Notebook titled 'XVI Aborigines of Tasmania, Various MSS. H. Ling Roth'

Scope and Content

p.1 Flier for first edition of Aborigines of Tasmania, with a note by Roth that book would have been longer, but for fact that the publisher Trubner refused to subscribe to copies.

pp.2-3 Flier for second edition of Aborigines of Tasmania with a note by Roth that there were few subscribers, and only two he believed from Tasmania; all the printer's remaining stock was lost in a fire.

p.4 Letter from William Swanston, Belfast, sends negatives of engravings from Museum of Natural History, Belfast.

p.5 Letter from Alfred Scott to Professor [Alfred Cort] Haddon, 17 Jan 1898, concerning the head of the Aboriginal Tasmanian named "Shiney", preserved in Museum of Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland and presented by John Frederick Clark.

p.7 Letter from Joseph [Jackson] Lister, St John's College, Cambridge, 16 Mar 1896, concerning photographs of aboriginal Australians taken in southern Queensland. A note by E B Tylor concerning Steinmetz's opinion that Roth had not consulted all available sources for the Tasmanian language. Note by Roth says when he asked Steinmetz what these were, "he said he had forgotten".

p.8 Roth's transcript of Tylor's notes on Tasmanian grass baskets, and the role of Aboriginal Tasmanian women as hunters and tree climbers etc. Note by William Ellis.

p.9 Letter from Westlake to HLR 8 Mar 1910, concerning G A Robinson's journals and papers. He says these are currently in the possession of his family who live near Bath but they wish to sell, Believed the Australians wish to purchase them, and they are sending a dealer purchase them. Thinks should try and keep them in London, suggests British Library could buy them, and says HLR would find them useful if he plans to revise Aborigines of Tasmania [see also HLR/1/6].

p 10 Note by Dr Latham regarding the voyage of the Rattlesnake; similarities of Tasmanian and New Caledonian languages

p 11 Attached note (not in Roth's hand) W Legrand Collections for a monograph of Tasmanian land shells, 1871 re Bulimus snails.

p.13 Letter from A J Holden to HLR, 3 Jan 1896, from "Wesleyan Parsonage, Dunkeld, Victoria", which discusses Fanny Cochrane Smith who he knows; says she "certainly believes herself to be a real full blood aboriginal"; she is literate but her English husband is not, and says she is "a cute business woman" and "splendid type of Christian woman". Fanny Smith often speaks in local religious meetings, and sings Aboriginal songs at Port Cygnet concerts. He also provides a physical description of her.See also HLR/1/2/8.

p.15 Letter from Bishop Montgomery of Tasmania, 1 August 1898, concerning photographs of mixed race Aboriginals (which appears at p. 174 of Aborigines of Tasmania), taken at Cape Barren Island in 1892. Montgomery describes the individuals in this photograph, and the provides details of the community there.

p.17 Notes "Mr Leigh in vol.3 Missionary Notices of the Methodist Conference"; an article on "The aborigines of Van Diemen's Land" (1822).

pp.19 and 21 "Notes of aboriginal Quarry in the vicinity of the River Plenty." by J W Beattie, dated 6 March 1897 [this is referred to in both Walker's and Beattie's letters to Roth].

p.23 Letter from R. Etheridge, 7 June 1913, the Australian Museum, Sydney, asks if he has any more information about a bust of a Tasmanian woman [Etheridge 1846-1920, was a curator at the Australian Museum, Sydney, 1895-1919].