National Library of Australia - Gateways

ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 62 | April 2003


Collection of First Government Geologist of Papua New Guinea Acquired
Left to right: Jan Fullerton (Director-General, National Library of Australia), Professor Fiona Stanley (University of Western Australia) and Linda Groom (Curator of Pictures)
Left to right: Jan Fullerton (Director-General, National Library of Australia),
Professor Fiona Stanley (University of Western Australia) and Linda Groom (Curator of Pictures)

The Library’s records of Australian administration in Papua New Guinea, and the work of Australian scientists, received a boost recently with the presentation of a collection of 90 glass lantern slides. Taken by the first Australian government geologist in Papua New Guinea, Evan Richard Stanley, they were presented to the Library in a small ceremony late last year by Stanley’s granddaughter Professor Fiona Stanley.

The glass lantern slides, which have survived in remarkably good condition, show scenes of Papuan life such as boat building and food preparation. They join copies of photographs acquired earlier in the year which depict geologically-significant landscapes and the life of the Stanley family in Port Moresby.

E.R. Stanley served as government geologist from 1911 to 1924. He produced the first comprehensive reports of the geology of Papua and New Guinea. His death from an infection at age 39 deprived Australia of a significant and influential scientist. In his eulogy for Stanley, Sir Douglas Mawson described him as a conscientious scientist who was ‘well fitted for work in Papua by reason of his grand physique and natural ability for roughing it’. Stanley’s passion for science has descended through two generations—his son Neville became Professor of Microbiology at the University of Western Australia and his grand daughter Fiona, who was recently announced as Australian of the Year, leads the Institute of Child Health at the same university.
—Linda Groom, Curator of Pictures

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