Mécanisme du globe artificiel

Date1833

Object number00056236

NameCard

MediumCard

DimensionsOverall: 184 × 114 mm

ClassificationsBooks and journals

Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum Collection Purchased with the assistance of the Louis Vuitton Trust Fund

Collections

New to the collection

Terms

DescriptionCard features illustrations of geometric lines, and different lines used to divide Earth. On the opposite side, there are illustrations of a zodiac calendar at the top and equinox and solstice underneath. HistoryAugustin Legrand was a noted French educator and publisher through the first half of the nineteenth century. Amongst his products was a series of folding globes that illustrated the growth in geographical knowledge, produced especially in the decades after the Napoleonic Wars. These were popular during their era but their fragile construction and intended market amongst children and schools limits the number that have survived in good condition. They nevertheless convey a sense of French knowledge at a time of rethinking their nation’s place a global power. This item is part of a collection which provides the museum with several research, interpretive and display possibilities. In particular, the focus of these works lies in the ways in which non-British voyagers viewed and represented the Pacific Ocean after the establishment of several Australian colonies (New South Wales, Van Diemen’s Land and Swan River Colony), but prior to the significant expansion of free settlement around Australasia in the mid-late 1830s (South Australia, Port Phillip Colony, New Zealand). The French at this time had neither the means nor the strategic power to mount major colonial projects. Therefore, their understanding of First Nations cultures – including Indigenous connections to lands and seas – stands in contrast with the perspective of Britain as the world’s pre-eminent industrial economy and maritime power. The works were also created in the aftermath of the first decades of frontier violence in the Australian colonies. This was a time of growing Colonial Office consternation about the human and political consequences of colonisation, in addition to the mounting anti-slavery campaign and Christian agitation for more considerate treatment of Indigenous peoples around the British Empire. Although somewhat romanticised and partly fictitious, the works in this selection also include convincing depictions that afford respect, agency and cultural continuity to First Nations peoples around the Pacific. In this sense they would assist the museum’s interpretation work in moving on from eighteenth-century ‘discovery’ voyages and rethink both the possibilities and realities of cultural encounters in the early nineteenth century. The material therefore adds to the museum’s existing collection strengths, which have primarily focused on eighteenth-century French voyaging. This acquisition would assist in telling longer and wider stories of encounter from more diverse perspectives.SignificanceAugustin Legrand was a noted French educator and publisher through the first half of the nineteenth century. Amongst his products was a series of folding globes that illustrated the growth in geographical knowledge, produced especially in the decades after the Napoleonic Wars. These were popular during their era but their fragile construction and intended market amongst children and schools limits the number that have survived in good condition. They nevertheless convey a sense of French knowledge at a time of rethinking their nation’s place a global power.