Poster offering a reward of £20,000 for the discovery of Sir John Franklin's expedition

In 1845 the British Navy sent out an expedition, led by Sir John Franklin, to discover the North West Passage. By 1847 concern grew as nothing had been heard of the expedition, and in 1848 the first search parties went out to try and find Franklin's ships, H.M.S. Erebus and H.M.S. Terror. The 1848 searches were unsuccessful and in 1850 the Admiralty issued a reward of £20,000 "to any Party or Parties, of any country" who would discover and render assistance to Sir John Franklin's expedition. There was also a £10,000 reward for either providing intelligence that would enable the ships to be discovered, or for determining the fate of the expedition, if the crew were dead. The £10,000 reward was ultimately claimed by John Rae, who in 1854 reported back testimony from Inuit people that the crew had all perished.

This poster is part of a scrapbook which was probably created by Lady Jane Franklin to record the efforts made to find her husband and his crew.