Person

Angas, George French (1822 - 1886)

Born
25 April 1822
Newcastle upon Tyne, England
Died
8 October 1886
London, England
Occupation
Conchologist, Lithographer, Naturalist, Shell collector and Artist

Summary

George Angas , a painter by profession, is often called the father of Australian conchology. Having studied under Waterhouse Hawkins, a natural history artist, Angas arrived Adelaide in 1844. He accompanied the Governor, Sir George Grey, on expeditions into the country, where he sketched the scenery, aborigines, and the flora and fauna. Exhibitions of this work were held in Adelaide and Sydney in 1845. After returning to England for five years, he was back in New South Wales in 1851, on the Bathurst goldfields. From 1853 to 1860 Angas was Secretary and Accountant to the Australian Museum, supervising the work of classifying and arranging the first public collection of Australian specimens, especially shells. Moving to South Australia he was chairman of Angaston District Council from 1860 to 1983, and continued his exploration of the colony in search of for new shells, moths and butterflies. He returned permanently to the United Kingdom in1863. Between 1870 and 1886 Angas presented to the British Museum a collection of mostly Australian shells. He continued his correspondence with John Brazier of the Australian Museum, and in 1867 described 122 new species of marine shells from the Port Jackson region based on his own specimens. Angas's drawings were used to illustrate the journals of John McDouall Stuart (1864) and the travels of John Forrest.

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Details

Chronology

1844 - 1845
Life event - Visited Australia (Adelaide) and New Zealand
1853
Life event - Migrated to Sydney, New South Wales
1853 - 1860
Career position - Secretary and Accountant, Australian Museum, New South Wales
1860 - 1863
Career position - Chairman of Angaston District Council, South Australia
1861 - 1862
Career position - Explored the Australian colony for new shells, moths and butterflies
1863 - 1886
Career position - Returned to the United Kingdom

Related Corporate Bodies

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

  • Australian Botanists - Biographies, MS 064; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

  • George French Angas - Records, 1838 - 1877, MS 3934; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

South Australian Museum Archives

  • George French Angas - Records, 1850 - 1886, AA8; South Australian Museum Archives. Details

Published resources

Books

  • Angas, George French, Savage life and scenes in Australian and New Zealand: being an artist's impressions of countries and people at the Antipodes, 2 vols (Adelaide: Libraries Board of South Australia, 1969). Details
  • Jones, Philip, Illustrating the Antipodes: George French Angas in Australia and New Zealand 1844 - 1845 (Canberra: Adelaide: National Library of Australia: South Australian Museum, 2021), 374 pp. Details
  • Moon, Paul, The Voyagers: Remarkable European Explorations of New Zealand (Auckland (N.Z.): Penguin Books, 2014), 251 pp. Details
  • Tregenza, John, George French Angas, artist, traveller and naturalist 1822 - 1886 (Adelaide: Art Gallery Board of South Australia, 1980), 88 pp. Details

Book Sections

  • Baigent, Elizabeth, 'George French Angas, 1822-1886' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). Details
  • Morgan, E. J. R., 'Angas, George French (1822-1886)' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 1: 1788 - 1850 A-H, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1966), pp. 18-19. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A010019b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

  • Angas, G. F., 'Description d'especès nouvelle appartenant à plusiers genres de mollusques nudibranches des environs de Port-Jackson (Nouvelle-Galles du Sud), accompagnée de dessins faits d'après nature', Journal de conchyliologie, series 3, 12 (1864), 43-70. Details
  • Angas, G. F., 'A list of species of marine molluscs found in Port Jackson harbour, New South Wales, and adjacent coasts, with notes on their habitats, etc', Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1867 (1867), 185-233 & 912-35. Details
  • Clark, Deborah, 'Exhibition review: George French Angas, artist traveller: "Illustrating the Antipodes: George French Angas in Australia and New Zealand 1844 - 1845"', Australian historical studies, 53 (3) (2022), 489-94. https://doi.org/10.1080/1031461X.2022.2082508. Details
  • Iredale, R., 'Angas, George French: the Father of Australian Conchology', Australian Zoologist, XII (1959), 362-371. Details
  • Whitley, Gilbert P., 'Conchologists of the past: George French Angas (1822 - 1886)', Journal of the Malacological Society of Australia, 1 (12) (1969), 48-56. Details

Resources

See also

  • Beechey, D. L., 'Sydney's Molluscs: from Gentlemen to Malacologists' in The Natural History of Sydney, Lunney, Daniel, Hutchings, Pat A. and Hochuli, Dieter, eds (Mosman, N.S.W.: Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, 2010), pp. 107-24. Details
  • Forrest, John, Explorations in Australia : I.- Explorations in search of Dr. Leichardt and party. II. - From Perth to Adelaide, around the Great Australian Bight. III. -From Champion Bay, across the desert to the telegraph and to Adelaide, with an appendix on the condition of Western Australia (London: Sampson, Low, Marston & Searle, 1875), 351 pp. Details
  • Maiden, J. H., 'A century of botanical endeavour in South Australia', Report of the eleventh meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 11 (1908), 158-199, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14539732. Details
  • Stuart, John McDouall, Explorations in Australia: the journals of John McDouall Stuart during the years 1858, 1859. 1860, 1861 & 1862, when he fixed the centre of the continent and successfully crossed it from sea to sea, edited from Mr Stuart's manuscript by William Hardman (London: Saunders, Otley and Co., 1864), 511 pp. Details

Gavan McCarthy [P004098] and Helen Cohn

Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 6 October 2023

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