Whaling – State Library and Tasmanian Archives Blog

Recently Digitised Material 2023

Read more to explore some of the newly digitised highlights from the Tasmanian Archives and State Library Heritage collections. To discover even more, you can also search our catalogue and Tasmanian Names Index or visit us on Flickr, YouTube and Instagram.

In this blog:

From my camera: Masterton photo album Launceston, 1908
Austin’s Ferry by George Boyes, c1830-40
Glass Plate Negatives and Lantern Slides of Bridport and north east Tasmania c1900 (Ref: NS787)
Photographs taken by T R G Williams of Scottsdale and north east Tasmania c1900 (Ref: NS786)
The Mount Bischoff Mail 1881
Photographs of ‘Tornado’ at Queenstown, 1918 (Ref: NS7240/1/1-11)
Rough sketches in V D Land by J W Mansfield, 1844
Aerial view of Sandy Bay and University of Tasmania 1962 (Ref: PH40/1/1093)
Lantern Slides of Neilson Alonso’s voyages to the Antarctic in 1927 and 1930 (Ref: CRO75/1/1-69)
Photographic albums of Beattie Jordan’s dance school (c1920-40). (Ref: NS648)
Album of Photographs of Tasmania compiled by RC Coulter, 1860-1920
Map including DEntrecasteaux Channel and Derwent River 1897. (Ref: MAP1/1/101)
Locket including hand-coloured photographs of W and L Arnold (Ref: NS7404/1/1)
Album of Tasmania (Ref: PH20/1/66)
Images of blankets and woollen cloth manufacture in Launceston, 1950-60. (Ref: ED330)
Lithograph of the trial of Jones of Pont-y-pool
Scrapbook of Henrietta Maria Garrett.
Plans, Architectural Drawings, Elevations and Sections of Public Buildings (PWD266)
Hobart from Knocklofty (aka Hobart seen from the west) / Melvin Vaniman (Ref: NS7407/1/1)
Photographs from the Launceston Manuscript Collection (Ref: LMSS726)
Photographs Taken by Ebenezer Cumings (1900-1904) (Ref: LMSS725)
Launceston Collection of Photographs of Ships (Ref: LMSS761)
Diary of Alexander Laing 1868] (Ref: NS906/1/1-3)
Laura’s Brookville diaries (1819-1894).
Prisoners Barracks, Hobart – Registers of Rations issued to Prisoners (1841-51) (Ref: CON96)
Letterbooks of Correspondence addressed to the Commandant, Launceston (1826-41) – (Ref: CSO36)
Report on Parochial Schools within Archdeaconry of Hobart Town by Arthur Davenport, 1849 (Ref: MM83/1/1)
Logs and other journals of ships on whaling and trading voyages (Ref: CRO82)
Oversize Chart of Convict Department Task Work of Female Convicts, 1852 (Ref: GO33/1/100)
Plan of cemetery, St James Colebrook, 1850 (Ref: NS6504/1/1)
Master Set of Burial Plot Maps, Cornelian Bay Cemetery, 1915-16 (Ref: AF86/1/1-2)

Tasmania Reads: Reading an entry from the Log of the Whaling Ship Chance (Part Two: The Answer and Historical Background)

The State Library and Archive Service is issuing a challenge to Tasmanians to read five different examples of nineteenth-century handwriting from our Heritage Collections, each featuring a different set of records held in the State Archives.

Tasmania Reads: Reading an entry from the Log of the Whaling Ship Chance (Part One: The Challenge)

The scripts are selected to give you insights into some of the key strengths of our collection and we hope they will pique your interest to explore further.

This is our third challenge.

Recently Digitised Material: October-December 2020

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that this post contains images and voices of deceased persons.

This blog features some of the recently digitised items from the Tasmanian Archives and the State Library of Tasmania. Each year, we place items online to help promote and preserve our rare and special collections. These images and films are just a tiny sample of an amazing treasure trove of Tasmania’s heritage. From colonial artwork to convict records, fragile glass plate negatives to rare films, private letters to government records, our collections (including the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts and the W L Crowther Collection) tell millions of stories from Tasmania and around the world.

Read on to find out more about our new additions to our digital collections! To discover even more, you can also search our catalogue or visit us on Flickr and YouTube.

In this blog:

Peter Laurie Reid Carte-De-Visite Collection, c1860 – Ref: NS1442/1/1 to 53
Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914 – Ref: NS6607/1/1 to 14
Stereoscopic Photographs of Emu Bay Burnie, c1890 – Ref: NS6664/1/1 to 5
Stereoscopic photographs taken by George Benjamin Davies for submission to the Postal Stereoscopic Society of Australia, c1921 – Ref: NS6538/1/1 to 33
Tasmanian Government Tourist Bureau photographs – AA375
Photograph of Fanny Cochrane Smith and Horace Watson recording Tasmanian Aboriginal Songs: NS1553/1/1798
Illustrated Travelogue July 1919 – Ref: NS6853
Fountain in Governor’s garden, Port Arthur – Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts
Drawing of George Meredith, Senior – Ref: LMSS12/1/72
Photographs from the Trustees of the Tasmanian Public Library – Ref: SLT23
Wills Image Replacement Project: AD960/1/1
Diary of Police Duties kept by Charles H. Brown, District Constable, Coal Mines, Tasman Peninsula 1853 – Ref: CON129/1/1
Index to General Correspondence, 1836-7 – Ref: CSO4

Continue reading “Recently Digitised Material: October-December 2020”

Recently Digitised Material

This blog features some of the recently digitised items from the Tasmanian Archives and the State Library of Tasmania. Each year, we place items online to help promote and preserve our rare and special collections. These images and films are just a tiny sample of an amazing treasure trove of Tasmania’s heritage. From colonial artwork to convict records, from fragile glass plate negatives to rare films, from private letters to government records, our collections (including the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts and the W L Crowther Collection) tell literally millions of stories from Tasmania and around the world.

Read on to find out more about our new additions to our digital collections! To discover even more, you can also search our catalogue or visit us on Flickr and YouTube.

In this blog:

Glass Plate Negatives of Sea Captains, c1920 – Ref: NS6192
Stereoscopic Views of the ‘Franklin Relics,’ 1860 – Ref: NS1155
Mt Biscoff Tin Mine Photographs – Ref: NS6719
Gentleman Jim, 1942 – Reference: Ref: NS4264/1/5
Hobart High School Photos – Ref: AG162/1/6
Charles Street School Register 1902-08 – Ref: AB753/1/1
Return of Convicts Embarked for Port Arthur by the Ships Tamar, Isabella, Shamrock, and Lady Franklin (1834-1855). Ref: CON126/1/1
Return of Money Forfeited by Prisoners at Port Arthur (1864). Ref: CON132/1/1
Letter from the Colonial Secretary to the Commandant, Port Arthur (1834). Ref: CON86/1/2
Film: Timber Makes News, 1947 – Ref: AC672/1/219
Film: Les Skelly talking about Tiger Hill, 1986-9 – Ref: NS1391/1/1
Film: Burnie Mill, 1956 – Ref: AC672/1/1

Continue reading “Recently Digitised Material”

Esther’s Story, Part Two: Getting By in Hobart, 1860-1870

“Cross Street, Sandy Bay Road,” “Be a good girl, Esther,” “Esther shall not go out again,” “Bombay is in Asia, ABC,” “Evil communication corrupts,” “Love your grandmother Esther” – each of these were written over and over again in a whaler’s logbook, and signed “Esther Mary Paul” in November or December, 1865. What was little Esther doing writing these lines, in -between and alongside the records of her uncle and aunt’s adventures at sea long before she was born? Was she being educated or punished, or both? Where was she living and why was she there? In this continuing story of little Esther Mary Paul and the whaling logbook in the Crowther Collection, we’ll try to piece together Esther’s young life. It’s a tale of sorrow, struggle, and abandonment, but also of strength, resilience, and love.

Esther’s Story, Part One: The Whaler’s Log

In November of 1865, a five year old girl named Esther sat in a house in Sandy Bay, writing lines in a small, leather-bound book. Some days, she had geography lessons. Some days, she was in trouble. Some days, she just needed to memorize her new address. Two months came and went, and the little girl wrote line after line. Her notebook had once belonged to her Uncle William, and recorded his whaling voyages to the Pacific Ocean and the Timor Sea. In the spaces in-between the stories of whales and gales, little Esther did her school work. So did her Aunt Charlotte, who copied out poems and ballads for the little girl to memorize. Aunt Charlotte knew that logbook well, for it was the record of her own honeymoon at sea, nine years earlier. Now it became a part of a different family story – of tragedy, loss, love, abandonment, and survival.

Esther’s Story is actually the story of three nineteenth-century women: Esther Mary Paul (Lithgow), her mother Cecilia Eliza (Rowland) Paul, and her aunt Charlotte Ann (Rowland) Jacobs. Over Family History Month, we’ll follow these women through three blogs and fifty years of their lives, using digital collections together with library and archival resources. It’s a tale of adventure, improvisation, and resilience, but it’s also something else. It’s a reminder – of how our own historical present can change how we think about the past. Read on to discover more.