Travel Writers, Museums and Reflections of Empire 1770-1901

Products of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, museum institutions were created in the Australasian colonies on the model of the British Museum and as a reflection and embodiment of the British imperial project. They were assessed and reassessed in the published works of nineteenth-century travelling writers. Their responses and criticisms helped create an ongoing debate within the colonies and internationally about their roles and functions. The thesis uses evidence in these contemporary responses to analyze the success (or otherwise) of these institutions, their role in the wider imperial project in Australasia, their capacity to act as pro- or anti-imperialist propaganda and their potential validation of individual imperial careers. The thesis complicates existing views of the imperial project in museums and sheds light on the cluster of attitudes of nineteenth-century writers to empire and imperial institutions.The thesis spans the period from the Endeavours arrival at Botany Bay to federation of the Australian colonies in 1901. Chapter One discusses the collection of an Aboriginal shield at Botany Bay by Sir Joseph Banks and its display in the British Museums Enlightenment Gallery. Chapter Two considers Bankss role in the development of museum institutions in Britain that provided the model for those established in the Australasian colonies. Chapter Three examines nineteenth-century international exhibitions and their presentation of the Australasian colonies. Chapter Four surveys the careers of writers who travelled to Australasia, and their views on imperialism. Chapter Five analyses the responses of travelling writers to colonial museums, locating these within their individual views of museums and verdicts on antipodean society. Chapter Six deals with botanic gardens as museum institutions that physically and intellectually imposed European cultural practices on colonial locations to achieve imperial goals; and debates in Britain and her colonies between scientific rigour and provision of recreational space in botanic gardens. Chapter Seven presents the responses of travelling writers to antipodean botanic gardens and their contributions to the debate over scientific goals and public amenity. Chapters Eight and Nine provide a detailed analysis of J. A. Froudes account of Sir George Greys Maori collection that bolstered Greys reputation as father of the Maori race