Catherine Benson

Enthusiast of historical fashion & beauty, antique jewellery, Glasgow Style, Hollywood's Golden Age, vintage aircraft & WW1 family history research.

[Antarctic Heritage @InspireExplore]

#OnThisDay in 1916, Perce Blackborow, Welsh sailor and famed polar stowaway aboard Shackleton's expedition ship 'Endurance', underwent surgery on Elephant Island to amputate his frostbitten and gangrenous toes.

In 1914 Blackborow and his friend William Blakewell, found themselves in Buenos Aires without a ship. When 'Endurance' arrived in port and two of the crew were sacked, the pair thought their problems were solved. Shackleton interviewed them both and whilst Blakewell was accepted, Blackborow was not, due to his age and lack of experience. With Blakewell's help he was smuggled on board and was eventually discovered three days into the journey.

Despite being unhappy to find the stowaway, Shackleton had no option other than to keep him on board and offered him a steward position. Nicknamed 'Blackie', Blackborow proved to be clever, conscientious and popular with the crew.

On the lifeboat journey from where the 'Endurance' sank to Elephant Island, Blackborow made the mistake of wearing leather rather than the cold weather felt boots that the other men wore, and he developed frostbite in his toes which turned gangrenous. When they arrived at the island, he had to crawl through the surf to reach land and shortly afterwards underwent the surgery which removed all the toes of his left foot.

In the accompanying image, Blackborow is photographed with the cat of Henry McNish the ship's carpenter. Named Mrs Chippy, after the traditional nickname for a carpenter, the cat quickly became the ships mascot.

📸 Perce Blackborow with Mrs Chippy. Frank Hurley, SPRI.

#OTD #inspire #explore #discover #conserve #Antarctica

[Lost London @Lost___London]

🇬🇧 Two soldiers on the concourse at Victoria station, London, about to leave for the front line, December 1914

[What're you giving me with the flying fish @RomanPBone1]

Photographer Jacques-Henri Lartigue #botd

Renée Perle, 1930.

[#WOMENSART @womensart1]

German photographer Astrid Kirchherr, most known for her photography and styling of The Beatles #WomensArt #PhotographerWeek 📷

[Once Upon A Time @Art_VintageNH]

Marie Egner

[WikiVictorian @wikivictorian]

Front cover of Vogue, June 1st 1911

[HerodotusWave @HerodotusWave]

Frozen in time, blooming forever.

[Richard Morris @ahistoryinart]

Like his friend Paul Nash who he met at the Slade, Claughton Pellew believed trees held a spiritual quality. This work from 1924 likely features his wife Emma (also an artist) walking near their home at Southrepps, North Norfolk.

[WikiVictorian @wikivictorian]

'Paris, Tuileries Gardens'. Photographed on the 4th June 1906.

[BabelColour @StuartHumphryes]

This is the Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922), watching the ice break up in the winter of 1915, just weeks before his exploration vessel The Endurance was crushed by the ice pack and sank below the Weddell Sea. I have cleaned-up and enhanced this old paget plate, which was taken in colour by the ship's photographer Frank Hurley 111 years ago. It's an early colour glass-plate process and not colourised.

[Auschwitz Memorial @AuschwitzMuseum]

12 June 1929 | A German Jewish girl, Anne Frank, was born in Frankfurt.

In 1942 on her 13th birthday she received an empty diary. She perished in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945.

'Human greatness does not lie in wealth or power, but in character & goodness.' (A.Frank)

[Once Upon A Time @Art_VintageNH]

White Peonies, 1913 ~ Théo van Rysselberghe

[Bobbie @bo66ie29]

Wartime fashions, June 1943.

[Lemma’s Animal Desk @DoctorLemma]

Arsenal, one of England’s big football clubs, just donated a pile of their players’ old socks to a horse and donkey sanctuary, and the rescued animals are now wearing them.

It works because modern football socks are footless. Players wear separate grip socks on their feet, so the long sleeves get thrown out. That shape turns out to be perfect for sliding onto an animal’s leg, where they keep flies off sore skin, hold bandages in place, and cover the leg while hooves are trimmed.

The sanctuary, the biggest of its kind in Britain, says the bright red socks have already cut down on vet visits. The donkeys have also decided they make good toys, and have taken to pulling bananas out of them.

[Caroline Lucas @CarolineLucas]

Good news! Ministers have finally given green light to new #NaturalHistory GCSE. Big hats off to tireless advocate Mary Colwell 🙌 Now young people will be able to get to know & love the natural world & gain vital skills to protect it @curlewcalls🌷🌳 🦅🦡 https://t.co/UZ9jvqHGaH

[Duille @DuilleDesign]

Vase. Louis Comfort Tiffany. c.1909.
Image: MetMuseum.

[Maria Helena @mhcoutinho_48]

John Singer Sargent ( American, 1856-1925): "Woman and Child Sleeping in a Boat”, 1887.

[dominic dyer @domdyer70]

Animal rescue centres have said they are seeing rising numbers of cats being neglected, abused and abandoned.
In March 2024, the RSPCA Halifax, Huddersfield and Bradford branch took 50 cats into its care, but in 2026 it accepted 80.
The charity said there had been a record number of cats in national RSPCA centres, with about a third of them in emergency catteries.
Katie Lloyd, from independent charity Bradford Cat Watch, said she was seeing the highest level of abuse and neglect for 20 years.
"I can understand people struggle to pay for these things – however, what I cannot understand is the increasing abuse, wilful abuse," she said.
"We're seeing horrendous injuries coming in, cats with wounds that are left untreated, and a lot of accidents that are left untreated, because no one will step in and help them."
Bradford Cat Watch is a volunteer-run organisation that nurses ill cats and helps them find homes.
Last year it rehomed 200 cats and raised more than £80,000.
Lloyd said she was receiving 50 to 60 calls a day and was often having to turn away animals in need.
"I can only hope that things improve, whether they do or not I don't know because in the last 20 years things have got significantly worse," she said

[#WOMENSART @womensart1]

Early women pioneers of climbing such as Lucy Walker, the first woman to summit the notorious Matterhorn mountain in 1871 all wore skirts on their climbs..... #WomensArt

[Catherine Curzon @MadameGilflurt]

We're celebrating #MarilynMonroe's centenary! Marilyn Monroe and her Chanel N°5, photographed in NYC, 1955, by Ed Feingersh. Via Ed Feingersh/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images.