Guide to the Benjamin Dunstan papers (as filmed by AJCP)
M2493
National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record
Created: 2019
Collection Summary
- Creator
- Dunstan, Benjamin, 1864-1933
- Title
- Papers of Benjamin Dunstan (as filmed by the AJCP)
- Date Range
- 10 September 1913 - 22 May 1923
- Collection Number
- M2493
- Extent
- 14 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
Notebooks containing lists of fossil collections.
Correspondence 1913-1923 with R.J. Tillyard. Subjects include Tillyard's work in Nelson, New Zealand, and dispatch of fossil specimens to London.
Printed material.
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 at the Palaeontology Library, British Museum, as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project, 1990 (AJCP Reel: M2493). Original microfilm digitised as part of the NLA AJCP Online Delivery Project, 2017-2020.
Existence and Location of Originals
Palaeontology Library, Natural History Museum. Cromwell Road, South Kensington, London.
For further information see Papers of Benjamin Dunstan at the Natural History Museum. [http://www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/departments-and-staff/library-and-archives.html]
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-vn2304235] as well as other institutions holding AJCP microfilm.
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 2019. 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.
Subjects
Australia; Dunstan, Benjamin; Fossils; Geologists; New Zealand; New Zeland: geology; Nelson, New Zealand; Tillyard, R.J., Dr
Bibliography
Originally cited in Australian Joint Copying Project Handbook. Part 8: Miscellaneous (M) Series. Third Edition, published 1998. Entry 148, p54.[http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-397322928]
Biographical / Historical
Benjamin Dunstan (1864-1933) was born at Vaughan Victoria and is supposed to have shown an early interest in geology. He graduated from Sydney Technical College in 1887 with honours in Geology, Mineralogy and Mining and was first employed by Cox and Seaver as assayer and draughtsman. He succceeded SH Cox as lecturer in geology at Sydney Technical College, probably in 1891; joining the Queensland Geological Survey in 1897. He was appointed Acting Government Geologist in 1902; his title was altered to Chief Government Geologist in 1915.
In Queensland he investigated the geology of Central and Northern Queensland; preparing the geological maps of Gymple Goldfield and three editions of the Geological Map of Queensland. He provided geological information for palaeobotanical reports for several scientists, including RJ Tillyard. In 1901 he commenced compilation of the Queensland Mineral Index which was finally published in 1913.
He reorganised the Geological Survey during his tenure, improving its efficiency and establishing a proper reference library; he advocated the use of technology and used aerial photography to map the newly discovered Mount Isa mineral field in 1924. He retired in 1931.
Item Descriptions
Series A. Notebooks
9 itemsSeries B. Miscellaneous, 1917 - 1921
4 items
Series C. Correspondence between Benjamin Dunstan and Tillyard (Nelson, NZ; Hornsby), 10 September 1913 - 22 May 1923
Subjects include: publication in Proceedings of 'Mesozoic Insects of Queensland'; fossils presented to Cawthron Museum by Benjamin Dunstan and Yale University; discussion on variations on species; Benjamin Dunstan's lecture at Ipswich Town Hall on the Insects; Tillyard's work in Nelson as Chief of Biological Dept; Benjamin Dunstan fossil hunting at Bundamba Beds; Tillyard urges Dunstan to send fossil specimens to British Museum(Natural History); comments on Ipswich fossils 'absolutely beyond price to Entomology'.
(157p. letters from Benjamin Dunstan are carbon typescripts; some faint typescript).