• Title
  [Governor Arthur's Proclamation to the Aborigines, ca. 1828-1830]
• Call number
  SAFE/R 247
  
• Level of description
  fonds
• Date
  
  ca. 1828-1830
• Type of material
  Graphic Materials, Paintings
• Reference code
  442502
• Issue Copy
  Digitised
• Physical Description
  1 painting - 35.7 x 22.6 x 1 cm. - oil on huon pine board
  
• Scope and Content
  Oil painting on huon pine board, rectangular in shape with rounded corners, with a hole at top centre for suspension, depicting four scenes:
  
  1. Aborigines and white settlers in European dress mingling harmoniously
  2. Aboriginal men and women, and an Aboriginal child approach Governor Arthur to shake hands while peaceful soldiers look on
  3. A hostile Aboriginal man spears a male white settler and is hanged by the military as Governor Arthur looks on
  4. A hostile white settler shoots an Aboriginal man and is hanged by the military as Governor Arthur looks on
• Access Conditions
  
  Access via appointment
• Copying Conditions
  Out of copyright: Creator died before 1955
  Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
• Variant title
  
  Previously titled Governor Davey's [sic - actually Governor Arthur] Proclamation to the Aborigines, 1816 [sic actually c.1828-30]
• General note
  
  Incorrectly labelled as Governor Davey's proclamation, this work actually depicts Lieutenant-Governor Arthur's proclamation of c.1828-1830. Originally conceived by George Frankland as a way of communicating the proclamation to Aborigines so they would understand how it affected them, his original drawing was reproduced onto boards in 1830 and then mounted on trees in remote areas where Aborigines would see them. The Tasmanian Surveyor-General's Office later produced lithographic reproductions of the originals, and these too were incorrectly titled as Governor Davey's, the mistake being also perpetuated in subsequent copies. Thus the boards and lithographs came to be popularly referred to as Governor Davey's Proclamation, despite that being an error. Source: Dictionary of Australian Artists / Joan Kerr (Ed.). Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1992
  
  For further details of the conception of the painting, see the entry on George Frankland in Dictionary of Australian Artists / Joan Kerr (Ed.). Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1992
  For information about the provenance of this board, and the existence of other reproductions, see ""Notes on A Message to the Tasmanian Aborigines in 1829, popularly called 'Governor Davey's Proclamation to the Aborigines, 1816'"" by John Morris in Australiana, August 1988, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp.84-87
  
  For further notes and references about the date of creation of this board and another lithograph held at DG V/2 - DG V/3, see PXn 19 & PXn 704.
  
  Microfilm copy available at MAV/FM4/2338, frame 78
  Digital order no:a928138
• Signatures / Inscriptions
  
  ""Governor Davey's / Proclamation / to the Aborigines / 1816"" -- handwritten on label affixed to upper right corner
  Stamped in black ink on reverse, ""M.D.m"".
• Subject
  Adult Males
  Adult Females
  children
  
• Topic
  Aboriginal peoples (Australians)
  broadsheets
  children
  dogs
  Governors
  guns (small arms)
  hangings (capital punishment)
  law enforcement
  oil paintings
  race relations
  shootings (crime)
  soldiers
  spears
  Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples
  uniforms
  weapons
  
• Place
  Tasmania
  
• Exhibited in
  
  National treasures from Australia's great libraries
  ONE hundred : celebrating the Mitchell Library centenary

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