NOTES
- This idea is more fully discussed in Catherine De Lorenzo and Deborah van der Plaat, “‘Our Australian Switzerland’: Lindt, Humboldt and the Victorian Landscape”, Studies in the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes 24.2 (2004) 133–49.
- ibid. The Acclimatisation Society of Victoria, modelled on earlier French and British ones, was established in 1861, and promoted the introduction of exotic plants and animals for economic purposes.
- Jack Cato, The Story of the Camera in Australia, 2nd ed. ([n.p.], Institute of Australian Photography, 1977) 71.
- The Argus, 11 March 1895, reprinted in Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (Victorian Branch) [PTRGSA (VB)] 12–13 (1895) 47.
- De Lorenzo and van der Plaat, “Our Australian Switzerland”, 133–49; Alexander von Humboldt, Cosmos: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe (5 vols) vol. 2, trans. E. C. Otté (London: Bohn, 1849).
- Humboldt, Cosmos, 1: 5–6, 13.
- Alexander von Humboldt, journal entry, I, [n.d] 81r, Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, cited in Michael Dettelbach, “The Face of Nature: Precise Measurement, Mapping and Sensibility in the Work of Alexander von Humboldt”, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and the Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 30.4 (December 1999) 5–6.
- Dettelbach, “The Face of Nature”: 5–6 and Humboldt, Cosmos, 2: 436.
- Humboldt, Cosmos, 2: 454.
- ibid. 2: 455; 1: 5–6.
- While Humboldt acknowledged the ability to learn from nature was an attribute common to all, he also asserted that in normal circumstances—that is within the geographical confines of Europe—the ability to appreciate the sublime (the unity binding all nature despite its regional variations) was a faculty accessible only to a “modern” and “cultivated” mind (Cosmos, 2: 372–5). All people, irrespective of educational training, could find comfort and solace in nature through the contemplation of universal phenomena such as “the uniform plain bounded only by a distant horizon” or “the waves softly rippling over the beach.” Recognition of the contrast between “the narrow limits of our own existence and the image of infinity” revealed by such scenes, could be intuitively comprehended, in Humboldt's view, by the simplest of men (Cosmos, 1: 5). A more enduring and powerful impression of nature, however, could be discerned through the study of attributes unique to specific geographical regions (Cosmos, 1: 4–5). To aesthetically and scientifically comprehend such “exotic” features generally required, in Humboldt's opinion, a more sophisticated sensibility. For a detailed discussion of this argument see de Lorenzo and van der Plaat, “Our Australian Switzerland”: 133–49.
- Humboldt, Cosmos, 1: 5–6.
- “We so readily perceive the affinity existing amongst all the forms of organic life, that although the sight of a vegetation similar to that of our native country might at first be most welcome to the eye, as the sweet familiar sounds of our mother tongue are to the ear, we nevertheless, by degrees, and almost imperceptibly, become familiarised with a new home and climate. As a true citizen of the world, man everywhere habituates himself to that which surrounds him; yet fearful, as it were, of breaking the links of association that bind him to the home of his childhood, the colonist applies to some few plants in a far distant clime the names he had been familiar with in his native land; and by the mysterious relations existing amongst all types of organisation, the forms of exotic vegetation present themselves to his mind as nobler and more perfect developments of those he had loved in earlier days.” Humboldt, Cosmos, 1: 5.
- De Lorenzo and van der Plaat, “Our Australian Switzerland.”
- Back in 1816 Humboldt had already established a link between the moderating impact of the relatively warm waters of the Pacific Ocean upon Australia's east-coast climate allowing rainforests to extend from Queensland to Tasmania, most definitely including the Yarra Ranges. Alexander von Humboldt, ‘Sur les lois que l'on observe dans la distribution des formes végétales.’ (Paris: Feugueray, 1816). Furthermore, as pointed out by Julia Horne, The Pursuit of Wonder: How Australia's Landscape Was Explored, Nature Discovered and Tourism Unleashed (Melbourne: The Miegunyah P, 2005) 257, 262, in the mid-nineteenth century the words “luxuriant” and “tropical” were more commonly used than “rainforest” and it would appear that this preference was still evident later in the century.
- Humboldt, Cosmos, 1:11. “He who comprehends nature at a single glance, and knows how to abstract his mind from local phenomena, will easily perceive how organic force and the abundance of vital development increase with the increase of warmth from the poles to the equator.” Cosmos, 2: 455.
- Cosmos, 2: 452. Humboldt argues that the artistic failure of most scientific voyages of circumnavigation was a direct consequence of their fixed focus on the coast and their failure to venture inland to the wooded forests and summits described above.
- James Smith, “Picturesque: Victorian Landscapes and Landscape Art”, The Leader, 1 January, 1901: 13.
- ibid.
- De Lorenzo and van der Plaat, “Our Australian Switzerland”: 143.
- C. Heathcote, “When Science Meets Art: Humboldt, Von Guerard and the Australian Wilderness”, Art Monthly, 145 (2001) 27–31; R. W. Home, “Humboldtian Science Revisited: An Australian Case Study,” History of Science, 33 (1995) 1–22; U. Moheit, “Alexander von Humboldt and Australia”, Australian Studies in the History of Discovery and Exploration, eds. H. Lamping and M. Linke (Frankfurt, 1994) 33–42; M. A. Rose, “Alexander von Humboldt and Australian Art and Exploration”, The German Experience in Australia, eds. I. Harmstorf and P. Scherdtfeger (Adelaide, 1994) 106–19.
- Mueller, “Presidential Address”, Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, Report of the Second Meeting, Melbourne, 1890; cited in Rod Home, Science as a German Export to Nineteenth Century Australia (London: Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, University of London, 1995) 8.
- PTRGSA (VB), 12 & 13 (1895) 47.
- De Lorenzo and van der Plaat, “Our Australian Switzerland.”
- Humboldt, Cosmos, 2: 372.
- ibid. 370.
- ibid, respectively 438 and 431.
- Dettelbach, “The Face of Nature”: 5.
- Rev. J. J. Halley, “Presidential Address, 5th Annual Conversazione April 1885”, Victorian Naturalist 2.1 (May 1885) 4–5
- ibid. 5–6.
- A.D. Hardy and Mrs Hardy, “A Tramp from Healesville to Buxton”, read before the FNC, 15 Jan 1906, Victorian Naturalist 22.10 (Feb. 1906) 166.
- Members list: PTRGSA (VB) 3 & 4 (1885–1886). Lindt is listed as a member from 1883 but the authors suspect this is a misprint as the society was only founded in 1884. In the members list of 1906 (vol. 21), Lindt is no longer listed, but as the list from 1900 only published new members, it is probable that Lindt left the society soon after Baron von Mueller's death in October 1896.
- For a detailed historiography of the development of the idea of kunstgeographie, see Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, Towards a Geography of Art, (Chicago; London: University of Chicago P, 2004) Part One.
- It should be noted, however, that it was more often his friend, N.J. Caire, who was cited as having taken images of lyrebirds. See Victorian Naturalist 1.9 (Sept 1884) 82, and 1.10 (Oct 1884)108
- PTRGSA (VB) 11 (1894) 120.
- ibid.
- For more detail on his business development see Maya Graham, “J.W. Lindt (1845–1926) Master Photographer. His Life and an Examination of the Photographic Processes he Used”, MS. [ca. 1994], The authors thank the Healesville Historical Society for providing a copy of the manuscript.
- J.W. Lindt, “Ascent of the Tanna Volcano, and a Tour through the New Hebrides Group”, PTRGSA (VB) 8.2 (1890) 66–75; “Reminiscences of Travel in British New Guinea [extract from his New Guinea Book]” 9.1 (Feb 1892) 124–9; “The New Hebrides Group: Their Resources and Capabilities: A Pioneer Coffee Plantation”, 10 (1892) 32–40; “The Fire Ordeal at Beqa, Fiji Islands”, 11 (August 1893) 45–58.
- PTRGSA (VB) 9.1 (1891) 56.
- In January 1886, Lindt lent a series of images from his travels to New Guinea (PTRGSA (VB) 5 (Dec. 1887) 63. In April 1891 he presented an album of “Scenery and Natives of the New Hebrides Group”, 9.1 (1891) 36. His albums “Picturesque New Hebrides” and “Picturesque Fiji” were reviewed under “Geographical Notes”, 11 (1894) 120. In order to avoid confusion over the pre- and post-independence naming of Papua and Vanuatu, and given that most of the references to these nations comes from original nineteenth-century sources, we will continue to use the names New Hebrides and [British] New Guinea, and trust that this will not cause offence.
- Paper read before the RGSAV, 9 October 1899. R. S. Walpole, “Suggestions as to the Origin and Geographical Distribution of the Aborigines of Australia.” PTRGSA (VB) 17 (1899) 52–62. This paper was preceded by one called “Fiji: Past and Present”, after which it was noted (p. 75) that: “Both papers were illustrated with limelight views and maps, many of which had been kindly lent for the occasion by Mr. J.W. Lindt. F.R.G.S., and Professor H. Baldwin Spencer, M.A. etc.”
- PTRGSA (VB) 8.1 (1890) 26; and 8.2 (1890) 40, 44.
- PTRGSA (VB) 12 & 13 (1895) 22.
- ibid.
- ibid.
- ibid.
- ibid.
- ibid.
- There is one notable exception to this, Lindt's Woman in a Garden, albumen silver photograph on mount, 9.8 × 10.5cm, ca. 1880–9. (La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria (SLV), H85.40/47).
- See Kate Lindt at The Hermitage, ca. 1920 (La Trobe Picture Collection, SLV, H85.40/120).
- Hon. Dr. Dobson, M.L.C., [Presidential address given at the annual conversazione held 30 April 1884], Victorian Naturalist 1.5 (May 1884) 41–2.
- Halley, “Presidential Address”: 4.
- ibid. 4–5
- ibid.
- ibid. 4.
- ibid.
- “Baron von Mueller, in moving a vote of thanks to the president and lecturers, said, that as one of the earliest naturalists in the colony, it gave him great pleasure to witness the advance and prosperity of the Field Club. A quarter of a century ago, from the chair now occupied by the president, he had prophesied the growth and increased popularity of the study of the Natural Sciences in the colony. He congratulated the president on the use of the happy phrase the ‘domestication of science’.” (Baron von Mueller, “5th Annual Conversazione, April 1885,” Victorian Naturalist 2.1 (May 1885) 14–15.
- All from the La Trobe Collection, SLV, the accession numbers are: Garden View, The Hermitage—H85.40/1: image b48402; Conversation Piece, The Hermitage Garden—H85.40/1: b48398, b48399, b48403, Tree-house and Log Bridge—H85.40/59 b22929, and one of his images of Log Bridge at The Hermitage—H85.40/1 b48369.
- Mathew Surface, “Photography as a Hobby”, Australian Photographic Journal (20 April 1897) [n.p.], cited in Alan Davies, An Eye for Photography: The Camera in Australia, (Melbourne: The Miegunyah P in association with the State Library of New South Wales, 2004).
- James Smith, “Picturesque: Victorian Landscapes and Landscape Art”, The Leader, Special Century Number, 1 January 1901: 13–14.
- ibid.
- A.D. Hardy and Mrs Hardy, “A Tramp from Healesville to Buxton”, 166.
- ibid. 170.
- ibid. 166.
- T. S. Hall, “Presidential Address, 16 June 1902”, Victorian Naturalist 19.3, (July 1902) 44–5.
- ibid. See also (President) C.A. Topp, “Annual Address”, Victorian Naturalist 7.1 (May 1890) 6–7.
- Topp, “Annual Address”, 6–7.
- Halley, “Presidential Address”, 5–6.
- Hall, “Presidential Address”, 44–5.
- A. von Humboldt, “Physiognomy of Plants”, cited in M.A. Rose, “Alexander von Humboldt and Australian Art and Exploration”, in eds. I. Harmstorf & P. Schwerdtfeger, The German Experience in Australia, 1833–1938, (Adelaide: Australian Association of Humboldt Fellows, 1988) 113.
- Halley, “Presidential Address”, 5–6.
- See note 38 and Victorian Naturalist 22.10 (1906) 163–74. Other photographers such as N.J. Caire were commissioned to perform the role of official photographer on certain excursions, see Victorian Naturalist, 1.9 (1884) 821; 1.10 (1884) 100, 108; and 1.11 (1884) 110–12.
- PTRGSA (VB) 11 (1894) 120.
- “Ascent of the Tanna Volcano, and a tour through the New Hebrides Group”, Lindt, PTRGSA (VB) 8.2 (1890) 73.
- PTRGSA (VB) 11 (1894) 120, it was noted that the New Hebridean and Fijian albums were “ready for publication in edition de luxe and would have been before the public eye but for the depressed times, which are responsible for so many of our present privations, mental and otherwise.”
- PTRGSA (VB) 10 (1893) 133.
- Victorian Naturalist 4.2 (June 1887) 23.
- PTRGSA (VB) 8.2 (1890) 65.
- PTRGSA (VB) 11 (1894) 120.
- Humboldt, Cosmos, 2: 456–7.
- An exhaustive study of the global distribution of Lindt's albums from the 1880s has yet to be undertaken, although the authors know of numerous holdings in the United Kingdom and parts of western Europe. Ken Orchard has carefully documented the distribution of Lindt's first boxed album—images from the early 1870s of Aboriginal Australians in the Grafton area of northern New South Wales. See K. Orchard, “J.W. Lindt's Australian Aboriginals (1873–74)”, History of Photography, 23.2 (1999) 163–70.
- Humboldt, Cosmos, 2: 371–2.
- E.G. Prince Roland Bonaparte, one time President of the Society of Photographers and, more to the point, President of the Society of Geographers, Paris, collected albums by Lindt. See Cartes et Plans, Bibliotheque nationale de France, Wg 130.