9. Increasing Access to Fragile Materials
William Buelow Gould was an English convict who was convicted of stealing a coat and was transported to Tasmania. He was marooned after a mutiny and later had his sentence commuted as one of the people who had stayed with the officers, earning him a certificate of freedom.
While imprisoned, he had created a series of illustrations of fish and other water-dwelling creatures. It contained the first images recorded of a number of species.
Called [Gould’s] Sketchbook of Fishes, it has been recognized as a document of world significance. It is now on the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register.
A fictionalized account of Gould’s life was written by Tasmanian author Richard Flanagan. Gould’s Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish won the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize in 2001.
The original sketches are not available for general access but all of the drawings can be viewed on Flickr Commons via the Tasmanian Archives and State Library.
We’ve also got stories about Irish folktales, UFO Desks, epic kayaking, caravaning over Christmas, Washington DC oddities and history, decorated war pigeons, community-based photo id-ing, meeting some photographers, tattooing in the 1930s, turkish street photography, aviatrices, books in motion, a cool bell, surprise celebrities, and, of course, cat pictures.
All part of Flickr Commons’ sixteenth birthday.
