MODEL + PROP MAKING  /  SCOTT POLAR RESEARCH INSTITUTE: EYE SHADES

Commissioned by the Scott Polar Research Institute Cambridge, a replica pair of brass eye shades to be used as a tactile object in a museum handling box.

 

The original eye shades were used by Lieutenant Charles Royds on the British National Antarctic Expedition 1901-1904, led by Robert Falcon Scott on the RRS Discovery. He may have made them himself - they have a handmade appearance. The word ‘discovery’ was etched on one shade, ‘1901’ on the other. From Royds' diaries we know he suffered from snow blindness, a painful and temporarily disabling condition which the eye shades may have helped relieve and allowed him to focus on distant objects.