German science in nineteenth-century Australian libraries

Abstract

Between Bligh's disdain for Robert Townson's books at the beginning of the century and C.W. Holgate's 1886 commentary on the collections of the Melbourne Public Library, there is evidence of deficiencies in Australian holdings of materials derived from the German states and from the Austrian empire. Consideration of private collections, of the roles played by individuals in developing research institutes, learned societies and community libraries and ultimately of the efforts made by university leaders to equip and enhance a culture of scientific investigation leads to the conclusion that the German or Prussian model was beginning to dominate by the turn of the twentieth century.

Knowing the ‘Native Mind’: Ethnological and Philological Collections

“…As Wallace Kirsop has noted, Redmond Barry was a 'zealous promoter' of links between the MPL and European scientific bodies, receiving subscriptions to leading German scientific periodicals through the local bookseller Samuel Mullen. 21 Barry was also well-read in comparative philology and attempted in 1866 to undertake research on Aboriginal languages, as well as to develop his socalled Ethnotypical Museum. Although the project did not come to fruition, its aim was to elucidate 'the general laws of Philology which may govern many, if not all, the languages and dialects spoken in Australia'.…”