Birdman's Wife
Page 39
Called to the special collections desk on the appointed day, I was given a pair of white gloves and a thick cardboard box. Heart pounding, I carried my bounty to a study carrel. The document box was bound with thick tie. Eagerly, I unknotted the ribbon and lifted the lid to find a large object wrapped in acid-free tissue paper with a ribbon attached. A note in the corner of the record read ‘Do not issue’. Feeling slightly guilty, concerned that there might have been a mistake – though I wasn’t sending it back without a look first – I undid the string and peeled back the layers of paper to reveal a bound volume of correspondence, known as a letterbook. Opening the cover, I read an inscription, a nineteenth century ‘This book belongs to’ made out to John Gould. Turning the pages, I read the neat script of John Gould’s secretary’s copies of John’s correspondence. Panic gripped me. Had the librarians retrieved the wrong record? I flicked through the feint-lined blue pages. And there, nestled in the middle of the letterbook, was a tiny booklet about the size of a CD case, running to eight doubled-sided leaves. Having spent the morning examining Elizabeth’s microfiche letters, I recognised her handwriting at once. My expectations of uncovering a dense leather-bound diary detailing Elizabeth’s travels in Australia were utterly confounded by these meagre eight pages. The tiny diary covered a two-week period in which Elizabeth noted her impressions of Sydney, Newcastle and Maitland. Then, as now, keeping a diary was a must for travellers who wished to record their experiences in foreign places. In all likelihood Elizabeth kept a diary for the two years she spent away from England. However, her personal reflections during her voyage to Australia, the year she spent in Tasmania, her time in the Upper Hunter Valley staying at her brother Stephen Coxen’s farm, have not survived. Whereas John Gould’s correspondence, spanning a forty-year career, runs to many thousands of letters, most of which have been transcribed and published, a dozen letters and this small diary are all that exist of Elizabeth Gould’s thoughts and experiences. And, like so many of the artefacts of Elizabeth Gould’s short life, her diary had been indexed under John Gould’s name rather than her own, and I had only discovered its existence by chance while scanning the record’s attached notes. Flying home, I reflected that the trail leading me to the jewel of Elizabeth’s diary, secreted within the folds of her husband’s letterbook, formed the perfect metaphor for the meticulous labour of unearthing her secret life.
In writing The Birdman’s Wife, I have adhered to the archival record as much as possible where practicable. However, as this is a work of fiction I have had to imagine and give voice to Elizabeth’s intimate emotions, and to the many gaps in the record of her experiences. While evidence exists that John Gould operated a taxidermy business before taking up the position of Curator and Preserver of Birds at the Zoological Society, the specific location of his workplace is unknown. There are two theories of the first meeting of Elizabeth Gould and John – that while working as a governess Elizabeth took her charge Harriett on an outing to the Zoological Gardens and they met there; or that Elizabeth’s brother, Charles, who worked for John Gould as a taxidermist, introduced them. I chose to reimagine the latter. The botanic gardens Elizabeth visits with her tutor in Kent is fictional, as is the dinner hosted by the Zoological Society. The idea for the celebration was inspired by a story in Eliza Muskett Moon’s memoir of John Gould, who liked to recollect a New Year’s Eve dinner he had attended with his Zoological Society fellows, held inside the belly of a reconstructed Iguanodon. Unfortunately, the event took place in 1853 and could not be included. For narrative coherence the order and dates of the sequence of letters Elizabeth receives from London and the timing of John Gould’s return from his Recherché Bay expedition has been slightly rearranged. The bower of the Regent’s Bowerbird, rather than the Satin Bowerbird, was discovered on Mosquito Island and, although the Satin Bowerbird has not been recorded there, the former rainforest habitat would have provided an ideal environment for it to flourish. Mr Orleigh is a fictional character as the identity of Elizabeth’s real portraitist is unknown. As was the convention at the time, the Goulds recycled the first names of their deceased children but to avoid confusion I changed the name of John Henry Gould, Elizabeth’s second son, to Henry Gould; I also renamed Elizabeth’s nephew, Henry Coxen, Will Coxen.
Virginia Woolf observed that ‘Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of a man at twice its natural size.’ While in my historical research I had to unearth fossil prints of Elizabeth’s biography from the layers of myth pressed upon her husband, an archaeological approach was also required to build Elizabeth into a fictional character. From the remnants of her archive, I had to fill in many spaces to create a narrative of her interior, emotional life. Almost two hundred years of analysis of John Gould and his contributions to ornithology and zoological illustration have created a luminous figure, a colossus even. Conversely, time and time again, Elizabeth has been consigned to his shadow. This is particularly so in biographical representations of Elizabeth as an individual; she was viewed as either John Gould’s faithful and supportive wife, or his willing assistant and acolyte. Onto these interpretations were projected all kinds of stereotypical feminine qualities, that she was delicate, polite, elegant and deferent. In The Story of Elizabeth Gould, Alec Chisholm went so far as to suggest that she sacrificed her very life for her husband’s pursuits. It was as if she lacked her own volition. Perhaps, more than anything else, in writing The Birdman’s Wife, I set out to overturn such limited imaginings. To me, Elizabeth Gould is a steely character indeed: tenacious, courageous, resilient, fiercely loving, talented and adventurous. And it is high time the spotlight was turned on her incredible life.
Acknowledgements
In writing The Birdman’s Wife, I consulted a wide range of primary and secondary sources, most importantly Gordon Sauer’s Correspondence of John Gould, Volumes 1 and 2 (Maruizo Martino, 1988). I referred extensively to John and Elizabeth Goulds’ hand-coloured folios, in particular, A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains (1830-1832) and The Birds of Australia (1840-1848).
I read biographies of John Gould including Isabella Tree’s The Birdman: The Extraordinary Story of the Victorian Ornithologist John Gould (Ebury Press, 1991); Anne Datta’s John Gould in Australia (Miegunya Press, 1997); Roselyn Russell’s The Business of Nature: John Gould and Australia (National Library of Australia Press, 2011). Indispensable analyses of Elizabeth Gould’s contribution to zoological illustration by Maureen Lambourne: John Gould: Birdman (Milton Keynes, 1987); Christine L. Jackson’s Bird Illustrators: Some Artists in Early Lithography (H.F. and G. Witherby, 1975); and Allan McEvey’s ‘John Gould’s Contribution to British Art: A Note on its Authenticity’ (Sydney University Press, 1973). Glen and Jillian Albrecht’s monograph, The Goulds’ in the Hunter Region of New South Wales (Monash University, 1992) shed light on the Goulds’ expedition to this region. The creation of Edward Lear’s character was aided by Vivien Noakes’s Edward Lear: The Life of a Wanderer (Ariel Books, 1985) and Peter Levi’s Edward Lear: A Biography (Scribner, 1995). I referred to critical writings about Charles Darwin’s Galapagos finches’ role in the theory of evolution by Frank J. Sulloway, ‘Darwin and His Finches: The Evolution of a Legend’ (Journal of the History of Biology, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 1-53, 1982); and Frank D. Steinheimer ‘Charles Darwin’s bird collection and ornithological knowledge during the voyage of H.M.S Beagle, 1831-1836’ (Journal of Ornithology, vol. 145, pp. 300-320, 2004). I was privileged to access copies of the unpublished memoirs of Elizabeth and John’s daughter, Eliza Muskett Moon and their granddaughter, Helen Edelsten, from the Gordon Sauer Collection held at the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas.
Thank you to the many people who contributed to the research and writing of The Birdman’s Wife: bird-counter Margaret Cameron, who allowed me to attend her weekly surveys at Bundamba Wetlands; gracious thanks to Bruce Crawford, descendant of Henry Coxen, and his wife Jenny, who
opened their home and personal archives to me; to the infinitely patient Heather Janetski, curator of zoological collections at the Queensland Museum and organiser of the Wednesday taxidermy volunteers in the Zoology and Vertebrate Laboratory – shout outs to Lisa, Shelley, Emma, Judy and Jan. Immense thanks to Karen Cook, curator of the John Gould Ornithological Collection, for all her assistance during my research trip to the Spencer Research Library, and to Kathy Lafferty for providing access to Elizabeth Gould’s hand-coloured lithographs and providing me with so many beautiful images; thank you to Meg Lloyd, collections director at the Queensland Museum Library for her help and allowing me to photograph their image of Elizabeth’s Resplendent Quetzal; and a special thanks to the special collections team at the Mitchell Library, who led me to the treasure of Elizabeth’s diary. I wish to acknowledge the following institutions for providing grants and awards to enable my research; the University of Queensland; the University of Melbourne; the Mellon Foundation and Sydney Conservatory; the University of Queensland Graduate School; and Mr and Mrs Diamond, patrons of the Cecelie Anne Scholarship for creative writing.
Thank you to the School of Communication and Arts for awarding me a merit-based University of Queensland scholarship, allowing me the time, resources and expertise to write. My particular thanks are extended to my supervisors, Bronwyn Lea and Melissa Harper, and also to Angela Tuohy, Carole Ferrier, Veny Armanno, Andrea Bubenik, Sharon Bickle and Bronwen Levy.
I wish to thank my wonderful agent, Lyn Tranter at Australian Literary Management for representing me; and my publisher Affirm Press; heartfelt thanks to Fiona Henderson for taking me on, to Keiran Rogers, Martin Hughes, Ruby Ashby-Orr, editor Vanessa Mickan, designer Christa Moffitt and the rest of the team for your tireless commitment to shaping the manuscript and producing such a beautiful book.
Thank you to my critique group, Duncan Richardson, Rosanna Licari, Cheryl Henderson and Andrew Leggett, and also to Melissa Fagan, Chris Lynch and Inga Simpson, for reading early versions of the manuscript and offering feedback. Shane Krause, Emma Lindsay, Liz Hall Downs and Inga Simpson for your support, inspiration and faith. I wish to thank my research colleagues and friends Fiona Scotney, Carmen Keates, Emily Zong, Ray Williams, Judy Hamilton, Felix Calvino, Belinda Burns, Nick Lord, the late Melanie Mackenzie, Chris Lynch, James Halford and Shamara Ranshirini; your wit and comradery kept me going. I extend heartfelt gratitude to Brett Dionysius and Vikki Lambert for years of unstinting support; and lastly, huge thanks to my dear family, who never once stopped believing in me.
a GUIDE TO the ENDPAPER images
During an eleven-year career working as principal artist in the Goulds’ publishing firm, Elizabeth Gould created the fine artwork, including drawing, lithographing and providing hand-coloured templates, for more than 600 hand-coloured lithographs. With the exception of the Goulds’ first publication, A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains, which credited Elizabeth Gould as the artist, John Gould co-signed his name with Elizabeth’s on each lithograph, as overseer to their designs. Each image was credited to J & E Gould. While Elizabeth Gould was the artist, John Gould contributed rough outlines, corrections and annotations to the plates, hence the shared authorship.
All the paintings of birds featured in the colour endpapers of this book are the works of Elizabeth Gould with the exception of two. One is Lear’s Macaw by her good friend and mentor, Edward Lear – both the irrepressible Lear and the indigo parrot play important roles in inspiring Elizabeth in The Birdman’s Wife, as they did in real life. The other is the image of the famous Gouldian Finches, which were named in honour of Elizabeth by John Gould in 1841. He decreed them the most beautiful finch in the world.
ENDPAPERS FRONT
1.
Red-winged Fairy-Wren Malurus elegans
Artist: Elizabeth Gould.From John Gould, The Birds of Australia, and the Adjacent Islands (1837-38), Part 1, Plate 2. Image courtesy of Special Collections, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries.
2.
Lear’s Macaw (Indigo Macaw) Anodorhynchus leari
Artist: Edward Lear. From Edward Lear,Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots(1832),
Plate 9. Image courtesy of Special Collections, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of
Kansas Libraries.
3.
Mrs Gould’s Sunbird Aethopyga gouldiae
Artist: Elizabeth Gould. From A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains (1830-33), Plate 56. Image courtesy of Special Collections, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries.
4.
Resplendent Quetzal Pharomachrus mocinno
Artist: Elizabeth Gould. From John Gould, Monograph of the Trogonidae, or Family of Trogons(1830- 1832). Image courtesy of the Queensland Museum Library. Photograph courtesy of Vikki Lambert.
5.
Striated Pardalote Pardalotus striatus
Artist: Elizabeth Gould. From John Gould, The Birds of Australia(1840-1848), Volume 2, Plate 38. Image courtesy of Special Collections, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries.
6.
Grey Fantail Rhipidura albiscapa
Artist: Elizabeth Gould. From John Gould, The Birds of Australia(1840-1848), Volume 2, Plate 83. Image courtesy of Special Collections, Kenneth Spencer Research Librar, University of Kansas Libraries.
Front reverse,single image:Superb Fairy Wren (Blue Warbler) Malurus cyaneus
Artist: Elizabeth Gould. From John Gould, The Birds of Australia(1840-1848). Image courtesy of Special Collections, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries.
ENDPAPERS BACK
Back reverse, single image:Gouldian Finch Erythrura gouldiae
From John Gould & H.C. Richter, The Birds of Australia(1840-1848), Volume 3, Plate 88. Image courtesy of Special Collections, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries.
1.
Norfolk Island Kaka Nestor productus
Artist: Elizabeth Gould. From John Gould, The Birds of Australia (1840-1848)Volume 5, Plate 6. Image courtesy of Special Collections, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries.
2.
Gouldian Finch Erythrura gouldiae
From John Gould & H.C Richter, The Birds of Australia (1840-1848), Volume 3, Plate 88. Image courtesy of Special Collections, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries.
3.
Blue and Yellow Tanager Thraupis bonariensis
Artist: Elizabeth Gould. From John Gould, The Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, Part 3 Birds (1841), Plate 45. Edited and superintended by Charles Darwin. Image courtesy of Special Collections, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries.
4.
Budgerigar Melopsittacus undulatus
Artist: Elizabeth Gould. From John Gould, The Birds of Australia (1840-1848), Volume 5, Plate 44. Image courtesy of Special Collections, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries.
5.
Satin Bowerbird (detail of female) Ptilonorhynchus violaceus
Artist: Elizabeth Gould. From John Gould, The Birds of Australia (1840-1848), Volume 4, Plate 10. Image courtesy of Special Collections, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries.
6.
Superb Lyrebird Menura novaehollandiae
Artist: Elizabeth Gould. From John Gould, The Birds of Australia (1840-1848), Volume 3, Plate 14 . Image courtesy of Special Collections, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries.
7.
Mistletoebird Dicaeum hirundinaceum
Artist: Elizabeth Gould. From John Gould, The Birds of Australia (1840-1848), Volume 2, Plate 34 . Image courtesy of Special Collections, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries.
A woman
overshadowed by history
steps back into the light . . .
Melissa Ashley is a writer, poet, birder and academic who tutors in poetry and creative writing at the University of Queensland. She has published a collection of poems, The Hospital for Dolls, short stories, essays and articles. What started out as research for a PhD dissertation on Elizabeth Gould became a labour of love and her first novel, The Birdman’s Wife. Inspired by her heroine, she studied taxidermy as a volunteer at the Queensland Museum. Melissa lives in Brisbane.