D212 Reverend W.B. Clarke Research Collection

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

D212 Reverend W.B. Clarke Research Collection University of Wollongong Archives (WUA) D Collections D212 Reverend W.B. Clarke Research Collection Creator: Michael Organ (1956- Historical Note: This collection comprises newspaper articles and publications by and about the Reverend W.B. Clark (1798- 1878), the ‘Father of Australian Geology’ and the Church of England minister at St. Thomas’s North Sydney. Record Summary: Research records – publications, photocopies, notes. Date Range: 1970 – 1980s Quantity: 1.3 m (8 boxes) Access Conditions: Available for reference. Contact Archivist in advance to arrange access. Inventory: Compiled 4 February 1999. Last revised 12 October 2012 Page 1 of 4 University of Wollongong Archives (WUA) D Collections D212 Reverend W.B. Clarke Research Collection Item List Box 1 1798- 1846 Notes, publications Box 2 1847- 1854 Notes, publications Box 3 1855- 1868 Notes, publications Box 4 1868-1878 Notes, publications Box 5 - Reverend William Branwhite Clarke’s Diaries in Illawarra 1839-1840 - Sketch of W.B. Clarke - Envelope labeled Rev W.B. Clarke Book. [Addressed to Mr E. Beale, Illawarra Historical Society, from State Library of NSW] - Royal Australian Historical Society Journal and Proceedings, Vol XXX, 1944, Part VI. ‘Rev W.B. Clarke, M.A., F.R.S., F.G.S., F.R.G.S. “The Father of Austrailan Geology,” by James Jervis, A.S.T.C. (Fellow) - ‘Meteorology,’ A series of articles, printed in the Sydney Morning Herald during 1842. By W.B. Clarke. Preliminary Print- June 1990. Box 6 - ‘Reverend W. B. Clarke, 1798- 1878. Chronology and Calendar of Correspondence.’ Compiled by Michael Organ. 1 August, 1997. - Clarke, Rev. William Branwhite- index to correspondents. - Guide to the papers of the Clarke family, ML MSS 139/1 - State Library of New South Wales. Stack Slips - Indexes, listings, catalogues and correspondence - ‘The Web of Science, The Scientific Correspondence of the Rev W.B. Clarke.’ Editor Ann Moyal. Assistant Editor Stephen Martin - ‘Scientist of empire, Sir Roderick Murchison, scientific exploration and Victorian imperialism’ by Robert A. Stafford. Cambridge University Press - ‘History and Role of Government Geological Surveys in Australia,’ edited by R.K. Johns, 1976. - W.B. Clarke – Journal articles - The Scientific Bibliography of W.B. Clarke - Geological Society of Australia, Inc. Earth Sciences History Group, ‘Newsletter’ No 26. May 1998 and newsletter No. 2, February 1999. - ‘Australian Exploration and the Introduction of the Aneroid Barometer,’ Julian Holland, Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society, No. 61, 1999. Page 2 of 4 University of Wollongong Archives (WUA) D Collections D212 Reverend W.B. Clarke Research Collection - ‘The University of Sydney, Macleay Museum News’ Number 13, April, 1999. - ‘25th International Geological Congress, Excursion 4B, Beginnings of Geological Knowledge in New South Wales: A tour from Sydney to Orange and return,’ T.G. Vallance and D.F. Branagan. - ‘A Fool’s Gold? William Tipple Smith’s challenge to the Hargraves Myth,’ Lynette Ramsay Silver, 1986, Jacaranda Press. - Correspondence Box 7 - W.B. Clarke talk, 5th August, 1998. - ‘The Remarkable Reverend Clarke, the life and times of the father of Australian Geology,’ by Elena Grainger. Oxford University Press: Melbourne. 1982. - ‘The Annals and Magazine of Natural History,’ No. 132, September 1847. - Department of Mines and Agriculture. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of New South Wales. Palaeontology, No. 6. Descriptions of the Palaeoxoic Fossils of New South Wales (Australia), by the late L. G. De Koninck. Sydney: William Applegate Gullick, Government Printer, 1898. - ‘“A small fish in a small pond…” The Reverend W.B. Clarke (1798- 1878): 200 years on (Part 1)’, Michael Organ (Communicated by D.F. Branagan). Journal and proceedings of New South Wales, Vol.131, pp. 101-112, 1998. - Correspondence - ‘”…a small fish in a small pond…” The Reverend W.B. Clarke (1798- 1878): What did he actually do?’ Michael Organ. - The University of Sydney Archives ‘Record’ Vol.1. no. 2, August 1973 and Vol 2, no. 1, May 1974. - ‘Origins of Australian Geology’ by T.G. Vallance, 1975. Reprinted from Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales - ‘Sydney Earth and after: Mineralogy of colonial Australia 1788- 1900’, T.G. Vallance, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., 108 (3), (1985) 1986. - ‘The first geological maps of the continent of Australia,’ T.A. Darragh, Journal of the Geological Society of Australia, Vol 24, pt 5, pp. 279-305. - “Bibliography of the Reverend W.B. Clarke (1798- 1878). M.K. Organ, Journal and Proceedings, Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. 127, pp 85-134, 1994. - ‘A geographical dictionary or gazetteer of the Australian Colonies, 1848’, William Henry Wells, facsimile edition, The Council of the Library of New South Wales, Sydney 1970. - Research articles - ‘Clarke the Clergyman: the Rev. W.B. Clark of the North Shore’, Jeannie Walker, 28th June, 1996. - ‘James Dwight Dana in Australia 1839- 40’. R.G. Middleton, P.F. Carr & B.G. Jones, 1 September, 1994. - Newsclippings - Correspondence - Drafts of Article ‘”…a small fish in a small pond…” The Reverend W.B. Clarke (1798- 1878): What did he actually do?’ Michael Organ. - List of Australian Trilobite Species Collected by the Rev W.B. Clarke 1839- 78. Page 3 of 4 University of Wollongong Archives (WUA) D Collections D212 Reverend W.B. Clarke Research Collection Box 8 A.J. Wright material - Photocopy of ‘Receent geological discoveries Australasia’ The Rev. W. B. Clarke, 2nd ed. Sydney, Joseph Cook. 1861 - ‘Of Stones, from the manuscript of John Strachey’s proposed Somersetshire Illustrated’ by B. D. Webby, 1967 – Two copies - ‘Some early ideas attributing easterly dipping strata to the rotation of the earth’ by B.D. Webby, 1969 – Two copies: on front ‘With the author’s compliments’ - ‘Rocks – Fossils – Profs: geological sciences in the University of Sydney 1866-1973’ ed. By David F. Branagan, 1973` - Blue folder : Various correspondence (copies) from 1840s & 1850s. Letter from Aust. High Commission London to Michael Organ, listing correspondence of W. B. Clarke held by Natural History Museum in London & Cambridge University Library - Manila folder with copies of correspondence dating 1850s and 1860s. Copies of journal articles by or with reference to W. B. Clarke - BMR Journal of Australian Geology & Geophysics Vol.9 No.2, 1984 – Contains tribute to Armin Alexsander Opik (1898-1983) - including letter to A. J. Wright with original photos of Opik. - Copy of the tribute to Opik in the above journal - Copy of Records of the Australian Museum (Vol. XX no.1) with obit. Of Robert Etheridge Junior (paleontologist) - Copy of Obituary of John Mitchell , PLS NSW 1028 vol.53 pt.1 - Various journals / publications containing obituaries of, or tributes to Geologists o Thomas George Vallance (1928-1993) o Joseph Edward Carne (1855-1922) o Charles Oswald Hamblin (1893-1922) o George Israel Playfair (d.1922 aged 52) o John Shirley (1840-1922) o Ernest Clayton Andrews 91870-1948) o Tribute to Pawel Edmund Strezelecki (1797-1873) o Tribute of Edgeworth David o Essays in honour of Edwin Sherbon Hills o Obituary of William Rowan Browne (1884-1975) o Tribute to WR Browne (1966 – on his retirement?) o Obiturary of Sir Douglas Mawson, 1882-1958 o Memorial to Carl Adolph Sussmilch, 1875-1946 o Obituary of John Mitchell, 1848-1928 - Articles on geological sciences in general Page 4 of 4 .
Recommended publications
  • Mount Lyell Abt Railway Tasmania
    Mount Lyell Abt Railway Tasmania Nomination for Engineers Australia Engineering Heritage Recognition Volume 2 Prepared by Ian Cooper FIEAust CPEng (Retired) For Abt Railway Ministerial Corporation & Engineering Heritage Tasmania July 2015 Mount Lyell Abt Railway Engineering Heritage nomination Vol2 TABLE OF CONTENTS BIBLIOGRAPHIES CLARKE, William Branwhite (1798-1878) 3 GOULD, Charles (1834-1893) 6 BELL, Charles Napier, (1835 - 1906) 6 KELLY, Anthony Edwin (1852–1930) 7 STICHT, Robert Carl (1856–1922) 11 DRIFFIELD, Edward Carus (1865-1945) 13 PHOTO GALLERY Cover Figure – Abt locomotive train passing through restored Iron Bridge Figure A1 – Routes surveyed for the Mt Lyell Railway 14 Figure A2 – Mount Lyell Survey Team at one of their camps, early 1893 14 Figure A3 – Teamsters and friends on the early track formation 15 Figure A4 - Laying the rack rail on the climb up from Dubbil Barril 15 Figure A5 – Cutting at Rinadeena Saddle 15 Figure A6 – Abt No. 1 prior to dismantling, packaging and shipping to Tasmania 16 Figure A7 – Abt No. 1 as changed by the Mt Lyell workshop 16 Figure A8 – Schematic diagram showing Abt mechanical motion arrangement 16 Figure A9 – Twin timber trusses of ‘Quarter Mile’ Bridge spanning the King River 17 Figure A10 – ‘Quarter Mile’ trestle section 17 Figure A11 – New ‘Quarter Mile’ with steel girder section and 3 Bailey sections 17 Figure A12 – Repainting of Iron Bridge following removal of lead paint 18 Figure A13 - Iron Bridge restoration cross bracing & strengthening additions 18 Figure A14 – Iron Bridge new
    [Show full text]
  • The Reverend WB Clarke
    University of Wollongong Research Online Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice- Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice- Chancellor (Education) - Papers Chancellor (Education) September 1998 "...a small fish in a small pond..." The Reverend W.B. Clarke (1798-1878): 200 Years On Michael K. Organ University of Wollongong, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/asdpapers Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons, and the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Organ, Michael K.: "...a small fish in a small pond..." The Reverend W.B. Clarke (1798-1878): 200 Years On 1998. https://ro.uow.edu.au/asdpapers/24 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] "...a small fish in a small pond..." The Reverend W.B. Clarke (1798-1878): 200 Years On Abstract The Reverend W.B. Clarke remains something of an enigma in the annals of Australian science, despite the publication of numerous books and articles on his life and times. The author argues that this is mainly due to the deficiencies of previous researchers in addressing the full gamut of that Reverend gentleman’s work. Though the basic details of Clarke’s life are clearly known, numerous significant gaps exist in the surviving archive. For example, his personal collection of rocks, fossils, geological maps and library was destroyed in the Garden Palace fire of 1882; his large corpus of work which appeared in Australian newspapers between 1839-78 has only recently been identified; and a collection of personal correspondence awaits ‘translation’ and publication.
    [Show full text]
  • Vom Bergbau Und Mentalität: Die Künstlerische Und
    ZOBODAT - www.zobodat.at Zoologisch-Botanische Datenbank/Zoological-Botanical Database Digitale Literatur/Digital Literature Zeitschrift/Journal: Berichte der Geologischen Bundesanstalt Jahr/Year: 1997 Band/Volume: 41 Autor(en)/Author(s): MacLeod Roy Artikel/Article: Vom Bergbau und Mentalität: die künstlerische und geologische Darstellung der australischen Landschaft im 19.Jahrhundert 139-146 Berichte der Geologischen Bundesanstalt, ISSN 1017-8880. Band 41, Wien 1997 MACLEOD will capture and make sense of unfamiliar land- forms. Their attempts to draw and later to photo­ Vom Bergbau und Mentalität: Die graph the bush, with its aboriginal inhabitants and its evanescent moods were commonly seen as at­ künstlerische und geologische tempts to create and impose a moral sense of civili­ Darstellung der australischen zation and order, whereby an unruly continent would be transformed into an orderly pastoral vi­ Landschaft im 19. Jahrhundert sion, comprehensibile to European eyes. By the end of the 19th century, artists, geologists and of course miners themselves become participants in trans­ Of Mines and Mentalities: Artistic forming the physiography of Australia from a haunting landscape, into a useful physical environ­ and Geological Representations of the ment valued by Europeans less for its spiritual Australian Landscape in the beauty than for its material benefits. In so doing ar­ th tistic models drawn from European culture become 19 Century agencies of European political economy. Горная промышленность и склад: This paper will consider the role of art, and the work of selected artists and naturalists in the художественное и геологическое European construction of beauty and utility in the Australian historical landscape. It will pay particu­ изображение ландшафта Австралии lar attention to the interest of art and geology in representing the continent equally as an early para­ в 19 веке dise and as a vast treasure of mineral wealth in ei­ ther case, an inimitable site for Europeans, to Von/by borrow Geoffrey BLAINEY'S phrase to begin a "rush that never ended".
    [Show full text]
  • Esh 24.1 Combined Cover
    155 ESSAY REVIEW Vic Baker, BOOK REVIEW EDITOR FRANK SPRINGER AND NEW MEXICO, FROM THE COLFAX COUNTY WAR TO THE EMERGENCE OF MODERN SANTA FE. David Caffey. 2006. Texas A&M University Press, College Station, 261 p. Hardcover, US$ 34.95. As a paleontologist, I know Frank Springer (1848 – 1927) (Figure 1) as the dominant student of fossil crinoids during the latter nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and was surprised to learn that his scientific contributions were a sideline to his real profession as a lawyer in the nascent New Mexico Territory. Alternatively, David Caffey, a historian of New Mexico, found “To discover that this same man had carried on a parallel career as a paleontologist, amassing collections, conducting research, and publishing his finding in the leading scientific institutions, was somewhat astounding.”1 Frank Springer and New Mexico is a welcome biography of Frank Springer, a “many-sided man”—a man of great accomplishments. This book is not for the Earth scientist who wants to learn about the history of ideas in the productive collaboration of Frank Springer and Charles Wachsmuth or in the scientific debates between Frank Springer and Francis Bather (British Museum, Natural History, London). That history has yet to be written. Instead, Frank Springer and New Mexico is a complete biography of Frank Springer, emphasizing his contributions to the development of the New Mexico Territory, his profession, and placing his many other accomplishments within this primary context. Frank Springer was born on June 17, 1848, in Wapello, Iowa. At the age of 14, Springer enrolled at the State University of Iowa at Iowa City, graduating in 1867 with a bachelor of philosophy degree.
    [Show full text]
  • W.B. Clarke As Scientific Journalist
    University of Wollongong Research Online Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice- Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice- Chancellor (Education) - Papers Chancellor (Education) 1992 W.B. Clarke as Scientific Journalist Michael K. Organ University of Wollongong, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/asdpapers Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons, and the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Organ, Michael K.: W.B. Clarke as Scientific Journalist 1992. https://ro.uow.edu.au/asdpapers/99 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] W.B. Clarke as Scientific Journalist Abstract This paper comments on W.B. Clarke's role as a scientific journalist in Sydney, 1839-1878. It also argues that Clarke has been misrepresented over time because large sections of his published work - specifically anonymous and signed newspaper articles - have not been considered in analyses of his life and assessments of his place in the history of Australian science. Disciplines Arts and Humanities | Social and Behavioral Sciences Publication Details This article was originally published as Organ, MK, W.B. Clarke as Scientific Journalist, Historical Records of Australian Science, 9(1), June 1992, 1-16. Original article available here. This journal article is available at Research Online: https://ro.uow.edu.au/asdpapers/99 existence; and that there is not one soli- W.B. Clarke as tary channel in which the interesting facts of scientific enquiry, agricultural experi- Scientific ment, or mechanical ingenuity, can be handed down to our children, registered for reference, or conveyed to other nations Journalist as a proof and evidence that this great and ambitious colony has yet been eman- Michael Organ* cipated from convict indifference, or the fumes of rum and tobacco.
    [Show full text]
  • Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Culture
    Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Culture Volume 7 Part 2 The Leichhardt papers Reflections on his life and legacy © Queensland Museum PO Box 3300, South Brisbane 4101, Australia Phone: +61 (0) 7 3840 7555 Fax: +61 (0) 7 3846 1226 Web: qm.qld.gov.au National Library of Australia card number ISSN 1440-4788 NOTE Papers published in this volume and in all previous volumes of the Memoirs of the Queensland Museum may be reproduced for scientific research, individual study or other educational purposes. Properly acknowledged quotations may be made but queries regarding the republication of any papers should be addressed to the CEO. Copies of the journal can be purchased from the Queensland Museum Shop. A Guide to Authors is displayed on the Queensland Museum website qm.qld.gov.au A Queensland Government Project 30 June 2013 Ludwig Leichhardt and the significance of the extinct Australian megafauna Roderick J. FENSHAM and Gilbert J. PRICE Fensham, R.J. & G.J. Price 2013, Ludwig Leichhardt and the significance of the extinct Australian megafauna. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum – Culture 7(2): 621- 632. Brisbane. ISSN 1440-4788 The first fossils of giant Australian mammals were of great interest to both colonial and British scientists in the mid-nineteenth century. Richard Owen, the foremost anatomist of the era, initially interpreted the Diprotodon as a relative of the elephant. Ludwig Leichhardt was the first scientist to unambiguously appreciate that the Diprotodon was a marsupial, along with the vast majority of Australia’s other Pleistocene megafauna, although he was never acknowledged for these insights.
    [Show full text]
  • The Scientific Legacy of the Rev. W. B. Clarke
    Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. 150, part 2, 2017, pp. 195–206. ISSN 0035-9173/17/020195-12 The scientific legacy of the Rev. W. B. Clarke R. W. Young 4 Roxburgh Ave, Thirroul, NSW 2515 Email: [email protected] Abstract That the collective memory of even so dominant a figure in Australian colonial science as W. B. Clarke has faded 140 years after his death is hardly surprising. What is so striking is the marked variation in the degree to which his legacy is recognised, even where he was arguably the major contributor in his time. He is of continued interest to the Royal Society of NSW, but not so to most other learned societies. Though the focus of much work by Australian historians of science, he is virtually ignored in general histories of the country; remembered in geology, he is almost totally forgotten in meteorology. And when remembered, he has at times been reinterpreted; portrayed as Darwin’s colonial ‘bulldog’, he actually had grave reservations about such theoretical constructs. Clarke’s legacy is considered here as Memory Maintained and Restored, Memory Lost, and Myth as Memory. Key words: Clarke, Australian, Science, History. Introduction essentially moribund Philosophical Society hen William Branwhite Clarke arrived in 1866 (under its new name of the Royal Win Sydney in 1839 he already had a Society of New South Wales), the substan- considerable cultural and scientific reputa- tial upgrading of the Australian Museum tion. He had published five books of poetry, in Sydney, the founding of the University had forty-one scientific papers to his name, of Sydney and its associated St.
    [Show full text]
  • ANNUAL LECTURE 2019.Pdf
    The wonderful legacy of Ann Moyal ISAA 2019 ANNUAL LECTURE Ian Lowe Abstract Dr Ann Moyal AM FRSN FAHA lived a long and productive life. Her legacy endures in three areas. First, and most obviously, we must be grateful for her extraordinary body of published work. It includes landmark studies that set new standards for scholarly analysis of the history of science and technology. Secondly, she was a pioneer in this broad field and largely responsible for its acceptance as a reputable discipline in our universities. Thirdly, as a proudly independent scholar for four decades, she was the prime mover in the establishment of ISAA. As its founding President and an outstanding contributor to its work up to and including this year, she put the organisation on a sound footing for the future. Introduction It is an honour and a delight to have been invited to deliver the 2019 ISAA Lecture. I will be discussing the life and work of an extraordinarily productive scholar. I have to make a disclaimer at the outset: I am not in any sense a historian. I took one short course in history as part of the compulsory humanities program as a student at University of New South Wales, where I also played cricket with the then professor of history before he ran off to New Zealand with Malcolm Turnbull’s mother, but that is the total extent of my history studies. I did make one brief excursion into the field nearly fifty years ago near the end of my doctoral studies at the University of York.
    [Show full text]
  • WB Clarke and JD Dana
    Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. 145, nos. 443 & 444, pp. 54-58. ISSN 0035-9173/12/010054-5 Friends, Savants and Founders: W.B. Clarke and J.D. Dana Ann Moyal E-mail: [email protected] Abstract The friendship of the geologists J.D. Dana and the Rev W.B. Clarke marks an important interrelationship in Australian – US nineteenth century science. Formed when the two geologists met in December 1829 when Dana visited Australia attached to the United States Exploring Expedition of 1839-42 and Clarke was a recent arrival from Britain, the two men conducted pioneering fieldwork together in the Illawarra district of New South Wales which laid early foundations on the Colony’s sedimentary deposits. Their friendship, linked through correspondence continued into their old age. Both men became leading savants in their own country and founders of key scientific institutions of science, Dana as the influential leader of geological science in the United States and Clarke as the first Vice-President of the Royal Society of New South Wales. The paper focuses an illuminating new photograph of W.B. Clarke presented to the author by his great grandson John Clarke. Introduction scientists, and, in the years 1838-42, the expedition would explore some fifteen In 1964, I published a paper James Dwight hundred miles of the Antarctic coast, Dana in New South Wales, 1830-1840 in the complete a survey of 280 islands, produce a Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of NSW total of 180 charts, and subsequently publish (Mozley (1964)) which was my first foray into three extensive reports, by Dana, on geology, the history of Australian science and which zoophytes and crustacea, later consigning an centred on the geological exploration in immense array of its collected natural history January 1840 that Dana conducted with W.B.
    [Show full text]
  • Colonial Translations: Peasants and Parsons in 19Th-Century Australia
    155 Colonial Translations: Peasants and Parsons in 19th-Century Australia J.M. Powell ate 19th-century statistical accounts suggest that Australia was already well set on a course toward conspicuous urbanization. During the same L period, however, the public imagination seemed to be increasingly af- fected by the allure of a storied “bush.” As they contemplated the centennial of federation in 2001, Australians may have admitted to more urbanity than their forebears. On the other hand, much of the old bush imagery still under- pins evocations of frontier cooperation, familism, self-reliance, and a defiantly revived environment-identity nexus. Dissident revisionists dispute the specif- ics of a pre-federation legacy, but none question its foundational significance. The Australian experience had certainly been “colonial,” in the narrowest and widest senses of the term. In addition, and especially in its rural manifesta- tions, it inherited, adapted, and contributed to influential global trends. Like other colonials, my forebears were participants as well as recipients.1 The centennial might have been opportune for a more comprehensive recovery of context, given a coincidence of public interest and the maturation of diverse forms of historical scholarship, but it was less well met by recently contrived crises in the liberal arts and sciences. The following reflections on selected accommodations to place were prompted, in part, by a sharpened personal anxiety about those crises. Simultaneously, if more directly, they were influenced by a reading of Alan Baker’s persuasive monograph, Fraternity Among the French Peasantry, especially because it nudges fellow travelers toward closer inspections of the operations of certain overlooked and undervalued human interactions at immediately accessible scales.2 Baker’s painstaking archival referrals represent much more than another emphatic confirmation of the primacy of human agency in topographic in- scription.
    [Show full text]
  • Bk Revs HR05006.Fm
    CSIRO PUBLISHING www.publish.csiro.au/journals/hras Historical Records of Australian Science, 2005, 16, 107–126 Reviews Compiled by Libby Robin Email: [email protected] Ann Moyal (ed.): The Web of Science: shore of Sydney Harbour. To enhance his The Scientific Correspondence of the income, he also took up journalism and for Rev. W. B. Clarke, Australia’s Pioneer many years regularly contributed articles, Geologist. Australian Scholarly editorials and letters to the Sydney Herald, Publishing: Melbourne, 2003. 2 vols. xxii + most of them dealing with scientific sub- 1340 pp., illus., ISBN 1 74097 042 (set); jects or with exploration (he was, for 1 74097 043 8 (vol. 1, 1836–1863); example, one of Ludwig Leichhardt’s prin- 1 74097 044 6 (vol. 2, 1864–1878), $175 cipal supporters). Most were published (set) ($200 for institutions). anonymously but his authorship was William Branwhite Clarke (1798–1878) widely known and helped him to quickly was one of Australia’s leading scientists of win a prominent place among Sydney’s the nineteenth century, the ‘father of Aus- small group of science enthusiasts. As that tralian geology’ as he came to be community expanded and viable scientific described. A graduate of Cambridge Uni- institutions were established, Clarke con- versity and an ordained minister in the tinued to play an influential role. In partic- Anglican Church, he had already estab- ular, during the last decade of his life he lished a position for himself as an enthusi- provided important leadership in the Royal astic ‘man of science’ in the classic British Society of New South Wales as Vice- style by the time he left England for New President (and thus effectively the chief South Wales in 1839, having published by office-bearer since the Governor was ex then some fifty papers on geological sub- officio President) for a period of nine years jects as well as a number of literary works.
    [Show full text]
  • A History of Popular Astronomy in Australia in the Era of the Lantern Slide
    Abstract This is the first extended study of popular astronomy in Australia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. There has been considerable interest in the history of popular science in Britain in this period but less study of practices elsewhere. This thesis provides both original research and a comparison. The periodization 1825–1910 corresponds to the era of the lantern as a major media format, reflecting the importance of visual and material practices. Beyond the general Victorian-era interest in visuality, ‘teaching through the eye’ had particular relevance to the visual science of astronomy. It is argued that the public knowledge practices of popular astronomy are intimately connected with the technologies of visual and material communication and that the lantern was a particularly high-impact medium. Research primarily involved analysis of newspapers, magazines, and manuscripts. This included a broad survey of astronomy in popular culture through sources such as travel diaries and weather almanacs, and detailed case-studies, such as the 1880 tour of Australia and New Zealand of the British astronomer Richard Proctor and the use of popular astronomy by freethought lecturers of the 1890s. A contention of the thesis is that practices of astronomical popularization change on multiple timescales. Scientific discovery can be fast while cultural frameworks change more slowly. Analysing these multiple timescales needs approaches beyond the microhistorical techniques common in recent scholarship. This thesis adopts an analytic framework of cultural schemata, which can trace how ideas work through social and material technologies at various timescales. Five cultural schemata relating to astronomy are described: Australia is a land under the southern stars; astronomy tells of a sky that is a source of power and danger; astronomy gives insight into religion; astronomy is an exemplary science; and astronomy speaks to the human condition through the possibilities of life elsewhere.
    [Show full text]