Edward Roper

Edward Roper (1833-1908) was born in London and immigrated to Canada in the 1840s. His trip to Victoria in 1852 was the first of his trips around the word. Roper was an engraver and artist. In the early 1870s he established an engraving company in Victoria and published an illustrated newspaper. By 1886 he settled in Kent United Kingdom where he supported himself by writing and illustrating, including a semi-autobiographical series of children's book about life on the Victorian goldfields. He was known to have travelled extensively, particularly around the goldfields area of Victoria. He exhibited in England with the Burlington Gallery in London. His works are represented in the Mitchell Library, the Australian National Maritime Museum, State Library of Victoria, Benalla A rt Gallery and in the National Library in Canberra.

For most of his career Roper practised as an engraver and artist. He also managed several companies formed to exploit a patented engraving process known as graphotyping. It was this interest which brought him back to Victoria in the early 1870s when he established a short-lived engraving company and published an illustrated newspaper.