From death to death ...... Arawarra, Berry & Shelley timeline

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Mary Shelley sits by the grave of her mother.....

Compiled by Michael Organ, Marlene Longbottom and Tony Crook

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Chronology
3. Bibliography
4. Acknowledgements

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1. Introduction

What do the following all have in common: Shoalhaven Aboriginal warrior and Elder Arawarra who died in the 1820s; ship's surgeon, merchant and landowner, Alexander Berry; and English author Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein (1818)? Answer: apart from being alive during the approximate same period of time, they all had an uncanny association with death and its aftermath. One had his lifeless physical body disturbed in the grave and his skull surgically removed by one of the other; another dealt with death commercially, professionally and post mortem, exhibiting little respect for the dead, though sworn to prevent death; and the third was confronted with death from birth, giving rise to a morbid fascination with it an the idea of reanimation. The following chronology and bibliography outlines aspects of their sometimes shared experiences, and the connections between Arawarra, Berry and Shelley which haunt us to the present day. Below is not a narrative, or a story which has chapters and beginning, middle and end. It is in fact a jigsaw puzzle, with only the final picture revealed as all of the pieces come together near the end, upon taking in the beginning and middle. 

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2. Chronology

1752

– The British Murder Act makes the medical dissection of all convicted murderers compulsory. The aim is to provide cadavers for medical schools (Marshall 1995).

– Dissection of bodies is seen as vital by the medical community and upper classes of society in order to advance medical science and improve health outcomes generally. It is supported legislatively and, as a result, grave robbing is only weakly criminalised when legal avenues fail to meet the demand for dead bodies (Desai 1990).

– Dissection of bodies is considered a punishment as, according to prevailing Christian religious beliefs, it is a means of denying ultimate salvation as body and soul are meant to be reunited on judgement day. This cannot take place if the body is dissected or defiled. It is therefore abhorred by the wider community (Richardson 1987).

– Grave robbing supplements the supply of corpses for medical, scientific and pseudoscientific study during the second half of the 1700s and through much of the 1800s.

1759

– Mary Wollstonecraft - mother of Mary (Wollstonecraft) Shelley - is born in England, the second of seven children to Edward John Wollstonecraft and Elizabeth Dixon. Mary goes on to achieve fame as a writer, philosopher and advocate of women’s rights. Just prior to her death in 1797 she marries William Goodwin, also a progressive writer and philosopher.

1781

– Alexander Berry is born in Scotland.

1783

– Edward Wollstonecraft is born in England, the son of Edward Wollstonecraft, who is the brother of Mary Wollstonecraft (Goodwin) and himself the son of Edward John Wollstonecraft. He later becomes brother-in-law and business partner to Alexander Berry and is the cousin of Mary (Wollstonecraft) Shelley.

1792

– A Vindication of the Rights of Women is published by Mary Wollstonecraft.

1796

– The pseudosciences of phrenology and craniology are developed by German physician Franz Joseph Gall. They involve the physical study of the skull, and less so the brain, with interest in variation between races and social classes. The bodies of criminals, the poor and native peoples are secured for study in connection with phrenology. It is seen by some as quackery, and others as a true science.

1797

- Mary Wollstonecraft (later Shelley) is born. Her mother Mary Wollstonecraft dies shortly after giving birth, due to complications. Mary is subsequently raised in England and Scotland by her father and relatives. She develops a fascination for her dead mother. 

- Grave robbing is rife in Scotland during the period in which young Mary grows up, especially in Edinburgh which is a centre of science and medicine. The securing of corpses for medical dissection becomes a priority, and respect for the deceased – especially the poor or criminal – is increasingly diminished.

- During her childhood, Mary frequently visits the grave of her mother at St. Pancras cemetery, London, to write and contemplate. She is later joined there by her future husband Percy Shelley.

1803

- Giovanni Aldini animates a dead corpse with galvanism (electricity).

1810

- Dr Michael Goodsir, Royal Navy, is appointed a Medical Officer.

1812

- Mary (14) moves to Dundee, just north of Edinburgh in Scotland. Around this time she moves back and forth between England and Scotland, partially in respond to a difficult relationship with her step mother.

- Alexander Berry meets Edward Wollstonecraft and appoints him as his agent and power of attorney.

1814

- Mary meets Percy Shelley and begins a relationship.

- Dr. Michael Goodsir appointed assistant-surgeon on the Asia.

1815

- Mary (18) travels along the Rhine and encounters places and historical elements, which would later coalesce into a work of fiction.

- Alexander Berry, Edward Wollstonecraft and his sister Elizabeth share accommodation in London, through to 1819.

- Dr. Michael Goodsir is promoted to surgeon.

1816

- March / April: Following on the massacre of a group of Aboriginal men, women and children at Appin by soldiers of the 46th Grenadiers Regiment, the skulls of the middle-aged male leader of the group Kinnabygal, and another man and woman, are collected and sent to England for study. This marks the first official sanctioning by the colonial administration of the defilement of Aboriginal bodies and collection of skulls for despatch to England and Scotland.

- June: Mary commences writing the story Frankenstein, based on a dream she had and following a famous evening in Geneva with Shelley and Lord Byron wherein the attendees each constructed a ghost story, or Gothic piece of fiction.

- Mary Wollstonecraft marries Percy Bysshe Shelley (b.1792).

1817

- James Curry of Guy's Hospital is the Shelley’s doctor and author of an 1815 book on the various states of death and reanimation.

1818

- The first edition of Frankenstein is published in London, anonymously.

- Comment by the monster (Frankenstein, chapter V) which points to Shelley’s empathy for Indigenous peoples subject to invasion and colonisation:

I heard of the discovery of the American hemisphere and wept with Safie over the hapless fate of its original inhabitants.

- The Edinburgh Magazine review of the book states that there is ‘an air of reality attached to it, by being connected with the favourite projects and passions of the time.’ There is therefore a documentary and science-based quality about Frankenstein, reflecting the young author's knowledge of such things. It is later cited as the first modern work of science-fiction.

1819

- William Shelley, the 2 ½ year old son of Mary and Percy, is ‘reanimated’ after death by a physician and lives for 4 days before finally passing.

- The merchant and former ship's surgeon Alexander Berry writes from Sydney to the Reverend Robert Knopwood regarding craniology and the work of a Mr. Thomas Hobbs Scott, brother in law of the visiting Commissioner Bigge:

Sydney, January 29th 1819

Revd. Mr Knopwood

Mr Dear Sir

I have received your favour of the 17th instant with its enclosure for which accept my best thanks. I am also aware of the trouble you have taken to procure me Skulls of the natives and therefor the obligation on my part is equal as if you had been successful. I sail for England in the course of February, but my partner Mr Edward Wollstonecraft will remain untill my return and most likely will visit Van Diemen’s Land in two or 3 months. Therefore, if you succeed in procuring a native Skull I will thank you to send it to him. As you had a visit so lately from the Dromedary, you can be in no want of English news and therefore what you require must no doubt be with respect to this country, with respect to any changes likely to take place in the Government. I am entirely ignorant as also when you may expect a visit from His Excellency and Mrs Macquarie. At present the Commissioner [Bigge] and Mr Scott are about on a voyage of observation to the Coal River and Port Macquarie, and are hourly expected back and most likely will embark for Van Dieman's Land some weeks after their return. They are well adapted for their mission and it is therefore rather ludicrous to observe men of their most discordant and jarring opinions all expressing themselves equally satisfied with what they suppose the countenance which has been given to their opinion. Mr Scott is a good agriculturist and therefore may be the best judge of the physical state of the country, and the Commissioner perhaps of the moral and political. [Allow me also to observe that although it is not generally suspected in New S. Wales, still I know it to be the case that Mr Scott is a Craniologist] Allow me also to observe that Mr Scott is a craniologist. This is not generally suspected here, still I know it to be the case, therefore you will oblige me by procuring him if possible a native cranium but it may be as well if you advise such of your friends as have any reason to be doubtful of their own heads not to allow him to feel their bumps, lest he should discover what is inside - in fact I cannot better close this letter than by copying Robie Burn's address to his countrymen on the bust of Capt. Grose the Antiquary:

Hear, Land o' Cakes, and brither Scots,
Frae Maidenkirk to Johnny Groat’s;
If there's a hole in a' your coats,
I rede you tent it:
A chiel's among you, taking notes,
And, faith, he'll prent it!

[Extract from Robert Burns' 1789 poem `On the Late Captain Grose's Peregrinations thro' Scotland, collecting the Antiquities of that Kingdom', lines 1-6]

1820

- George Mackenzie includes a description of the skull of Carnimbeigle (Kinnabygal) in his book Illustrations on Phrenology, published in Edinburgh.

1821

- January 1821: Dr. Michael Goodsir appointed to the Atholl.

- Thomas Hobbs Scott returns from Australia and presents the Royal College of Surgeons with skulls from New Zealand and Tasmania. It is unclear if Berry was successful in supplying him.

– 23 October: Hobbs donates to the School of Anatomy, Oxford University, the ‘…skull of a Black Male, not woolly headed, of New South Wales…’ probably with assistance from Berry.

1822

- the second edition of Frankenstein is published. It identifies Mary Shelley as the author.

- Percy Bysshe Shelley, husband of Mary Shelley, drowns.

1824

- Dr Michael Goodsir surgeon-superintendent on the convict ship Hercules, departs Portsmouth 29 December 1824, arrives Port Jackson 7 May 1825. Left port on 11 June 1825

1825

- 17 May 1825: Colonial Secretary records – Principal Surgeon James Bowman certifies Michael Goodsir’s medical expenses (AONSW Reel 6063; 4/1784 p.255).

1826

- The Monitor, Sydney, Friday 7 July, p.2:

It is reported that Major M—— took home a score or two of sculls of the Aborigines slaughtered in the late war. Of course the poor fellows to whose shoulders these said sculls once appertained, were not worthy of a Coroner's Inquest, either before, pending, or subsequent to martial law. It is a pity but that with heads, the Phrenological Societies of Europe were not equally gratified with excoriated shoulder-blades, as we understand the penal settlements of this part of the world could have furnished several very well executed specimens of this description.

- Dr. Michael Goodsir marries Mary Ann Luptin nee Atkin (1810-1866)

1827

- Alexander Berry marries Elizabeth Wollstonecraft (1782-1845), sister of his business partner Edward Wollstonecraft.

- The British Anatomy Act is passed to allow access to ‘unclaimed’ bodies for dissection and study. This means the bodies of the poor are now widely subject to dissection and study, often in opposition to the demands of family and friends.

- 18 January: a skull of an Aboriginal woman of New South Wales is presented to the Phrenological Society of Edinburgh by Sir Thomas Brisbane, a graduate of the University of Edinburgh and governor of the colony between 1821-1825.

- 14 February: Dr Michael Goodsir surgeon-superintendent on the Countess of Harcourt, departs Dublin 14 February, arrives Port Jackson 28 June 1827.

- 6 May 1827: Extract of letter from Alexander Berry to Edward Wollstonecraft re possible treatment of the Aborigines at Shoalhaven {Berry Papers, ML MSS 315/46 p.403}: 

....Take care you are not humbugged by the natives. Endeavour to get them all away. Poor Lieut. Lowe is committed to take his trial for shooting one of them at Hunters River. Tom tells me that they are fully determined to kill Wylie. I shall therefore send down a couple of excellent riffles.

- 10 May 1827: Extract of a letter from Edward Wollstonecraft to Alexander Berry regarding dealing with the Aborigines at Shoalhaven, in reply to that of the 6th previous {Berry Papers, ML MSS 315/46, pp.87-89}.

Coolangatta 10th May 1827

Dear B.

 ....You desire me to turn away the Natives from the Farm - meaning, of course, to keep them away altogether. Pray how is that to be done!

- 28 June 1827: Dr Michael Goodsir arrives in Sydney aboard the Countess of Harcourt. Medical journal available.

- 19-21 August 1827, Sunday: Berry’s letter to Edward Wollstonecraft, [CY2479, ML MSS 315/86-7, p445], which mentions Arawarra and ‘Dr Goodsir’. The letter is addressed to ‘Dear W.’ - Berry’s common address for his business partner, Edward Wollstonecraft - and mentions the August 20th 1827 ‘history’ letter as being an enclosure to this letter, together with a note saying that Berry had also forward Arawarra’s skull to Dr. Goodsir. This letter also mentions that Dr Goodsir had previously proposed to visit Shoalhaven & had previously given Berry some glass suction cups for the treatment of snake bites etc.

Coolloomgatta 19th August 1827

Dear W.

Early in the morning after writing you the enclosed I stated for Illawarra & returned again next day, having slept at Fitzgerald's. He was absent on public business at Appin. I found his wife in bad very low spirits from being alone without ... assistance or associates. Mrs Smith had visited her a few times, but Mrs O'Brien never since she was confined. Considerable inflamation of the left breast had taken place, one of the abscesses had burst & another was on the point of doing so. AS she was expecting the arrival of a surgeon and not submit to being lanced, I gave her what advice seemed wanting and the day after my arrival sent one of the Detachments with some ... medicines & some wine & beer. On passing through the long brush I found the creeks, with the exception of that at Fletchers, nearly all dried up, & in the forest ......

.... which he contracted with Miss W. on account of his wives and has already delivered to me one mostly of the same which I shall bring up along with me. I also send to Dr Goodsir the skull of a native warrior of whom I enclose his history. Had he come down himself as he once proposed he might have procured many objects of curiosity which I have no time to collect. I am glad that I have been able to procure this single object. His cupping glasses have been already very useful, although this is not the season of snakes. They have been repeatedly applied to Iiceras knee and once to Wyllie betwixt the shoulders! I wish you would send Goball to Bob Cooper for 1/2 a pint of his strongest alcohol to exhaust the suction bottle …..

- 20 August 1827, Monday: Letter by Alexander Berry concern the dispatch of the skull of Arawarra, a former Aboriginal chief of the Shoalhaven, to unknown person, either 1) John Fitzgerald, commandant at the Illawarra stockade, Wollongong; or 2) Michael Goodsir (Royal Navy surgeon), or 3) a correspondent at the Edinburgh Museum. It is likely that Fitzgerald sent it on to Goodsir, or that two, near identical, versions of the letter exist] {ML MSS 315/46 CY2025, pp.247-8; Turnbull 2001}:

[#1 - Goodsir version]

Cooloomgatta Shoal Haven

20th Augt - 1827

Dr Sir,

I have now the pleasure of sending you a Craniological Specimen, being the skull of a former chief of the neighbourhood, valuable on account of part of the History of the Personage to whom it originally belonged being known. He was of the rank of a German Prince, or the chief of a Highland clan, and renowned for many dark deeds of Blood. Many years before Shoal Haven was settled by Berry & Wollstonecraft it was resorted to by Parties of Cedar cutters. In course of time these were either all destroyed or driven away by the natives. Arawarra - the owner of the present specimen - attacked and destroyed a Party of these sawyers who were employed at Black Head seven miles to the north of Shoal Haven River and utterly destroyed them, and if report speaks true, afterwards feasted on their flesh. He has left a numerous Progeny behind him, and notwithstanding the bloody deeds of his youth lived to an extreme / old age and died in peace. On our arrival here he was tottering on the verge of human life. About 2 or 3 years ago I met Charlie his youngest son, a peaceable well disposed native like another Pious Orcus carrying this once formidable warrior upon his shoulders. The venerable old Gentleman merely came to take a last look of Cooloomgatta now occupied by strangers, died two days after & was buried in the neighbourhood. He was buried in the sand to the depth of ten feet, laying on his face & with his head pointing to south. Thus although this man of blood escaped punishment and died in peace, yet mark eternal Justice his bones have not been allowed to rest in their grave, & it is to be hoped that his skull will throw such light on science as may sufficiently expiate the crimes which he committed.

[#2 - Fitzgerald version]

Dr Sir,

I have the pleasure of finding you a Craniological Specimen, being the skull of a former chief of this neighbourhood, valuable on account of part of the History of the Personage to whom it originally belonged being known. He was of the rank of a German Prince, or the Chief of a Highland clan, and renowned for many dark deeds of Blood. Many years before Shoal Haven was settled by Berry & Wollstonecraft it was visited by Parties of Cedar cutters. In course of time these were either all destroyed or driven away by the natives - Arawarra the owner of the present specimen attacked and destroyed a Part of these sawyers who were employed at Black Head seven miles to the north of Shoal Haven River and utterly destroyed them, and if report speaks true, afterwards feasted on their flesh. He has left numerous Progeny behind him, and notwithstanding the bloody deeds of his youth lived to an extreme old age and died in peace. On our arrival here he was tottering on the verge of human life. About 2 or 3 years ago I met Charlie his youngest son, a peaceable well disposed native like another Pious Orcus carrying this once formidable warrior upon his Shoulders. The venerable old Gentleman merely came to take a last look of Cooloomgatta now occupied by strangers, died two days after & was buried in the neighbourhood. He was buried in the sand to the depth of ten feet, lying on his face & with his head pointing to south. Thus although this man of blood escaped punishment and died in peace, yet mark eternal Justice his bones have not been allowed to rest in their grave. It is to be hoped that his skull will throw such light on science as may sufficiently expiate the crimes which he committed.

- 20 August 1827: The Countess of Harcourt departs Sydney. It is unknown if Goodsir was on board and bearing the skull of Arawarra, or departed on a later ship.

1828

- the Burke and Hare murders occur in Edinburgh, with the bodies of 16 victims legally supplied to a medical doctor in return for payment.

- Edward Wollstonecraft erroneously reports to Alexander Berry on the murder of 16 whalers at Twofold Bay by the local Aboriginal people (Organ 1989, 153; refer also a copy of original letter from Wollstonecraft to Berry in Organ 1992)

- 11 June 1828: A Prospectus of the Proposed Australian Phrenological Society is published in Sydney (Storey 2019).

- 8 September1828: Dr. John Drummond was a Royal Navy surgeon on board the convict ships Countess of Harcourt which arrived in Sydney on 8 September 1828, and the Prince Regent on 9 February 1830. At some point - likely 1829 or 1830 - he brought back to Britain the skull of a New Hollander which ended up in the collection of a Dr. William Campbell. A cast of the skull was donated to the Phrenological Society of Edinburgh by James Tod, an Edinburgh solicitor and phrenologist. It was described in a copy of the Society's Cox catalogue as follows:

120 New Hollander No. 8; Cast of a skull brought home by John Drummond Esq. Surgeon RN, and presented to the Society by James Tod Esq. W.S. "When alive," says Mr. Drummond in a letter to Mr. Tod, "this individual was know to be possessed of undaunted courage, & from the various irregularities on the head, appears to have occasionally met his match. It must be explained, however, that the diseased appearances are perhaps more owing to the total neglect of the wounds than to the actual injuries done; thereby giving opportunities for the deposition of the larvae of insects &c., by which ulceration of the skin & exfoliation of the bone is produced." He adds that of between two & three hundred native skulls which he examined, none had any dentes canini canine dentes canini or incisors, properly so called, the whole of the teeth being perfectly flat. This he is convinced is a natural peculiarity & is not per rot. The skull of which the pres a cast is now before us is in possession of Dr. Campbell of Edinburgh. The organs of Philoprogenitiveness & Combativeness are large.

1829

- 9 July 1829: Dr Michael Goodsir appointed to the convict ship Waterloo departing London on 14 March 1829 and arriving Port Jackson 9 July 1829. His wife accompanied him on this voyage.

- November 1829: Dr. Goodsir, Mrs Goodsir, Dr. McTernan, Dr. Love. and Dr. Rutherford returned to London on the ship Doncaster (Sydney Gazette, 11 July 1829; The Australian, November 1829). Medical journal available.

1830

- Dr Michael Goodsir surgeon on the convict ship Royal George departing Portsmouth 27 June 1830 and arriving Van Diemen’s Land 18 October 1830.

1831

- the third and final, edited edition of Frankenstein is published.

1837

- Monday, 20 February: Frankenstein, or The Monster, performed for the first time in this Colony at the Theatre Royal, Hobart.

1838

- Alexander Berry records reminiscences regarding his encounters with the Aboriginal people of the Shoalhaven. One section refers to Arawarra as follows:

I have already mentioned that, shortly before I settled at Coolangatta, the Natives drove away some woodcutters. On that occasion they were commanded by a noted warrior - named, I think, Arawarra. Some years later the son of Arawarra, who was then very old, and unable to walk, brought his poor father to Coolangatta, carrying him on his shoulders for several miles. His motive was not that of the pious Eneas - but that the old man should behold the sea once more before he died, as he did a few days after (Organ 1989, 329).

- 15 October 1838: Dr Michael Goodsir arrives in Sydney from County of Cork as surgeon-superintendent on board the immigrant ship Calcutta (Sydney Gazette, 16 October 1838).

1839

- Dr. John Dunmore Lang reports on the death of Dr. Michael Goodsir on board the Roslin Castle during a voyage from Australia, arriving in England on 11 June (Sydney Gazette, 24 October 1839).

1842

- 4 January: Mrs Elizabeth Berry writes to Everina Wollstonecraft (1765-1843), sister of Mary Wollstonecraft and aunt to both Elizabeth and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

1843

- 25 March : Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley to Mrs Elizabeth Berry re death and burial of Aunt Everina.

1844

- November: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley to Elizabeth Berry (letter lost).

1845

- 11 April: Death of Elizabeth (Wollstonecraft) Berry at Sydney.

- 30 April: Alexander Berry to Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley re the death of her cousin Elizabeth and his plans to build a new cemetery and tomb for her and Edward in association with St Thomas' Church, St Leonard’s, Sydney.

- 24 October: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley letter to Alexander Berry re death of Elizabeth, in response to letter of 30 April.

1846

- 30 April: Alexander Berry to Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

- 12 November: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley to Alexander Berry re the monument to Edward and Elizabeth and churchyards in general i.e. massed cemeteries.

1847

- 29 March: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley to Alexander Berry. ‘... How does the plantation around Mrs Berry and her brother's tomb thrive? I am interested on that subject and shall be very glad to hear from you...’

- 1 August: Alexander Berry to Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley in response to letter of 29 March.

- 17 August: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley to Alexander Berry re her illness and politics.

1848

- 6 January: Alexander Berry to Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley in response to letter of 17 August 1847.

- 30 June: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley to Alexander Berry.

1851

- 1 February: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley dies.

- 7 March: Lady Jane Shelley to Alexander Berry re the death of Mary. Their correspondence continues through to Berry’s death in 1873, with some 71 letters from Jane.

1857

- The Illawarra Mercury reports on the discovery of the body of an Aboriginal woman on the road between Bulli and Appin. The report notes:

…Whether the skull is that of an aboriginal or not, we are not learned in ethnological lore sufficiently to determine, but it certainly has the "forehead villanous low," extended and prominent jaw, peculiar to that section of the genus homo to which the aboriginals of this country belongs (Organ 1989, 304).

1863

- Micky Munnima of the Illawarra records the word for skull as ‘bonyow’ (Organ 1989, 315).

1873

- 17 September: Alexander Berry dies.

1899

- Anthropologist R.H. Mathews notes of Mount Coolangatta:

It is believed that it was to this mountain that the dead went after burial in midden sands. The spirits of the recently buried had to ascend from a rock on the mountain’s eastern side, to a world of spirits. In doing so, they were required to avoid various dangers which were relative to their life’s deeds.

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3. Bibliography

Bennett, Betty T., The Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, 3 volumes, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1988.

Bennett, Michael, For a Labourer Worthy of His Hire: Aboriginal Economic Responses to Colonisation in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven, 1770-1900, PhD thesis, University of Canberra, 2003.

-----, A long time working: Aboriginal labour on the Coolangatta Estate, 1822-1901, in Greg Patmore, John Shields and Nikola Balnave (eds.), The Past is Before Us – The Ninth National Labour History Conference, University of Sydney, 30 June – 2 July, 2005, 19-27.

Brenchley, E., The Enlightenment in Australia: Attitudes of Alexander Berry to Aborigines, BA(Hons.) thesis, 1982, Macquarie University.

Burke and Hare murders [1828], Wikipedia [webpage], 2019. Available URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burke_and_Hare_murders.

Coleman, Deirdre, The film Mary Shelley shows Frankenstein is always a story for our times, The Conversation, 4 July 2018. Available URL: https://theconversation.com/the-film-mary-shelley-shows-frankenstein-is-always-a-story-for-our-times-99148.

Curry, James, Observations on Apparent Death from Drowning, Hanging, Suffocation by Noxious Vapours, Fainting Fits, Intoxication, Lightning, Exposure to Cold &c., and an account of the proper means to be employed for recovery, E. Cox and Son, London, 1815.

Daley, Paul, The bone collectors: a brutal chapter in Australia’s part, The Guardian, 14 June 2014. Available URL: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/14/aboriginal-bones-being-returned-australia.

Desai, Bindu T., Corpses as Commodity, Economic and Political Weekly, 16-23 June 1990, 1321-1322. Review of Richardson 1987.

Edward Wollstonecraft, in The Royal Easter Show began as the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW, Pittwater Online News, 30 March – 5 April 2014, Issue 156. Available URL: http://www.pittwateronlinenews.com/royaleastershowbeganasagriculturesocietyin1822.php.

Fist, Rebecca, Berry’s Link to Frankenstein, South Coast Register, 11 May 2018. Available URL: https://www.southcoastregister.com.au/story/5395893/berrys-link-to-frankenstein/.

Hall, Harriet, Who was Mary Shelley and what inspired Frankenstein?, Independent, 6 July 2018. Available URL: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/women/mary-shelley-movie-frankenstein-books-husband-trailer-biography-quotes-a8433531.html.

Ketterer, David, “Furnish … Materials”: The Surgical Anatomy Context of Frankenstein, Science Fiction Studies, 24(1), March 1997. Review of Marshall 1995.

Mackenzie, George, Illustrations on Phrenology, Archibald Constable and Company, Edinburgh, 1820.

Marshall, Tim, Murdering to dissect: grave-robbing, Frankenstein and the anatomy literature, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1995.

Mathews, R.H., Folklore of the Australian Aborigines, Hennessey, Harper & Co., Sydney, 1899, 35p.

Morton, John, Australian Aboriginal Religion, in Encyclopedia of Death & Dying [website], accessed 5 December 2019. Available URL: http://www.deathreference.com/A-Bi/Australian-Aboriginal-Religion.html.

Organ, Michael, Illawarra and South Coast Aborigines 1770-1850, Aboriginal Education Unit, University of Wollongong, 1989, 630p.

-----, Illawarra and South Coast Aborigines 1770-1900, Report to the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra, 1993, 348p.

Reece, R.H.W., Feast and Blankets: The History of Some Early Attempts to Establish Relations with the Aborigines of NSW 1814-1846, Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania, 2 (3), 1967, 190-205.

Richardson, Ruth, Death, Dissection and the Destitute, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1987.

Rushton, Sharon, The science of life and death in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Discovering Literature: Romantics & Victorians, British Library, 15 May 2014. Available URL: https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-science-of-life-and-death-in-mary-shelleys-frankenstein.

Saunders, Jennifer, Small histories: a road trip reveals local museums stuck in a rut, The Conversation, 18 October 2019. Available URL: https://www.uow.edu.au/media/2019/small-histories-a-road-trip-reveals-local-museums-stuck-in-a-rut.php.

Smith, Amanda, The skull, the phrenologist and the solution to a 150-year old mystery, ABC Radio National, 21 July 2015. Available URL: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/bodysphere/the-skull,-the-phrenologist-and-the-150-year-mystery/6636226.

Steven, Margaret, Alexander Berry and the Vast Commonwealth of Nature, Seminar presented at the Australian National University, 10 September 1998.

Storey, Catherine E., The promotion of phrenology in New South Wales, 1830-1850, at the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts, Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, 20 November 2019. Available URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/0964704X.2019.1686330.

Turnbull, Paul, Alexander Berry: ‘Laird of the Shoalhaven and phrenologist’, in ‘Rare work among the professors’: the capture of indigenous skulls within phrenological knowledge in early colonial Australia, in Barbara Creed and Jeannette Hoorn (editors), Body Trade: Captivity, Cannibalism and Colonialism in the Pacific, Pluto Press, 2001, 7-14.

-----, Colonial Phrenology in the 1820s: The Cranial Collections of Alexander Berry, in Science, Museums and Collecting the Indigenous Dead in Colonial Australia, Palgrave Studies in Pacific History, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, 163-169.

Williams, Carolyn, “Inhumanly Brought Back to Life and Misery”: Mary Wollstonecraft, Frankenstein, and the Royal Humane Society, Women’s Writing, 8.2, 2001, 213–34.

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4. Acknowledgements

This collection of resources has been compiled by Tony Crook of the University of Edinburgh, Marlene Longbottom of Southern Cross University, and Michael Organ, formerly of the University of Wollongong.

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Shoalhaven: | Aunty Julie Freeman art | Australian First Nations research | Berry's Frankenstein & Arawarra | Cullunghutti - Sacred Mountain | Gooloo Creek, Conjola | Mickey of Ulladulla | Mount Gigenbullen | Byamee's Hands, Shoalhaven River | Ulladulla Mission | Words |

Last updated: 6 November 2024

Michael Organ, Australia