A fascinating collection of manuscript and typescript material pertaining to a biographical lecture on the explorer Robert Falcon Scott and his ill-fated Antarctic expedition, given by Elizabeth Roberts (nee Baroness Elizabeth de Taube. Illustrated with lantern slides by Herbert Ponting, Roberts gave her lecture at the Plymouth Institution in 1934. A contemporary newspaper report of the “graphic lecture” writes that it was a “vivid account” of “one of Plymouth’s most famous sons.”

Included in the collection are a few drafts of her speech, with many notes and corrections. One of which adds the manuscript title “A story of devotion to purpose, ideals and duty the undying story of Captain Scott and his four comrades, An Epic in the Annals of Exploration.” As Scott was born in Plymouth, the lecture relays many biographical facts that would appeal to the local audience.

Also included are several hand-written pages of biographical notes on Scott; a typed list of Ponting slides; some correspondence between Roberts and a few members of theInstitution about the logistics of her talk, such as the logistics of the delivery of the Ponting slides; and a handful of newspaper clippings.