Cultured Colonists: George Alexander Gilbert and His Family, Settlers in Port Phillip

by Margaret Bowman

One of Melbourne’s early settlers, George Alexander Gilbert helped shape the city’s emerging culture in his role as Secretary/Librarian of the Melbourne Mechanics’ Institution. In a varied career that took Gilbert from land agent to assistant gold commissioner, it was his work as an artist and teacher that left a valuable legacy.

Winner of the Local History – Small Publication Award 2014 in the Victorian Community History Awards. The judges’ citation reads:

George Gilbert and his family arrived in Melbourne in 1841. This book skilfully reconstructs the lives of these ‘cultured colonists’ as they try to make their way in the developing society of Port Phillip/Victoria in the 1840s and 1850s. By using a wide range of contemporary sources, the author overcomes the lack of Gilbert personal papers to trace their lives and the changing social networks and cultural initiatives of the raw colony. Gilbert’s many employment failures are charted as well as his enduring work as an artist and teacher and his range of professional interests. It is elegantly written and illustrated, clearly documented and interesting, and a significant contribution to our understandings of early settler society. It contains a most valuable catalogue of Gilbert’s known works and those thought to be those of his students.

125 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Victoria Emerson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was too short for what seemed to be such an interesting story. I wanted more! Disappointed.