This week Dr Kate looks at a collection that is widely acknowledged as one of the State Library's treasures – the Freycinet Collection.
The Freycinet Collection comprises of eighteen items including drawings, engravings and watercolours made during and after two nineteenth-century French maritime expeditions led by Nicholas Baudin from 1800 to 1804 and Louis de Freycinet from 1817 to 1820.
As well as including some of the first depictions of West Australian flora and fauna, the Freycinet Collection includes the first known cartographic depictions of a number of West Australian locations, as well as the first depictions of a white woman in Western Australia – Louis’ new wife Rose, who stowed away on board the Uranie.
Watercolour image of Shark Bay
The Freycinet Collection was purchased at auction at Christie's in London by the State Library Custodians in September 2002.
You can visit the Western Australia's Freycinet Collection Archive and search the catalogue to view high-resolution digital copies of items in the Freycinet Collection and to view other stories online.
For more stories from the State Library and the State Records Office, follow@statelibrarywa and @staterecordsofficewa on Facebook and @statelibrarywa on Instagram.
Recorded live on ABC Radio Perth on 1 September 2020.