and public domain usage terms on the scan too.

voyaging.jpg                                           READ THIS ONE
  "The Fleet of Otaheite Assembled at Oparee", 1774
  William Hodges (1744-1797), artist on Cook's second voyage
  Royal Museums Greenwich (BHC2395)
  File: Review of the War Galleys at Tahiti (...) RMG BHC2395.tiff
  LICENCE — Public domain.
  NOT THE SUBJECT. Hokule'a sailed in 1976 and photographs of her are still in
  copyright. This is a period painting of Tahitian double-hulled voyaging
  canoes standing in for her, and the card's caption says so in as many words.
  If you ever want the real ship, that needs permission from the Polynesian
  Voyaging Society, or original artwork.

bly.jpg
  Studio portrait of Nellie Bly, c. 1890
  Photographer unknown
  File: Nellie Bly portrait.jpg
  LICENCE — Public domain, and public domain usage terms on the scan too.
  An earlier pick (Nellie Bly (1864-1922) circa 1890.png) was dropped: it is
  a scan of a printed sheet carrying red registration marks that read as
  damage at card size.

chilkoot.jpg
  Packers ascending the summit of the Chilkoot Pass, c. 1898
  Eric A. Hegg (1867-1948)
  Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI 7230)
  File: Packers ascending summit of Chilkoot Pass, ca 1898 (MOHAI 7230).jpg
  LICENCE — Public domain, and public domain usage terms on the scan too.


The scan-licence problem
------------------------

The Endurance plate is the one file here that is not the clean case. The State
Library of New South Wales releases its DIGITISATIONS under CC BY-SA 3.0 AU
even though the photograph underneath is indisputably public domain. Every
other image on the page carries public domain usage terms on the scan as well
as the work.

Share-alike matters because, if it binds, it wants derivative works under the
same terms — an awkward fit for a page selling something.

Two views, and they do not agree:

- In the US, Bridgeman v. Corel holds that a faithful photographic
  reproduction of a two-dimensional public domain work involves no
  originality and so attracts no new copyright. On that reasoning the
  CC BY-SA tag has nothing to attach to.
- Australian law has no direct equivalent ruling, and the SLNSW plainly
  believes it holds rights in its scans.

Current position: the Endurance card credits the library and links the licence,
which satisfies the attribution half either way. If share-alike is ever a
problem, swap it for a plate whose scan is plain public domain — a090012h is
one — or re-scan from a print. Worth a lawyer's eye before money changes hands.


Notes for whoever adds the next one
-----------------------------------

- CHECK THE SCAN LICENCE, not just the work's age. A public domain photograph
  can carry a CC BY-SA digitisation claim. The Commons API returns both:
  LicenseShortName and UsageTerms in extmetadata. Want both to say public
  domain.

- Take images from Wikimedia Commons or the holding library directly. Never
  from the Royal Geographical Society, Scott Polar or Getty.

- Hurley's film "South" (1919) is public domain on the same basis as the
  stills, so actual motion footage of the Endurance expedition is available.

- The 2022 Endurance22 wreck photographs are IN COPYRIGHT
  (Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust). Do not use them.

- If a caption has to explain that the picture is not literally the subject,
  the caption says so on the page. It does not get quietly dropped in here.