John Quiller Rowett collection

The collection comprises of correspondence by Rowett regarding the Shackleton-Rowett Antarctic Expedition, 1921-1922 (leader Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton).

John Quiller Rowett was born on 19 September 1876 into a wealthy family from Polperro, Cornwall. He was educated at Mannamead School in Plymouth and Dulwich College in London, where he met Ernest Henry Shackleton. Rowett became a wealthy businessman, serving as managing director of Rowett Leaky & Co. Ltd of London, and as chairman of Jude, Hanbury & Co. of Wateringbury. In 1920, he supplied the money to purchase land and build laboratories in Aberdeen for the Rowett Institute of Research in Animal Nutrition, established in connection with Aberdeen University and the North of Scotland College of Agriculture.

In 1921, after the Canadian government withdrew funding for Shackleton's proposed expedition to the Canadian Arctic, Rowett provided financial support to Shackleton for a voyage instead to the Southern Ocean. Setting out from London on 17 September 1921 in the wooden sealer Quest, the Shackleton-Rowett Antarctic Expedition, 1921-1922, reached South Georgia where Shackleton suffered a heart attack and died on 5 January 1922. John Robert Francis [Frank] Wild took command and the expedition continued, briefly exploring the South Sandwich Islands and the Weddell Sea before returning to Britain. Rowett died on 2 October 1924.

The correspondence is arranged alphabetically by recipient.

By appointment.

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The term holograph is used when the item is wholly in the handwriting of the author. The term autograph is used when the author has signed the item.

Descriptions compiled by N. Boneham, Assistant Archivist with assistance from R. Stancombe and reference to Robert Keith Headland Antarctic Chronology, unpublished corrected revision of Chronological list of Antarctic expeditions and related historical events, (1 December 2001) Cambridge University Press (1989) ISBN 0521309034 and Rowett Research Institute and Who was who, 1916-1928, Adam & Charles Black, London (1947)

Clive Holland Manuscripts in the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, England - a catalogue, Garland Publishing New York and London (1982) ISBN 0824093941.

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