Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1843-1877 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent and medium
6 files & 1 bound over sized volume
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
James Erskine Calder (1808-1882), surveyor, was born on 8 June 1808 at Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire, England, ninth of eleven children of Alexander Calder, quartermaster at the Royal Military College. He was educated at village schools and in 1822-26 at the college after it had moved to Sandhurst. He then joined the Ordnance Survey in England, and his interest in this work led his father to seek from the Colonial Office an appointment for him at the Swan River settlement or in some other colony. Calder was offered and accepted appointment as assistant surveyor in Van Diemen's Land on 5 June 1829. A month later he sailed in the Thames for Hobart Town, at half pay on the voyage. On 21 November he took up his position at full pay under the surveyor-general, Edward Dumaresq. Calder became one of the colony's most distinguished early surveyors.
He also maintained a great interest in the Tasmanian Aboriginals and pleaded for the use of their place names; his Some Account of the Wars, Extirpation, Habits, &c., of the Native Tribes of Tasmania (Hobart, 1875) was a collection of material that had appeared in the Mercury, Australasian, and Tasmanian Tribune in 1872-75. His Language and Dialects Spoken by the Aborigines of Tasmania was published as a parliamentary paper in 1901.
For more information see : http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/calder-james-erskine-1865
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Presented by Miss G.F.Calder
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Collection includes letters and cards relating to government house, scrap book of newspaper cutting and a bound volume of Aboriginal vocabularies
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
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Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
This material is made available for personal research and study purposes under the University of Tasmania Standard Copyright Licence. For any further use permission should be obtained from the copyright owners. For assistance please contact Special.Collections@utas.edu.au
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Dates of creation revision deletion
HE Apr.2020