Summary

Scrapbook of newspapers and other flyers compiled by Caroline Chisholm, circa 1844-1861.

The scrapbook includes hundreds of original newspaper cuttings, flyers and public notices originating from Cork, Melbourne and London, focussing on Chisholm's main work of assisting immigration and settlement. It appears to have been compiled retrospectively, as it is not in exact chronological order. However it does seem to have been compiled reasonably soon following the events depicted. All previous owners of the scrapbook claim that Caroline Chisholm compiled it - a claim supported by the focus of the scrapbook and the provenance of the specific scrapbook contents.

Caroline Chisholm was born in England in 1808 and made her first visit to Australia in 1838. She spent about 20 years of her life active in the public sphere as a social reformer and philanthropist. She tirelessly promoted immigration to Australia, and her particular passions were reuniting families separated by distance, improving the often appalling conditions of emigrant ship travel, and looking after single young women who from the 1830s came to the colonies without support, finances or protection. She desired a national system of colonisation in Australia. Her activities were varied, wide ranging and invariably practical, and included the establishment of a variety of temporary immigrant accommodations, authoring political pamphlets and submissions to British parliament, fundraising, setting up loans, and undertaking lecture tours. Caroline Chisholm saw value in encouraging emigration to Australia, but wanted to improve its processes and outcomes for women and families.

Between the late 1830s and 1860s, Caroline Chisholm played a profound role in providing financial and moral assistance to single women and poor British families to migrate to and settle in NSW and later, Victoria. She drove the establishment of female shelters and institutions for domestic training. She also advocated for a closer settlement scheme in rural NSW and Victoria for poor, large families, believing that the presence of white women helped civilise outback relations. She coined the phrase 'God's police', for white women, which became an increasingly common phrase as the ratio of married to unmarried women increased in NSW in the mid 1840s. Chisholm's work has become legendary in the history of Australian philanthropy, as the most important movement for the migration and settlement of British women in the early colonisation period.

Physical Description

Scrapbook of newspaper cuttings, public notices and flyers. 141 pages, including 83 blank pages. The earliest entry is dated 9 October, 1852 and the latest is July 1865. It includes accounts of the Family Colonisation Loan Society; the launching of the W. S. Lindsay; extracts from Household Words; poems about Caroline Chisholm; numerous posters advertising meetings; various posters and tickets.

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