National Libray of Australia Acquires eye-witness records from Burke and Wills expedition

The National Library of Australia is pleased to announce it was the successful bidder for an album containing two original pictures from the ill-fated Burke and Wills Expedition of 1860–1861.

The album, which sold at this evening’s Bonhams & Goodman auction in Melbourne for a hammer price of $240,000, will shed new light on a great Australian story.

The two drawings in the album both dated 1861, are by William Hodgkinson, a literary editor with The Age, who joined the Burke and Wills expedition at Swan Hill in 1860.

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The National Library already has a number of Burke and Wills items including the diaries of William John Wills 23 April – 28 June 1861(at http://www.nla.gov.au/epubs/wills/ ) and John O’Hara Burke 16 December 1860 – 20 January 1861. The Library’s pictures collection contains works depicting aspects of the expedition by William Strutt and Nicholas Chevalier, as well as works by Hodgkinson from a later expedition.

Source: National Library of Australia