HMS RATTLESNAKE
Photographer
Samuel J Hood Studio
(Australian, 1899 - 1953)
Date1890 - 1950
Object number00023267
NameNitrate negative
MediumEmulsion on nitrate film.
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionA copy of two newspaper clippings, both with images and captions, relating to the HMS RATTLESNAKE and the meeting of Barbara Thomspon, an English woman who had been living with the Kaurareg people of Muralag (Prince of Wales Island) for five years.HistoryThe expedition of HMS RATTLESNAKE was commanded by Owen Stanley, with John MacGillivray as the naturalist and Thomas Huxley as the assistant surgeon. This expedition was a wide-ranging blend of hydrography, and natural history observation. Cruising from 1846-1850, Stanley did much to document what in the 1840s was largely terra incognita to the north of Australia. Stanley's early death on the return to Sydney was the occasion of the first great state funeral to be held in the colony.SignificanceThe Samuel J Hood photographic collection records an extensive range of maritime activity on Sydney Harbour, including sail and steam ships, crew portraits, crews at work, ship interiors, stevedores loading and unloading cargo, port scenes, pleasure boats and harbourside social activities from the 1890s through to the 1950s. They are also highly competent artistic studies and views - Hood was regarded as an important figure in early Australian photojournalism. Hood’s maritime photographs are one of the most significant collections of such work in Australia.
