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Collection of 442 items relating to Denis George

Photographer Denis George (Australian, 1917 - 2001)

Date1958 - 1994

Object numberANMS1279

NameArchive series

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from the George Family and Adrian Jackson

Terms

DescriptionThis collection of 442 items relate to the Australian pearl maker Denis George. The series consists of one business card; one set of photographs, slides, negatives and notes; one diagram of a layout of a pearl display; three letters and one envelope concerning the sale of Denis George's pearls and photography requests; and 435 black and white and colour negatives and photographs of pearling equipment, half pearls, a pearl raft, the 1977 visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Papua New Guinea, pearl production, Packe Island, and wedding photographs of Denis and Yurie George.HistoryDenis George (1917-2001), a post-World War II Greek Migrant, was a self-taught pearl maker who found his own way to culture pearls and spent decades from the 1950s to the 1980s experimenting and trying to improve his products. His ambition was to culture a unique Australian pearl. He produced pearls mainly from 'Pinctada maxima' (gold lip pearl) and 'P. Margaritifera' (black lip pearl). He was a maverick in the Australian and Papua New Guinean pearl industry because he refused to collaborate with Japanese pearling companies who dominated pearl culture by keeping their technique secret and forming joint ventures with nationals. Denis George was never commercially successful but his achievements were remarkable. Not only did he develop his own way to seed pearl oysters, but he also pioneered the culture of pearls from 'Pteria penguin', a bivalve known as Butterfly Shell which was not then a recognised pearl shell. He was recognised in Japan for his pearling achievements, but was not well known in Australia. His efforts extended beyond his own individual interests, in lifelong attempts to establish locally owned and run pearl culture industries in Australia and Indo-Pacific countries. He also strove for recognition of the naturalist William Saville-Kent as the true originator, around 1890, of the cultured pearl technique which the Japanese later claimed as their own and developed as an industry.