Guide to the Sketchbooks of Edward Charles Frome (as filmed by the AJCP)
M987
National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record
Created: 2018
Collection Summary
- Creator
- Frome, Edward Charles
- Title
- Sketchbooks of Edward Charles Frome (as filmed by the AJCP)
- Date Range
- 1835 - 1853
- Collection Number
- M987
- Extent
- 155 items
- Language of Materials
- English
- Repository
- Australian Joint Copying Project
- Sponsor
- The Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP) online portal was created with the assistance of the Australian Public Service Modernisation Fund, 2017-2020. The National Library of Australia gratefully acknowledges the contribution of the other foundation AJCP partners, the State Library of New South Wales and The National Archives of the UK, and all other organisations which supported the work of the AJCP, the world's most extensive collaborative copying project, operating from 1948 to 1997.
Introduction
Scope and Contents
Approximately 160 sketches and watercolours, mainly of scenes in South Australia, but including nine watercolours painted by Frome in Mauritius 1852-53, one painting by J. Henderson entitled View in Van Diemen's Land and two paintings by Samuel Thomas Gill, one with the title Horticultural Show 1840.
Subjects of the paintings include: homes of settlers, such as Major O'Halloran, Capt. Charles Sturt, and Frome himself; topographical drawings; camps set up during the survey trips undertaken by Frome; townships established during the early period of settlement in South Australia, such as Kingscote, Kangaroo Island 1840, Wellington, on the River Murray 1840, and Morunde 1842; Aboriginal sites; and views of many South Australian localities.
Apart from four paintings in the second album, all the works were painted or drawn by Frome.
Conditions Governing Access
Available for Access.
Conditions Governing Use
Many of the records digitised as part of the AJCP are still in copyright. Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the owner of the original material.
Preferred Citation
Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the location of the original material and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.
Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.
Example: M Series: Journal of Capt. James Cook, 18 February 1770, British Library Add. MS 27885 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1234)
Archival History
Filmed as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project, 1965. (AJCP reel M987). Original microfilm digitised as part of the NLA AJCP Online Delivery Project, 2017-2020.
Existence and Location of Originals
Art Gallery of South Australia. North Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000.
For further information visit http://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au/agsa/home/Collection/
Existence and Location of Copies
The original AJCP microfilm of the records filmed from this collection is available at the National Library of Australia [https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1870659] as well as other institutions holding AJCP microfilm.
Related Materials
In addition to the original AJCP microfilm, the National Library of Australia, State Library of New South Wales and State Library of South Australia acquired prints and colour transparencies of all the South Australian works. They also hold prints and colour transparencies of four framed paintings that were not microfilmed. These paintings depict the depot at Black Rock Hills, Smoker's Valley, Burra Creek and country near Mount Serle.
Finding-aid Notes
This finding aid is a revised online version of the original finding aid prepared by the Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP), published by the National Library of Australia in 2018. The original AJCP finding aids were unpublished typescripts or photocopies available from libraries that held copies of the original microfilm.
Dates used in this finding aid refer to the date range of the records selected for filming rather than to the date range of the Series or Files.
Advisory Statement
Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are davised that this Finding Aid contains material and descriptive information which may be considered culturally sensitive and may cause distress, including names and images of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people now deceased.
This Finding Aid may contain terms that reflect authors' views or those of the historical period, but which may not be considered appropriate today. While the information may not reflect current understanding, it is provided in a historical context.
Subjects
Artists; Burra, South Australia; Frome, Edward C.; Gill, Samuel T.; Henderson, J.; Kangaroo Island, South Australia; Kingscote, South Australia; Mauritius; Morunde, South Australia; Murray River, Australia; Murray River, Australia; New South Wales: paintings, drawings and prints; O'Halloran, Major; South Australia: Australian Aboriginals; South Australia: exploration; South Australia: paintings, drawings and prints; Sturt, Charles, Captain; Tasmania: paintings, drawings and prints; Wellington, South Australia
Bibliography
Originally cited in Australian Joint Copying Project Handbook. Part 8: Miscellaneous (M) Series. Third Edition, published 1998. Entry 178, p65.
Biographical / Historical
Edward Charles Frome (1801-1890) was born at Gibraltar and grew up in London. He entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in 1817 and was commissioned in the Royal Engineers in 1825. He worked on the construction of the Rideau Canal in Canada in 1827-33 and later undertook training of junior Royal Engineers at Chatham. He was promoted to the rank of captain in 1840.In 1839 Frome was appointed the third surveyor-general of South Australia and he and his family arrived in Adelaide in September. The appointment was for ten years and he remained in the colony until 1849.
Under his leadership, large areas of surveyed land were soon available for settlers and roads and secondary settlements planned. He explored and mapped new territory in the north and south-east of the colony. He also acted as colonial engineer and supervised the construction of bridges over the River Torrens and the Adelaide Gaol. He was a member of the Council of Government in 1839-43 and served on a number of public authorities.Frome subsequently served with the Royal Engineers in Mauritius, Heligoland, Ireland and Gibraltar.
He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in 1854 and became lieutenant-governor of Guernsey in 1867. He retired in 1877.Frome was a talented artist. Most of his South Australian paintings and drawings were done while working on surveys or exploring expeditions. In particular, a large number were drawn during his survey of the Lake Alexandrina-Coorong region in 1840 and during his second northern trip to Lake Torrens in 1843.
The albums, sketchbooks and some single paintings were donated and bequeathed to the Royal Empire Society by Dora Wynne, the daughter of Frome, in 1929-30. The South Australian works were sold to the Art Gallery of South Australia in 1970.
Reference: R.G. Appleyard. Captain E.C. Frome, R.E., and his sketches of South Australia, 1839-1849, Bulletin of the Art Gallery of South Australia, vol. 34 (1-2), July-Oct. 1972. The article includes a full listing of the paintings and drawings.
Item Descriptions
Series. Sketchbook No. 3, n.d.
2 itemsArchival History
25 pictures were removed from this book, of which four were framed and 21 placed in an album.
Series. Sketchbook No. 4. South Australia and Mauritius, 1845 - 1851
8 itemsSeveral of the drawings in this book are not identified, while others depict scenes in Mauritius and also the Isle of Wight. The following are Australian drawings.
Picnic party, Yorke's Peninsula, South Australia., 1848 (File)
The Governor Col. Robe, Capt. and Mrs Frome, Mrs Torrens, Miss Cooper, Mr Dashwood & c. lost the boat and could not get on board the Cutter – or obtain either Provisions or Water. Periwinkles were however abundant – and we took on shore a supply of eatables that kept us alive till relieved in a few days.
Series. Sketches Album No. 1 of Black Rock Hills, Fleurieu Peninsula, Lower Murray and Coorong, Lake Torrens and Mid North, 1839 - 1849
Sketches medium includes watercolour, pencil and ink.
Places featured in the sketches include: Black Rock Hills; the Lower Murray and Coorong; Encounter Bay; Kapunda Mine; the Onkaparinga River and Valley; Lake Torrens and Mount Bryan.
For a full list of illustrations see supplementary material.
Series. Sketches Album No. 2 of the Fleurieu Peninsula, River Murray, Adelaide Hills and Barossa Ranges, 1840 - 1848
Sketch mediums include of watercolour, pencil and ink.
Places depicted in the sketches include: Eyre's Hut; the Murray River; Encounter Bay; the Onkaparinga River and Valley; the Coorong; Gawler; McLaren Vale and Colonel Frome's residence Sydneham.
Includes two sketches by John B. Henderson of Hobart and Van Diemen's Land.
For a full list of illustrations see supplementary material.