Treasures of our nation
The Endeavour Journal - picture from the National Library of Australia
The National Library of Australia is sending national treasures from Australia’s Great Libraries on walkabout from 3 December 2005 . The exhibition celebrates our history, our nation, our libraries and our treasures. It offers a unique opportunity to view, in one place, more than 170 rare and valuable objects—many never before displayed—that are housed in Australia ’s national, state and territory libraries.
There are all sorts of things including Henry Lawson’s pen. Have a look at them here.
http://nla.gov.au/nla.nla.pic-an2256760
I have a special interest in Captain James Cook’s Endeavour Journal. I am a descendent of John Gore, one of three Americans on the Endeavour. He came from the Chesapeake Bay area of Virginia. It is believed that the Gore family/descendents may be the only family descended from a crew member of the Endeavour living in Australia.
The family are definitely of the venturing kind. Captain John Gore’s son, Rear-Admiral John Gore (whose guardian, should anything happen to his father, was Sir Joseph Banks), came to Australia to a grant of land at Lake Bathurst, near Goulburn in New South Wales. Various Gores are buried at the back of the graveyard of the beautiful tiny little Anglican Church at Lake Bathurst.
http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an2288558-v
The Rear-Admiral’s son, Graham Gore, travelled on The Beagle when it sailed in Australian waters. There was no artist on board The Beagle but Graham Gore was a talented man and he became the unofficial artist on board. A painting of his, with a date of ca. 1841, Burial Reach, Flinders River, is in the National Library of Australia. The Flinders River is the longest river in Queensland, Australia and flows into the Gulf of Carpentaria. Graham Gore perished in the Arctic on Sir John Franklin’s expedition to find the Northwest Passage. The date of his death is given as 1847. For many, many years little was known of the fate of the Franklin expedition except for a note in the beautiful copperplate handwriting of Graham Gore found under a cairn of stones. The story is told in a most intersting book by Beattie and Geiger called Frozen in Time.
