We’ve spoken often about the magic of photography, and one of the magical aspects of it lies in its ability to bring us the unexpected, allowing us to see what we never expected to see like: Mozart’s wife and a two-hundred and fifty year old pretzel. Seeing such things is an unexpected bonus of the magical ability of the camera to record and preserve.

So speaking of the unexpected and the, well, preserved, I’m offering up today an image of a one hundred and six year old fruitcake. This particular fruitcake belonged to the Cape Adare-based Northern Party of Scott’s Terra Nova expedition (1910-13), and was found by the Antarctic Heritage Trust in Antarctica’s oldest building. It was constructed by a Norwegian explorer’s team in 1899 and subsequently used by Scott’s team in 1911 And therein lay the frozen fruitcake..

There is the immediate question whether it is still edible and the related question whether it ever was. I am reminded of a story that a friend of mine told me about his father. Around 1998 they were cleaning out the family barn and found some chopped beef labeled “1948.” My friend’s wife grimaced and said, “Can you imagine what that tastes like?” to which my friend’s father replied, “It was pretty good actually!”