• Title
  John Rae - Letterbook, 1840-1854
• Creator
  John Rae, 1813-1900
• Call number
  MLMSS 6998/Box 1X
  
• Level of description
  fonds
• Date
  
  1840-1854
• Type of material
  Textual Records
• Reference code
  404539
• Issue Copy
  Microfilm : CY 4131, frames 1-761 (MLMSS 6998)
  
• Physical Description
  0.16 metres of textual material (1 outsize box)
  Textual Records - (manuscript)
  
• ADMINISTRATIVE/ BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
  
  John Rae (1813-1900), public servant, author, artist and photographer, was born in Aberdeen in 1813. After an early career in the law, he came to Australia in 1839 as secretary and accountant to the North British Australasian Loan and Investment Company. In 1843 Rae became the first full-time town clerk of Sydney, a position he held until 1857. From 1853 to 1857 he served as one of the three city commissioners. In 1857 he took up an appointment as secretary to the railway commissioners and went on to become commissioner for railways, 1861-1878, and under-secretary for public works, 1861-1889. He retired from the public service in 1893.
  Rae wrote and published several books including 'The Book of Isaiah, Rendered into English Blank Verse' and 'Gleanings from My Scrapbook', a collection of verse. He also edited and published a biography of railway engineer John Whitton. Rae is best known for writing the letterpress for John Skinner Prout's 'Sydney Illustrated', published in parts from 1842 to 1843, and in one volume in 1844.
  Rae was a talented, mostly self-taught, amateur artist. He painted watercolours of Sydney streets and, in 1850, recorded the turning of the first sod for the first railway. His photographic work included large panoramas of Sydney, Wollongong, Newcastle and part of the Murray Valley.
• Scope and Content
  A copy press letterbook containing copies of letters sent by John Rae, 16 May 1840-20 July 1854. Most of the letters are addressed to his parents and brothers and sisters in Aberdeen, Scotland. In these letters Rae writes about his personal affairs, his lectures at the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts, his experiments with various photographic techniques, his artistic work and his writing, especially the writing and publication of 'The Book of Isaiah'. Rae also writes about social and economic conditions in Sydney, especially the effects of the 1840s depression and the gold rushes, and mentions his appointment as a City Commissioner in 1853. Several letters include copies of his poems. There are also sketches by Rae - of Sydney Heads (pp 92, 122) of Sydney Cove (p 123), of the camera he designed (p 678), of houses where he lived (pp 211, 220) and of Hilton, Darlinghurst, the substantial house he built in 1851 (pp 801-802, 811).
  The letterbook includes ten letters written between 1845 and 1850 to John Skinner Prout and one to Mrs Prout, when they lived in Hobart and London. Rae reports on events in Sydney art circles and discusses his work with Prout in producing 'Sydney Illustrated'.
• General note
  
  The letterbook is inscribed inside the front cover: 'John Rae accountant Sydney 1840'. Some pages have been removed, and references to the missing letters have been removed from the index.
• Creator/Author/Artist
  Prout, John Skinner, 1805-1876
  
• Name
  Hilton (Darlinghurst, N.S.W.)
  
• Subject
  Artists, Australian--19th century.
  Civil servants--New South Wales.
  Photographers--New South Wales.
  Poets, Australian--19th century.
  Sydney (N.S.W.)--Economic conditions--1788-1851
  Sydney (N.S.W.)--Economic conditions--1851-1891
  Sydney (N.S.W.)--Social life and customs--1788-1851
  Sydney (N.S.W.)--Social life and customs--1851-1891
  Sydney (N.S.W.) Council--Officials and employees.
  Town clerks--New South Wales--Sydney.
  
• Open Rosetta viewer
  IE9322220

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