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An annotated edition of the journals of Mary Morton Allport

thesis
posted on 2023-05-26, 00:44 authored by Richardson, JF
In August 1832 Mary Morton Allport began keeping a journal that lasted six months and detailed the transition from her life in a bush hut in Black Brush to living in Hobart Town. Twenty years later she took up her pen again in November 1852 as her eldest son, Morton, departed for England. She faithfully kept her second journal for him, finishing it in September 1854 just before his return. Allport, who trained as a miniature painter, has received recognition for her colonial paintings, sketches and portraits during the twentieth century but her journal writing and poems have been largely ignored. This thesis is an annotated critical edition of her two journals. It offers the foundational study of these texts and will provide the basis for future scholarship. My project has been to transcribe the unpublished journals and to provide them with the textual apparatus required for a scholarly annotated edition. While Allport's journals are especially significant for their domestic details, they also provide historical insights into colonial Tasmanian life and the larger world of the British Empire. In producing this annotated critical edition, my aim has been to create an accessible and informative text. By locating the journals within their social and domestic contexts, I offer a layered approach designed to guide contemporary readers through the complexities of these fascinating colonial texts. I have constructed my methodology on the principles enunciated in the Academy Editions of Australian Literature's Manual for Editors. In some instances I have modified these guidelines to suit my project; for example, my explanatory notes are not placed at the bottom of each page but are collated as endnotes in a separate volume. I am presenting the thesis in two volumes. Volume one introduces Allport's life and works, establishes my editorial practice, and contains the complete transcription of Allport's two journals: the first covering 16 August 1832 to 13 February 1833 (7,500 words) and the second 4 November 1852 to II September 1854 (58,000 words). Volume two contains the explanatory notes, a selection of maps and bibliography.

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Copyright 2006 the author

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