Events and Exhibitions

Travel Evening: Small Ship Expedition Cruising

Join us and our partners in the fabulous setting of Gilbert White’s House in rural Hampshire for a friendly, informal evening all about the wonders of exploring on a small ship cruise.

Enjoy welcome drinks and canapes before our guest speakers share their expertise and stories of seeing wild places on a small ship expedition. There will be time to chat with our team and booking offers exclusive to attendees will be presented on the night.

Ticket price is £8 and proceeds will go towards the Ocean Health Fund, supported by Planeterra in partnership with G Adventures, which helps to protect fragile ecosystems of different species while improving the health of our oceans.

Where & When

Wednesday 23rd October

Evening event 5.30 – 9.30 pm
(Optional afternoon museum tours from 3.20 pm)

Gilbert White’s House, Selborne, Hampshire

Gilbert White was a natural history hero who inspired Charles Darwin and many of today’s natural historians. His museum also hosts the Oates Collection. Captain Lawrence Oates was a polar explorer and member of Scott’s ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition to the South Pole (1910-1912). His famous and fateful last words – “I am just going outside and may be some time” – have become synonymous with the stoicism and bravery exemplified by the explorers of this era.

On the private tour you’ll be treated to a ‘behind the scenes’ look at some rare early editions of White’s acclaimed Natural History book along with an exploration of the museum’s large number of Antarctic artefacts including Oates’ letters, the contents of Scott’s tent from the Terra Nova expedition and an exclusive look at a copy of Aurora Australis – the book published in Antarctica by members of Shackleton’s Nimrod expedition (1908-09).

Oates & White

There is no direct connection between Gilbert White and Lawrence Oates. The collection is housed in White’s museum thanks to an Oates family relative, Robert Washington Oates. A fan of natural history, Robert heard Gilbert White’s home was being turned into a museum but had run into financial difficulties. He stepped in with funding and also donated his own natural history library and the Oates collection. The museum opened in 1955 as the Oates Memorial Library and Museum and Gilbert White Museum celebrating the lives of Gilbert White, Lawrence Oates and his brother, Frank, also an explorer.