ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 43 | February 2000
The manuscripts of George Collingridge
![]() |
George Collingridge sometimes called himself theHermit of Berowra. But far from being a recluse, Collingridge was a very active person, who from his house in the northern suburbs of Sydney achieved renown in a polymathic range of subjects. Born in England in 1847 and trained as an artist in Paris, Collingridge migrated to Australia in 1879. With his brother, Arthur, he founded the Royal Art Society of New South Wales in 1880; at the Garden Palace, Sydney, George exhibited 10 paintings in the Societys inaugural exhibition. But as well as being an artist and engraver, George was a linguist, historian and cartographer, and his greatest passion was research on Australian maritime discovery. |
|
George Collingridge
(18471931) |
His chief publication on this topic, The Discovery of Australia, embodies his strong belief that the Portuguese charted the northern and eastern coasts of Australia in the sixteenth century. His pursuit of documentation on the subject led him to read every book and examine every map of real importance to the question, whether published in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian or Dutch.
![]() |
The Library has recently acquired an important collection of drafts of Collingridges writings. The most substantial relate to his books The Discovery of Australia (1895), Alice in One Dear Land (1922), Berowra and the Unsolved Mystery of Its Amazing Ridge (1924), Round and Round the World (c.1925) and Pacifika: The Antediluvian World (c.1928). The other majorgroup of manuscripts are the 63 drafts of articles. The collection includes layout dummies, and several of the items are good examples of book production. Accompanying the manuscripts is a small wooden globe showing Java Major alias Terra Australia 1530. This refers to Java-la-Grande, Collingridges home in Hornsby. The globe is one of the earliest made in Australia, and is now housed in the Map Collection. That so many of Collingridges manuscripts have survived almost 70 years after his death (in 1931) owes much to the careful guardianship of his descendants. As well as being a permanent memorial to a gifted Australian, the manuscripts will be a fine complement to the papers of contemporaries who shared Collingridges interest in early maritime exploration, such as E.A. Petherick and Frederick Watson, and to his engravings held in the Pictorial Collection. |
|
George Collingridge (18471931)
|
Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: tford@nla.gov.au