[Baron Von Mueller, Government Botanist of Victoria, has written to the Curator of the Tasmanian Museum1 stating that he has among other things under preparation for the Tasmanian International Exhibition specimens of about 100 kinds of Victorian woods, which will be arranged in book form,2 and which at the close of the Exhibition he intends presenting to the Museum.]3
Alexander Morton was also director of the executive management committee of the Tasmanian International Exhibition (Hobart, 1894-95) (ADB).
The items were probably prepared from samples of woods supplied from the technological museum in Melbourne as requested in M to T. Bride, 7 September 1894 (in this edition as 94-09-07a); see notes thereto.
The official catalogue (Tasmanian International Exhibition (1894-1895), (1894?)) does not include details of exhibitors in Classes 125-151, thus there is no information on exhibits in classes 143-150 comprising group XX, 'Agriculture, Horticulture, Arboriculture', in which M would have been likely to exhibit the wood-books. However, he was awarded a First-class certificate in class 150, 'collection of specimens of eucalyptus woods in book form' ('Jurors awards', Mercury (Hobart). 10 May 1895, p. 3). If this is an accurate description, it is an unusually specific restriction to s single genus, compared with the set presented to and retained in the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Launceston Tas, after the 1891 exhibition there, which included representatives of many genera and families; see M to D. Fergus Scott, February 1892 (in this edition as 92-09-00m), and notes thereto. No evidence that the wood-books were acquired by the Tasmanian Museum has been found.
Letter not found. The text given here is from 'Victorian wood at the exhibition', Mercury (Hobart), 20 September 1894. p. 2.
Please cite as “FVM-94-09-00g,” in Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, edited by R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora†, J.H. Voigt† and Monika Wells accessed on