Colonial botany Two Scots and 26 teaching aids Sophie Garrett

During a recent project to upgrade to the rapid communication of ideas or academic qualifications. Societies storage data for the repository of the and information today than it was and universities, individuals, University of Archives when these illustrations were made. museums and the agricultural sector (UMA), archives staff became Dr John Macadam (1827–1865) were all involved in the pursuit interested in 26 sheets of large- arrived in Melbourne from of scientific knowledge. Such scale botanical illustrations. These in 1855, aged 28, to take up an activity embodied ‘the Victorian intriguing items serve as illustrations appointment teaching chemistry and urge to combine recreation with of how scientific ideas were spread in natural science at Scotch College, higher purposes such as reform and the 19th century. holding this post until his death.1 In education’.4 Although comprehensive Two names appear on the 1862, Macadam began lecturing in knowledge was associated with watercolours: N. Stewart and John chemistry and practical chemistry gentlemanly independence, its Macadam M.D. To find out more in the ’s pursuit softened gender, class and about the connection between these newly established medical school.2 educational barriers. men, I corresponded with librarians, He also became involved in many A student notebook from 1858 archivists and other collection spheres of endeavour in the rapidly (opposite and p. 52) confirms that professionals in distant places and developing colony. He was elected Macadam used the illustrations locally with equal ease, primarily by a member of the Philosophical now held at UMA as teaching aids email—attaching digital images and Institute (later Royal Society) of at Scotch College (then in East scans. Distance is far less a barrier Victoria in 1855 and served on its Melbourne).5 council, as editor of its Transactions The trail showing how the (1855–60) and as honorary secretary illustrations came to the university (1857–59). Macadam (together with is faint, although correspondence all four foundation professors of following Macadam’s death records the university) served on the Royal his widow’s wish for the university Society’s committee for the Victorian to retain his apparatus and other Exploring Expedition, to be led by equipment. One of these letters Burke and Wills; Macadam’s duties mentions ‘diagrams’ but without included writing the instructions for indicating their nature.6 A note the expedition’s botanist.3 found with the sheets in the UMA Throughout Britain and her repository suggests that Professor colonies, natural science societies of Alfred James Ewart and Dr Ethel various types supported expeditions McLennan used them while and experiments, and disseminated teaching at the School of Botany knowledge to their members, many of (between 1906 and 1955) and a whom joined by paying a fee, without few sheets bear Dr McLennan’s any requirement for formal training handwriting (see top of p. 52).

50 University of Melbourne Collections, issue 19, December 2016 Opposite: Neil Stewart, annotated by Below, left: Neil Stewart, annotated John Macadam, B/11: … An epiphytic by John Macadam, B/32: Diagram, orchid …, c. 1844–54, watercolour on illustrative of the morphology of a paper, 61.0 × 48.0 cm. 2016.0062, dichlamydeous flower …, c. 1844–54, Visual Aids for Teaching Botany, watercolour on paper, University of Melbourne Archives. 61.0 × 48.0 cm. 2016.0062, Visual Aids for Teaching Botany, University of Melbourne Archives.

Below, right: James Donaldson Law, page from workbook while a student at Scotch College, East Melbourne, 1858. Personal collection of Paul Mishura.

The usefulness of such teaching but he considered himself suitably work now held by the University of aids declined with the use of glass qualified to teach drawing, and in Dundee are inscribed ‘Drawn by photographic slides, and it appears 1853 gathered testimonials of support N. Stewart’ with a date, and some that the sheets were put aside, from men of science for his application show a letter-number combination eventually being transferred from the for a teaching post.8 He lived and at upper right, similar to those at School of Botany to UMA sometime worked in Edinburgh, not far from UMA.9 Stewart joined the Botanical after 1960. the Royal Infirmary, producing Society of Edinburgh in 1850, Comparatively little is known illustrations of pathology specimens becoming its official artist in 1857. about Neil Stewart (1814–1875).7 for Dr William Gairdner from 1848 Several universities in other parts Nothing is known of his training, until about 1855. Examples of this of Britain commissioned teaching

Sophie Garrett, ‘Colonial botany’ 51 Right: Attributed to Dr Ethel McLennan, pencil inscription above signature of John Macadam, from sheet B/35 [untitled]. 2016.0062, Visual Aids for Teaching Botany, University of Melbourne Archives.

Below, left: Neil Stewart, annotated by John Macadam, B/39 [untitled], c. 1844–54, watercolour on paper, 61.0 × 48.0 cm. 2016.0062, Visual Aids for Teaching Botany, University of Melbourne Archives.

Below, right: James Donaldson Law, page from student workbook, 1858.

illustrations from him;10 surviving common practice in the 19th century, this illustration was made by the artist unsigned examples held by the Royal and explains in part why subsequent of the ‘Dapuri drawings’ in India, Botanic Garden Edinburgh are iterations of illustrations by other c. 1848.12 similar in style to those at UMA. artists may be less detailed than the Botanical species new to science Although Stewart is known to original, and often quite crude. One are described in both words and have worked from specimens and of the watercolours at UMA is very drawings, and a ‘type’ specimen ‘from the microscope’,11 he based like an illustration of Thea viridis (the specimen upon which the first some of his illustrations and diagrams by W.J. Hooker, published in 1832 published scientific identification on the work of others. This was a (opposite, below). Another version of is based) is retained by a collecting

52 University of Melbourne Collections, issue 19, December 2016 Top: Neil Stewart, annotated by John Macadam, B/49 … Thea viridis, c. 1844–54, watercolour on paper, 61.0 × 48.0 cm. 2016.0062, Visual Aids for Teaching Botany, University of Melbourne Archives

Bottom: W.J. Hooker (artist); Swan (printmaker), Thea viridis, lithograph, in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, vol. 59, 1 December 1832, Plate 3148, p. 81. Missouri Botanical Garden.

institution such as a herbarium. In the Transactions of the Philosophical the mid-19th century, descriptions Institute of Victoria.17 The and drawings of plants and animals Transactions included an illustration new to Western scientists were of Macadamia by , copied and circulated, published and later one of the members of the reprinted, fuelling an enthusiasm ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition. for ‘discovery’ and contributing It is likely that Stewart based his to the rapid growth of scientific illustrations on Becker’s lithograph understanding of the physical world. (see p. 54) in the same way that The establishment in 1852 of a Lawson re-voiced the text. All these regular mail service carried by steam- links prompt the tantalising question powered vessels reduced transport of whether John Macadam may have time for mail between Australia personally known Neil Stewart in and Britain from an average of 121 Edinburgh. days to 79,13 enabling discoveries Each of UMA’s 26 illustrations and scientific theories to be more is in watercolour on a large sheet quickly communicated than in the of heavy paper, and bears several days of sail.14 About six months after handwritten inscriptions in ink. the Macadamia tree was named for John Macadam M.D. is signed in John Macadam in 1857 by botanist Macadam’s own hand in dark-brown Ferdinand Mueller (a fellow member ink in the lower right corner.18 of the Philosophical Institute),15 a The annotation at lower left reads report on this newly documented N. Stewart del.t, Edin r. On slips genus in the Proteaceae family was of paper inserted into slits in the given to the Botanical Society of main sheet are notes identifying the Edinburgh by Dr George Lawson.16 species or part of the plant depicted, Lawson based his 1858 address on while numbers in the form B/n in Mueller’s description, and illustrated a broken series (for instance, B/32, his presentation with drawings by B/39) are inscribed upper right. local artist and fellow member Neil Holes in each corner indicate that Stewart, whom he had supported the sheets were at some time pinned by testimonial a few years earlier. to a wall or board. Mueller’s description of Macadamia To confirm that Neil Stewart came to Lawson from Dr Stevenson was the creator of the works now Macadam (brother of John held at UMA, we compared them Macadam) in the form of a copy of to some of his known works in

Sophie Garrett, ‘Colonial botany’ 53 Ludwig Becker (artist and lithographer); H. Friend (printer), Macadamia ternifolia. Ferd: Mueller, lithograph, in Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria, vol. 2, part 2, 1857, p. 73. Library of the Royal Society of Victoria.

Scotland, using digital images and Sophie Garrett works in collection management 9 ‘Pathology drawings’, Unlocking the medicine descriptions provided by collection and outreach at the University of Melbourne chest, Archives Record Management Archives. Museum Services, University of Dundee, managers. On the UMA illustrations, http://arccat.dundee.ac.uk/dserve/dserve2/ Stewart is acknowledged as the artist 1 K.F. Russell, ‘Macadam, John (1827–1865)’, history/ms16hist.html, viewed 3 February in a form usually used in published Australian dictionary of biography (vol. 5, 2016. Melbourne University Press, 1974), National 10 Edelman, Communities of science in prints, unlike the form of signature Centre of Biography, Australian National nineteenth-century Ireland, p. 116. t on the Dundee examples. (Del or del University, adb.anu.edu.au, viewed 3 February 11 ‘From the microscope by N. Stewart, stands for delineavit, Latin for ‘drew’, 2016. printed in colours by W.H. Lizars, Edin’, meaning the artist from whose 2 Dr Macadam was appointed on 6 January illustration for John Hughes Bennett, 1862, to teach chemistry and practical ‘An investigation into the structure of drawing the printing surface— chemistry, and was required to supply apparatus the Torbanehill mineral, and various such as a lithographic plate— was and chemicals at his own cost (Minutes of kinds of coal’, Transactions Royal Society prepared). This oddity suggests that University of Melbourne Council, meeting, of Edinburgh, vol. 21, part 1, 1853–54, 6 January 1862. 1993.0044, University of pp. 173–85. Macadam may have written the Melbourne Council, University of Melbourne 12 Henry J. Noltie, The Dapuri drawings: acknowledgement when he signed Archives). Alexander Gibson and the Bombay Botanic his ownership on the sheets—the ink 3 Burke and Wills Expedition Records, Gardens, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, appears to match, and although the MS 13071, State Library Victoria, viewed 2002. 3 February 2016 via Burke and Wills web: 13 ‘JRC’, ‘Fifty years ago, the arrival of the writing differs, this may be due to the Digital research archive, www.burkeandwills. first mail steamship in Australia’,Sydney difference between careful lettering net.au/index.php. Morning Herald, 30 August 1902, p. 5. and a signature. 4 Juliana Edelman, Communities of science in 14 Among his many roles, Macadam was nineteenth-century Ireland, London: Pickering postmaster-general in Victoria in 1861, and With further work, a conservator & Chatto, 2009, p. 11. Member of the Legislative Assembly for could analyse the papers, inks and 5 James Donaldson Law, Workbook while a Castlemaine. watercolours in order to prove student at Scotch College, 1858. Personal 15 Ferdinand Mueller became known as Baron or disprove these observations. collection of Paul Mishura. von Mueller from 1867. 6 J.W. Nolan (on behalf of Mrs Macadam) to 16 G. Lawson, ‘A new genus of Proteaceae’, Communication is easy these days, the chancellor, vice-chancellor and Council of Transactions of the Botanical Society but exchanging digital images and the University of Melbourne, 31 October 1865; Edinburgh, vol. 5, 1858, pp. 36–7. descriptions via the internet cannot J.W. Nolan to E.F. à Beckett, 2 February 1866. 17 Ferdinand Mueller, ‘An account of some Letters 380 and 384, 1993.0046, University of new Australian plants, read before the substitute for working with the Melbourne Medical School Correspondence Institute 5 August 1857’, Transactions of real thing. 1856–1909, University of Melbourne Archives. the Philosophical Institute of Victoria, vol. 2, 7 Obituary for N. Stewart, quoted in W.L. Yule, January–December 1857, pp. 62–77. Author’s acknowledgements: I am grateful ‘In search of a medical artist’, The Lancet, 18 Macadam’ s signature on the sheets of for contributions to this research and express vol. 352, no. 9130, 5 September 1998, illustrations matches those on the following my thanks particularly to Graham Hardy pp. 806–9. letters to the University of Melbourne: and Dr Henry Noltie, Royal Botanic Garden 8 Neil Stewart (compiler), Testimonials in John Macadam to A.C. Brownless, Edinburgh; Sally Stewart, Royal Botanic Garden favour of Mr Neil Stewart, artist, Edinburgh: 13 January 1862; John Macadam to John Melbourne; Lynn Parker and her colleagues at 1853, 8 pp, item in bound volume labelled James, 21 January 1862 (Letters 316 and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Paul Mishura at ‘Testimonials P–W’. Accession code DZGU1, 317, 1993.0046, University of Melbourne Scotch College, Melbourne; and Doug McCann, Special Collections, Library, Royal Botanic Medical School Correspondence, University Royal Society of Victoria. Garden Edinburgh. of Melbourne Archives).

54 University of Melbourne Collections, issue 19, December 2016