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C1873
This Chronological Tree of Victorian History.
Artist:
Very rare lithograph of the Chronological Tree of Victorian History, a picture designed and written by James McKain Meek, printed and published by John Paten, in 1873, and photo-lithographed by John Noone, Crown Lands Office, Melbourne. The picture is in … Read Full Description
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S/N: VC-1873-MEEK–298566
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Details
Full Title:
This Chronological Tree of Victorian History.
Date:
C1873
Artist:
Condition:
Damaged at top, some spotting and rebacked, otherwise in good condition.
Technique:
Photo Lithograph
Image Size:
590mm
x 1000mm
Paper Size:
620mm
x 1022mm
AUTHENTICITY
Genuine antique
dated:
1873
Description:
Very rare lithograph of the Chronological Tree of Victorian History, a picture designed and written by James McKain Meek, printed and published by John Paten, in 1873, and photo-lithographed by John Noone, Crown Lands Office, Melbourne.
The picture is in the shape of a gum tree, with a stylised map of Victoria forming the ‘leaves’. It includes substantial statistical information about the colony of Victoria. James Meek included this legend among his extensive text: ‘This chronological tree of Victorian history is by permission most respectfully dedicated to William Henry Archer, Esq., Registrar-General of the Colony of Victoria, and Honorary Corresponding Member of the Statistical Society of London, etc. by his obedient servant James McKain Meek. Victoria is, by her general and healthy climate, by her auriferous, metalferous and mineral deposits, her pastoral capabilities, the productiveness of her agricultural lands, the compulsory education of her children, destined to become one of the great nations of the earth.’
In a now lost autobiography, Meek described the inspiration for and iconography of the chronological tree: ‘It was a resident of the town of Warrnambool in which place I wrote the History of Victoria in the form of a gum tree in tablet form”.
The blossoms of the tree denoted the towns – the foliage occupied the space of the map of Victoria. The branches have the geological features of the country – and the barrel its history arranged in chronological order. Such an undertaking was a very trying one to accomplish the drawing being 6 feet by 5 feet, however in due time I completed my task. In the intermittent time to relieve the monotony I composed my epic poem ?The Creation?, and when finished, I lent it to my friends for their perusal, all admired the sentiment and advised me to get it published, which I did. (Meek, James McKain. Extract of page of [lost] autobiography, nd. Transcript by John T Dallimore, 1986,
Collections:
National Library Australia: Bib ID 1566267
Museums Victoria Collections: Item HT 6971
National Gallery Australia: LEGACY ID 91287
National Library Australia: Bib ID 1566267
Museums Victoria Collections: Item HT 6971
National Gallery Australia: LEGACY ID 91287
James McKain Meek (1815 - 1899)
Artist, penman and designer who emigrated from Norfolk to Sydney in 1838, possibly as a tutor to the children of Governor Gipps. He arrived in Port Phillip District in July 1847 with his wife and young child. He was a pioneer of the Ballarat goldfields, where he was successful in finding gold, ran a store and also a 'soda water factory' (possibly a sly grog shop). He invested the money he made from these enterprises in a fishing boat at Sandridge, together with a cafe near the pier. This business failed when his three fishing boats were sunk in a storm. He then moved with his family to Curdie's Inlet at Peterborough. By August 1855 he had moved to Warrnambool where he set up a fishmonger's store and established the West Coast Fishing Company (1858), which failed by 1859. Meek then worked as a librarian at the Melbourne Public Library, before returning to Curdie's Inlet, where he fished and sold smoked fish to the people of Warrnambool. He sought gold in the area, explored an inland track from Peterborough to Terang, and produced a number of pen and ink illustrations. In 1874 he and the younger members of his family moved to New Zealand, where he was a schoolteacher for a time. In 1890, when he was 75, he returned to Victoria to live with a married daughter. He was 'Assistant Bookkeeper' at the Ballarat Benevolent Home, where he completed a large historical picture of Ballarat. He died in Warrnambool in 1899.
