In June 1860 Johann Ludwig Krefft was appointed Assistant Curator of the Australian Museum, then acting Curator and Secretary in 1861. Krefft was a well respected scientist and wrote over 150 papers. His major publications included The Snakes of Australia (1869) and Mammals of Australia (1871). After various disputes with the Museum Trustees, Krefft was dismissed and dramatically removed from the Museum premises on 21 September 1874. Krefft's wife had money problems after Krefft's death in 1881 and sold copies of Snakes of Australia and the Mammals of Australia to the Library.
The Library Council minutes for August 17, 1883 note that "the Librarian had caused one copy of the mammals, and one copy of the Snakes of Australia, purchased from Mrs Krefft, to be coloured as a specimen of work, to see if the trustees would sanction all of the copies obtained being coloured in the same style. ...the total cost for completing all of the volumes being about 30 pounds."
The Library holds multiple copies of Krefft's Snakes of Australia How many of our copies contain the original lithographs hand-coloured by the Scott sisters? Can we identify the copies hand-coloured by order of the Library trustees?
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment