Cunningham, Allan (1791 - 1839)

Summary

Allan Cunningham was sent by Joseph Banks to New South Wales in 1816 to collect plants on John Oxley's expedition to the Lachlan and Macquarie rivers in 1817. He was botanist on the "Mermaid" 1817-1820 and made inland explorations of New South Wales. He collected and described many more Eucalyptus species and other plant genera than listed here.

Details

Chronology

1817

Taxonomy event - Collector of the type Eucalyptus acmenoides Schau.

1843

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus melliodora A.Cunn. ex Schau.

1843

Taxonomy event - Collector of the type Eucalyptus oligantha Schau.

1843

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus coriacea A.Cunn. ex Schau. (= Eucalyptus pauciflora Sieb. ex Spreng. (1827))

1843

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus clavigera A.Cunn. ex Schau.

1848

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus bicolor A. Cunn. ex Hook. (= Eucalyptus largiflorens F. Muell. (1855))

1867

Taxonomy event - Collector of the type Eucalyptus cinerea F. Muell. ex Benth.

Related entries

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

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

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

• Allan Cunningham - Records, 1827 - 1832, D79; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Allan Cunningham - Records, 1828 - 1830, ML MSS 1374; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Allan Cunningham - Records, 1819 - 1822, FM 4/3104; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Allan Cunningham - Records, 1814 - 1839, FM 4/3101; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Allan Cunningham - Records, P2/C; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Ida Louisa Lee - Records, 1919 - 1937, ML MSS 337; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Linnean Society of London - Records, 1792 - 1870, FM 4/2699; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

• Allan Cunningham - Records, 1819, MS 4169; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection

• Allan Cunningham - Records, 1814 - 1939, M692; State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• McCarthy, Gavan; Smith, Ailie; Moje, Christine; Rigby, Rebecca, The Study of Australian Eucalypts, eScholarship Research Centre, 2013, http://www.eoas.info/eucalypts/index.html. Details

Books

• Curry, Suzanne; Maslin, Bruce; Maslin, John, Allan Cunningham: Australian Collecting Localities (Canberra: Australian Biological Resources Study, 2002), 90 pp. Details
• Lee, Ida, Early Explorers in Australia (London: Methuen, 1925), 167-426 pp. Details
• Mills, Kevin, Allan Cunningham: Journal of a Botanist on Norfolk Island in 1830 (Jamberoo (N.S.W.): Coachwood Publishing, 2012), 98 pp. Details
• Orchard, A. E.; and Orchard, T. A., The Botanist and the Judge: Allan Cunningham in Tasmania 1818-1819 (Weston Creek (A.C.T.): the Authors, 2014), 176 pp. Details
• Orchard, A. E.; and Orchard, T. A., Allan Cunningham: letters of a botanist/explorer 1791 - 1839 (Weston Creek, ACT: Tony Orchard, 2015), 591 pp. Details
• Orchard, A. E.; and Orchard, T. A., The Australian botanical journals of Allan Cunningham: the later King expeditions February 1819 - September 1822 (Weston Creek, A.C.T.: A. E. Orchard, 2018), 431 pp. Details
• Orchard, A. E.; and Orchard, T. A., The Australian botanical journals of Allan Cunningham: the Oxley and early King expeditions October 1816 - February 1819 (Weston Creek, A.C.T.: A. E. Orchard, 2018), 309 pp. Details
• Orchard, A. E.; and Orchard, T. A., Allan Cunningham's plant specimens 1816 - 1822: an annotated catalogue (Weston Creek, A.C.T.: A. E. Orchard, 2020), 471 pp. Details
• Whitehead, John, Tracking and Mapping the Explorers, vol. 1: the Lachlan River exploration, 1817, Oxley - Evans - Cunningham (Coonabarabran (N.S.W.): John Whitehead, 2003), 363 pp. Details
• Whitehead, John, Tracking and Mapping the Explorers, vol. 4: Cunningham's Pandora's Pass, 1823 (Coonabarabran (N.S.W.): John Whitehead, 2013), 220 pp. Details
• Whitehead, John and Cains, Fay, Cunningham's Tracks 1827,Volume 3: his Journey through Gwydir and Inverell Shires, Coonabarabran (Coonabarabran, N.S.W.: John Whitehead, 2011), 129 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Lucas, A. M., 'Allan Cunningham, 1791-1839' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). Details
• Perry, T. M., 'Cunningham, Allan (1791-1839), botanist and explorer' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 1: 1788 - 1850 A-H, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1966), pp. 265-267. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A010255b.htm. Details

Conference Papers

• Curry, Suzanne; Maslin, Bruce, 'Cunningham's Collecting Localities While Botanist on Lieutenant Phillip Parker King's Survey of Coastal Australia, December 1817 to April 1822', in History of Systematic Botany in Australasia: Proceedings of a Symposium Held at the University of Melbourne, 25-27 May 1988 edited by Short, P.S. (Melbourne: Australian Systematic Botany Society, 1990), pp. 137-148.. Details

Journal Articles

• Andrews, Alan E. J., 'Allan Cunningham and the Shy Ladies at Caley's Repulse', Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, 71 (2) (1985), 143-150. Details
• Branagan, David F., 'The Russian Expedition's Sydney Visit in 1820 and Some Forgotten Blue Mountains Names', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 143 (1/2) (2010), 1-28. Details
• Dalton, W., 'Allan Cunningham', Journal of Scone & Upper Hunter Historical Society (1959), 1-22. Details
• Davis, Michael, 'Encountering Aboriginal Knowledge: Explorer Narratives on North-east Queensland, 1770 to 1820', Aboriginal History, 37 (2014), 29-50. Details
• Froggatt, Walter W., 'The Curators and Botanists of the Botanic Gardens, Sydney.', Royal Australian Historical Society, xviii (III) (1932), 101-133. Details
• Hamilton, R.C., 'Allan Cunningham - with Special Reference to His Work in What is Now Queensland', Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, xivi (vi) (1960), 323-342. Details
• Hewart, R., 'Biographical Sketch of the Late Allan Cunningham, Esq., London. Reprinted from Journal of Botany, for Private Distribution, 1842.' (1842). Details
• Mabberley, D. J., 'The Botanical Magazine and George Bond's drawings of Allan Cunningham's Australian plants', Curtis's Botanical Magazine, 17 (2004), 226-35. Details
• Maiden, J. H.; and Cambage, R.H., 'Botanical, Topographical and Geological Notes on Some Routes of Allan Cunningham', Journal and Proceedings of The Royal Society of New South Wales, xliii (1909), 123-138. Details
• Orchard, A. E. (Tony), 'Allan Cunningham: botanist, explorer, ecologist, geographer (and zoologist, geologist, plant geographer, anthropologist, agricultural commentator, linguist and social commentator)', Australasian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter, 168/9 (2016), 21-30. Details
• Orchard, A. E.; and Orchard, T. A., 'Allan Cunningham's Timor Collections', Nuytsia, 23 (2013), 63-88. Details
• Orchard, Anthony E., 'Alan Cunningham's cryptic publications', Telopea, 15 (2013), 191-204. Details
• Orchard, Anthony E., 'The Dispersal of Allan Cunningham's Botanical (and Other) Collections', Telopea, 17 (2014), 43-86. Details
• Orchard, Anthony E., 'Allan Cunningham and the Boab (Adansonii gregorii; Bombacaceae)', Nuytsia, 28 (2017), 1-9. Details
• Webb, Joan B., 'A. Cunningham, P.P. King and the Legacy to the Botanical Fraternity', Australian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter, 152 (2013), 4-7. Details

Resources

• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/15528184. Details
• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q545888. Details
• 'Cunningham, Allan (1791-1839)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-635233. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Cunningham, Allan (1791-1839)', in Australian National Botanic Gardens - Biography, Australian National Botanic Gardens, 2004, http://www.anbg.gov.au/biography/cunningham-allan.html. Details

Reviews

• Orchard, A. E. and Orchard, T. A., The Australian botanical journals of Allan Cunningham: the Oxley and early King expeditions October 1816 - February 1819 (2018)
  George, Alex, 'The mountain building continues: the Orchards' Allan Cunningham saga', Australasian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter, 177, (2018), 55-8. Details
• Curry, Suzanne, Maslin, Bruce, and Maslin, John, Allan Cunningham: Australian Collecting Localities, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra, 2002, 90 pp.
  Gillbank, Linden, Historical Records of Australian Science, 14 (1), (2002), 110-112. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR02901E_BR. Details
• Mills, Kevin, Allan Cunningham: Journal of a Botanist on Norfolk Island in 1830 (2012)
  Orchard, A. E., 'Allan Cunningham on Norfolk Island', Australasian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter, 156, (2013), 33-5. Details

See also

• 'List of eucalypts published under author abbreviation search '% A.Cunn.%' (include wildcards) and genus 'Eucalyptus'', Australian Plant Name Index (APNI), Australian National Botanic Gardens, 2012, http://www.anbg.gov.au/cgi-bin/apni. Details
• Benson, Doug, 'Two centuries of botanical exploration along the "Botanists Way", northern Blue Mountains, N.S.W.: a regional botanical history that reflects national trends', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 141 (2019), 1-14. Details
• Endersby, Jim, 'A Garden Enclosed: Botanical Barter in Sydney, 1818-38', British Journal for the History of Science, 33 (2000), 313-334. Details
• Maiden, J. H., Sydney Botanic Gardens: biographical notes concerning the officers in charge, 4 vols (Sydney: The Gardens, 1902-1903). Details
• Maiden, J. H., 'Records of Australian botanists:- (a) general; (b) New South Wales', Journal and Proceedings of The Royal Society of New South Wales, 42 (1908), 60-132. Details
• Maiden, J. H., 'Records of Queensland Botanists', Report of the twelfth meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 12 (1910), 373-383. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15379603. Details
• McConachie, Ian, 'Who discovered Macadamias?', Queensland historical journal, 24 (12) (2022), 1087-102. Details
• Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details
• Whitehead, John, Tracking and mapping the explorers, volume 5: Cunningham's expedition across the Liverpool Plains, 1825 (Coonabarabran, N.S.W.: Whitehead Books, 2017), 186 pp. Details
• Willis, J. H., 'Botanical pioneers in Victoria - I', Victorian naturalist, 66 (5) (1949), 83-9. Details
• Willis, J. H., Botanical Pioneers in Victoria, vol. 66 ([Melbourne]: [Brown Prior Anderson], 1949), 19 pp. Details