Collector’s chest, c.1818

A tangible link to colonial life

Rage for Curiosity

Inside this modest cedar chest is a riot of natural history specimens, artistically arranged and startlingly intact, collected in the Newcastle penal colony.

The Newcastle Commandant, Captain James Wallis of the 46th Regiment, with convicts such as artist Joseph Lycett and cabinet-maker William Temple, filled the Chest’s cleverly constructed drawers, trays and glass-topped boxes with birds, insects, spiders, butterflies, shells, seaweeds and algaes collected from the surrounding districts. Views of the Newcastle district were painted on its panels.

The display of specimens was not about science, order and classification; rather, it was about patterns, colours and design—the wonderful diversity, and difference, of God’s creation.

The Chest had another purpose—a tool for the promotion of Wallis’s career. Wallis gave this Chest to Governor Macquarie to thank him for his patronage.
Display item Collector’s chest, c.1818

 

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