'Each book, in a word, carries a history': New Insights from First Fleet Association Copies

The First Fleet sailed from England on 13 May 1787, carrying more than 1,500 people. What books they read, owned or carried with them remains a subject of great historical and research value for understanding Early European settlement in Australia. This paper examines surviving books of First Fleet provenance. Books, that is, which carry some evidence or mark of personal association (e.g. binding evidence, notes, annotations, extra-illustration or inserted references) to show that it was owned, used or belonged to a member of the First Fleet. Such evidence transforms an otherwise ordinary book into what is called an “association copy” (a term, oftenscoffed at by laymen). 

Known First Fleet association copies are held today in Australia’s major collecting institutions: the National Library, the State Libraries of New South Wales and Victoria, major church and university collections. Among these, a significant example is an extra-illustrated, annotated copy of George Johnson’s Annals of Agriculture, vol. 4, now at the Australian National University, Menzies Library. Once part of a multi-volume set — a sister volume held by the State Library of New South Wales—the ANU copy forms a focal point of this paper. Like other First Fleet association copies, the ANU book carries a richness of evidence: new biographical insights into the former owners; fresh detail about the work itself; and rare traces of the thoughts, interests, feelings, use and reading habits of First Fleet members.  

Dr Nicholas A. Sparks
Manager, Research Library & Archives, National Gallery of Australia & Honorary Lecturer (Level B) with the Australian National University. 
Dr Sparks holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and a Masters of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) from the University of Canberra. He first trained as a medieval historian with a focus on manuscript studies and book history. He continues to research and publish in this field, particularly on early books, in manuscript and print, bibliographical and provenance research, and the history of the book in Australia.
 

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