Merewether Scholarship
The principal purpose of the Merewether Scholarship is to encourage and support the use of the Mitchell Library's collections for the study and research of Australian history in writing and publication amongst scholars, researchers and the wider community, including internationally. The specific focus of the Merewether Scholarship will be for research associated with the ninteenth century history of New South Wales.
Winners
2011
Ms Samia Khatun for project ‘Gaudy Hawkers and Floating Shops: Indian hawkers and inland rivers of New South Wales, 1880-1914’. This research will examine Indian hawkers along the Murray River. ‘Such traders constituted the inland distribution networks of the Asian import/export businesses that mushroomed in the port of Sydney in the final decades of the 19th century and well into the 20th century’.
2010
Mr Jesse O’Neill for his project Print culture in New South Wales: 1795-1835, an early history. This project will explore the development of a print culture and printing industry in NSW prior to 1835. Mr O’Neill is interested in physical nature of printed artifacts: typefaces, papers, bindings etc, and how they communicate meaning. The Mitchell Library’s collections are obviously prime source material for such a project.
2009
Dr Jodi Frawley for her project Science, pastoralism and environmental change in nineteenth century NSW. The project examines the mobilisation of fodder and forage species during the nineteenth century in support of the pastoral industry. It explores the collaborative relationships between pastoralists, scientists and the rural workforce involved in the introduction of fodder and forage species. This project picks up on the current interest in Australian environmental history, and is a story which is not obvious but which has had a significant impact both environmentally and in the appearance of the Australian landscape.
2008
Dr Peter Tyler will research the history of the Royal Society of New South Wales, examining the cultural significance and intellectual influence of the Society as the first scientific organisation in Australia, established in 1821. Its extensive archives are now held in the Mitchell Library.
View essays drawing on Dr Tyler's Merewether Fellowship
Tyler, P, 'Seeing Stars in the City – A History of Early Astronomy in Sydney', Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, Vol. 142, p. 1–14, 2009
