Review. European research trip 2015.
1. The 2015 research trip was "on-budget" and completed all major research elements as planned.
2. The most successful research elements were:
(a) the visit to London Natural History Museum for the primary source of Ferdinand Lucas Bauer paintings of marine animals from the Tropics (Queensland) and Tropical plants (Queensland, GOC) from the Mathew Flinders voyage of discovery to Australia 1801-1805.
(b) the visit to Paris National Natural history Museum for the primary source of Charles Alexandre Lesueur paintings of tropical marine animals (? Australia) from the Nicolas Baudin voyage of discovery to Australia 1801-1804.
3. The visits to the Cambridge University Library (Westall drawings archive) and Kew Gardens research archives (Franz Bauer artworks), while germane to the study were only a limited success. Follow-up work on the Westall drawings is required at the National Library and possibly at Mitchell Library in Sydney.
4. All images have now been downloaded into a minimum compression ".tiff" format and the brightness/contrast adjusted. Further post-production will be required prior to publication in the Thesis appendix but the images are now usable. These represent "filling the gaps" in the initial collection of images from the 2011 project feasibility visit.
5. Subjectively I am very pleased with the quality of the images I have collected and that I have achieved my primary aim of "veiwing" the original sources of the exploration artwork produced on the 1801-1805 French and English voyages of discovery to "Terra Australis/New Holland". I feel honoured to have been able to see and hold the original paintings and drawings produced over 200 years ago during one of the first series of scientific investigations of Australia.
I am indebted to and wish to acknowledge the assistance of all the librarians and curators in the various Museums.
Postscript:
A funny thing happened to me on the way to
Europe! A week or so before my departure I got mild food-poisoning (a tummy
bug) from a Japanese restaurant. Ironically, not from raw fish but from the Teriyaki
chicken. I went to the 24 hour Clinic for the “magic” four anti-biotic pills
(for treating Giardia??), which seemed to work or at least slowed down the flow
dramatically.
I was OK to fly, so off I went to London via Brisbane and Dubai.
Reasonably unstressed but I arrived in London with jet-lag “Flu”, which took a
long time to shake. Very poor sleep, which again I put down to jet-lag.
I got everything done at the London Museum,
made successful side-trips to Cambridge
Uni Library and Kew Gardens, and even went to orchestral concerts (the Proms)
but I noticed that I was walking a bit slower than I normally did, and at least
one acquaintance noted that I looked “exhausted” after my walk back across Hyde
Park. Given my normal daily walks along the Cairns Esplanade this distance
should not have tired me out. Not enough “debilitation” to panic me, I was just
a bit ”off”. I then had to organize and
travel to Paris, which again was reasonably unstressed but elevated my
adrenaline a bit, and I had bought some day/night Flu medication by then; i.e.,
when in doubt self-medicate with paracetamol.
Two or three days into my Paris research I
noticed I was walking at my normal pace again (and my back-pack was not as
heavy). I think I had been carrying the side-effects of the tummy-bug, and/or
the “draconian” medication, for the best part of a month but had “soldered on”
because of the adrenaline generated by the trip. I literally could not afford
to be sick.
In hindsight, I seemed to be functioning
OK, just a bit slower and clumsier (e.g., overbalancing backwards on an
inclined travelator at the EuroStar terminal, which I blamed on my heavy
backpack). The good thing was that I was not infective but I may have come
across as not overly incisive to the Museum staff. Still not 100% in Paris but
at least I understood what was going on. I realised I was not quite “with it”
when I looked at my photographs; all work related and no tourist or background
shots. Not even from my side-trip to Cambridge, one of my favourite places. I
had narrowed my focus down to achieve my direct research aims, with little
spare energy for peripheral tasks.
So when I got the chance to photograph some
of the Cite de Universitaire building and did an obligatory trip to the Eiffel
Tower, I found I was cherishing my stay in Paris as this will probably be my last
time here. Again with 20/20 hindsight,
while in Paris I slowly improved in energy levels and my interest broadened
from the research-project focus. By this stage I had achieved all my major
research tasks for the trip so could afford to relax a bit. By the time I
reached St Petersburg I was enjoying the “tourist side” of the journey more but
after two-months living out of a suitcase, was getting a bit travel weary. I
achieved my aims of seeing the art collection of the Hermitage/Winter Palace
and comparing the gardens of the Peter the Great’s “Peter Hoff” with
Versailles. Flying back to Cairns I had few regrets and a deep feeling of achievement
and maybe a little relief.
Neil A Gribble
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