First Exhibition Held In The Museum, Sydney, NSW
1855. Lithograph after daguerreotype, 27.8 x 38.5cm. Trimmed to image, laid down on original album page. Partial caption with date on album page remnant in window below image. This image was issued separately and is the only known lithograph after an Australian daguerreotype of an 1850s interior view. This lithograph is rare with only three institutions listing it in their collection: the National Gallery of Australia, State Library of NSW and National Library of Australia. The whereabouts of the daguerreotype is unknown. The text missing from the caption reads “taken from a daguerreotype by Gow, 348 George Street [Sydney].” This image is a “view of the interior of the Australian Museum, Sydney [College Street], at the time of its first exhibition” held from late 1854 to early 1855. Opened by Sir Charles Fitzroy (Brit., 1796-1858), tenth governor of the colony of NSW, on 14 November 1854, the exhibition comprised natural and industrial products from across NSW that were to be sent for display at the Paris Exposition, which was held from 15 May to 15 November 1855. Born in Scotland in 1800, photographer James Gow (Scottish/Amer./Aust., 1800–1896) moved to Manchester, England where he became “actively” involved in Chartism, a working-class movement for political reform. His activism upset "authorities" and Gow was “forced” to emigrate. He went to San Francisco and worked as a lithographer and photographer in partnership with engraver Robert W. Fishbourne. In 1853 Gow arrived in Sydney, setting up a photographic studio. He took photographs of “public buildings as well as portraits and exhibited these at the Australian Museum exhibition in 1854. In 1855 he exhibited a portrait of an Australian Aboriginal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris and received an honourable mention. Gow worked in Sydney until 1884 where he appears to have retired.” Ref: National Gallery of Australia; Paul Riley (descendant of Gow), Gow’s handwritten memoirs; Geoff Barker, Powerhouse, 2010.
Item #CL208-4
Price (AUD): $7,700.00 other currencies