National Library of Australia
The Flower Hunter | Ellis Rowan

Publications in the Exhibition

(chronological order)

By the age of 50, Ellis Rowan had achieved such recognition in Australia and the international art world that she was already an Australian household name. She was mid-career and chose that time to publish her autobiography A Flower-Hunter in Queensland and New Zealand (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1898) based on entertaining, but factually inaccurate letters to her family. As yet, she had not had a solo exhibition in Europe, nor explored the Americas or the remote parts of New Guinea. Few letters and no diaries remain from her life prior to, or after, the events described in this book: her press cuttings are undated and give little reference to their source. Despite several biographies written since then, and some well-researched catalogues, many aspects of her extraordinary life and personal details remain a mystery.

 

The Picturesque Atlas of Australasia, vol. 1–3
Sydney: The Picturesque Atlas Publishing Co., 1886–1888

Lake HindmarshThe Picturesque Atlas of Australasia was published in three volumes. Many of its approximately 700 wood-engraved illustrations were specially commissioned works by leading Australian and American artists. The work covers Australian history from the days of the earliest Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, English and French navigators to the 1880s. Included is the landing of Captain Cook in 1770 and information about explorers and pioneer missionaries, the formation of the different colonies and the establishment of representative government.

 

Fording the RiverEllis Rowan

A Flower-Hunter in Queensland and New Zealand
Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1898

This book is based on a series of colourful letters Ellis wrote to her husband during on her travels. In describing her adventures, she tells of hair-raising encounters with snakes and crocodiles, bolting horses and the perils of turbulent sea voyages.

 

Alice Lounsberry (illus. by Ellis Rowan)

A Guide to the Wild Flowers
New York: Frederick A. Stokes and Co., 1899

and

Arbor-Vitae Thuja occidentalisAlice Lounsberry (illus. by Ellis Rowan)

Southern Wild Flowers and Trees
New York: Frederick A. Stokes and Co., 1901

Towards the end of the 1890s Ellis Rowan spent six years travelling around the United States and the West Indies with the American botanist, Alice Lounsberry. Their collaboration resulted in these two books, and another—A Guide to the Trees (1900)—which are still being used as standard reference tools.

 

Ellis Rowan

Bill Baillie: His Life and AdventuresBill Baillie: His Life and Adventures
Melbourne: Whitcombe and Tombs, 1908

In 1906 Ellis Rowan was in the Western Australian goldmining area around Kalgoorlie, Laverton and Goongarrie. She was regarded with respect by the people who lived there and on one occasion she was given a bandicoot rabbit. She named him Bill Baillie and he became her travelling companion for several years. She wrote of their times together in this book which was reprinted in 1948 in modified form as a ‘story reader suitable for children aged 10–12 years’.

 

F. Manson Bailey

Phaius Grandifolius, Lour., var.Rowanae, Bail.A Comprehensive Catalogue of Queensland Plants
Brisbane: A.J. Cumming Government Printer, 1913

The Queensland State Government Botanist, Manson Bailey, chose 16 of Ellis Rowan's paintings as colour plates for this book. He also named a large spotted orchid in her honour.

 

Henry A. Tardent

Mrs Ellis Rowan and Her Contributions to Australian Art and Science
Brisbane: Watson, Ferguson and Co., 1927

 

Helen Jo Samuel

Wild Flower Hunter: The Story of Ellis Rowan
London: Constable and Company Ltd., 1961

 

Margaret Hazzard and Helen Hewson

Flower Paintings of Ellis Rowan from the Collection of the National Library of Australia
Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1982

The highlight of the National Library's publishing program in 1982 was this volume featuring 20 reproductions chosen from the 947 works acquired by the Commonwealth Government in 1923, the year after the artist's death. Not only was it the most ambitious of the Library's publications to date, it was also the most sumptuous.

 

Marianne NorthMarianne North

A Vision of Eden: The Life and Work of Marianne North
London: HMSO in association with the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, 1996