1. Donnybrook Fair.
Francis Wheatley 1788.
24% of convicts in the First Fleet came from Ireland.
2. Ladies in the dress of 1788.
Ladies’ Own Memoranda-Book for the Year 1789. Women in the First Fleet saved their best clothes for the day of arrival in the new land. Note also the convict woman’s hat in picture no.7.
3. Convicts embarking for Botany Bay.
Thomas Rowlandson. National Library of Australia. nla.pic-an5601547
4. King George III.
Beechey, William Sir. National Library of Australia.
King George was fascinated by the exploration of the Pacific and keenly supported the establishment of the Colony.
5. Music and instructions for the dance Botany Bay.
Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1788.
Published by Thomas Skillern, London.
6. 1788 Cotillion.
7. Convicts in New Holland.
Felipe Bauza – drawings made on the Spanish Scientific Expedition to Australia and the Pacific in the ships Descubierta and Atrevida under the command of Alessandro Malaspina. Digital Order No. a756005h. State Library of New South Wales.
8. View of the settlement on Sydney Cove 20th August, 1788
State Library of New South Wales
9.Sirius and Convoy Entering Botany Bay.
William Bradley in “A Voyage to New South Wales”. Digital Order No. a3461009. State Library of New South Wales
10. Soldier buying ribbons.
Francis Wheatley 1788.
5% of convicts came from Scotland
11. Sydney Cove, Port Jackson. 1788.
William Bradley in “A Voyage to New South Wales”. Digital Order No. a3461012 State Library of New South Wales
12. Duchess of Devonshire.
Thomas Gainsborough.
Georgiana Cavendish was a leading fashionable figure in English society.
13. Playbill for the Heiress and Rosina.
Rosina was a popular comic opera composed by William Shield. Newton Fowell, midshipman & Lieutenant aboard the Sirius, requested a copy of the music for Rosina for the guitar before leaving England.
14. Hats of 1788.
Ladies’ Own Memoranda-Book for the Year 1789. Electronic resource. State Library of New South Wales. Note also the convict woman’s hat in picture no.7. Convicts in New Holland.
15. View near Woolwich in Kent shewing [sic] the employment of the convicts from the hulks, printed for Bowles & Carver. State Library of New South Wales
16. View of Broken Bay.
William Bradley in “A Voyage to New South Wales. State Library of New South Wales Call no Safe 1 / 14 Digital order no a3461013 Digital Order No. a3461001
Bradley described the early, happy encounters between the British and the indigenous Australians and illustrated the dancing which took place.
17. The English in New Holland
Felipe Bauza. Drawings made on the Spanish Scientific Expedition to Australia and the Pacific in the ships Descubierta and Atrevida under the command of Alessandro Malaspina. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.
18. Lord John Townshend at the Westminster by-election of 1788 with Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire and her sister Viscountess Duncannon (later Countess of Bessborough). Lord John Townshend was a relative of Thomas Townshend, Lord Sydney, who gave his name to the settlement.
19. Scene from the play Love in a Village.
James Zoffany, 1788
This ballad opera in three acts that was composed and arranged by Thomas Arne. It was being performed at the time the First Fleet arrived in Sydney Cove.
20. A visit to the boarding school.
George Morland, 1788.
Children of families in the colony were often sent to England to be educated – in most cases this would include dancing and music.
21. Woodcut from a broadside ballad.
A broadside (also known as a broadsheet) is a single sheet of inexpensive paper printed on one side, often with a ballad, rhyme, news and sometimes with woodcut illustrations. They were one of the most common forms of printed material between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, particularly in Britain, Ireland and North America and are often associated with one of the most important forms of traditional music from these countries, the ballad.
22. Buy a bill of the play. Street seller from William Marshall Craig’s ‘Itinerant Traders of London’. Courtesy of Bishopgate Institute.
23. Woodcut from a broadside ballad.
The woe of transportation to Botany Bay was a common theme.
24. Captain (later Vice-Admiral) Arthur Phillip, RN
First governor of New South Wales.
Courtesy of Government House, Historic Houses Trust
25. A Fleet of Transports under Convoy
Published by Carrington Bowles, 1788. State Library of New South Wales.
Call No. DL Pd 789.
26. Title page. Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1788.
Published by Thomas Skillern, London.
Collections of new country dances were published annually. In 1788 these included:
Six New Minuets and Twelve Country Dances for the year 1788. Longman & Broderip
Twelve Country Dances for the Year 1788. Cahusac, Thos.
Twenty four Country-Dances for the Year 1788. Preston, Jn.
Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1788. Skillern, T.
Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1788. Thompson, Saml., Ann, & Peter
Thompson’s Compleat Collection of 200 Fashionable Country Dances. Vol. 5. Thompson, Samuel, Ann & Peter.
Special thanks to Isabel Clarke for assistance in compiling this collage.
