Tūhura and the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-17)

Lieutenant Joseph Stenhouse, acting commander of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition vessel SY Aurora, sought the assistance of Tūhura Otago Museum in preserving various Antarctic faunal specimens frozen in the ship's hold when it reached Dunedin in 1916.

The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914–1917), also known as the Endurance Expedition, was led by Sir Ernest Shackleton and aimed to make the first land crossing of Antarctica. While the main expedition became famous for the loss of the Endurance in the Weddell Sea and Shackleton's subsequent rescue of his crew, the Ross Sea party aboard the Aurora had its own dramatic story.

The Aurora's mission was to lay supply depots across the Great Ice Barrier for Shackleton's transcontinental crossing team. However, in May 1915, a fierce blizzard broke the ship free from its moorings at Cape Evans, leaving ten men stranded on shore. The Aurora drifted for nearly ten months in the pack ice before eventually reaching New Zealand in April 1916.

When the Aurora arrived in Dunedin, Stenhouse arranged for the Museum to receive and preserve the Antarctic specimens that had been collected and stored in the ship's hold. These specimens contributed to the scientific legacy of the expedition and remain part of the Museum's natural history collections today.