The South Australian Maritime Museum preserves the oldest nautical collection in Australia. In 1872 the Port Adelaide Institute began a museum collection to complement its library and its educational and social programs. That collection grew over the following century reflecting the seafarers and the ships that visited Port Adelaide. It is now held in trust at the South Australian Maritime Museum.
The Maritime Museum’s collections ranges from the Port Adelaide Lighthouse that was first lit in 1869 to a plaque that explorer Matthew Flinders left at Memory Cove in 1802 to mark the loss of eight seafarers. It includes figureheads, nautical instruments, bathing costumes, shipwreck artefacts, paintings, models and vessels.
Our scope is the maritime heritage of South Australia from the coast to inland waters. The collection of over almost 20,000 objects and over 20,000 images is at once a window to the heritage of the local community and to the ships of the world.
Newton's new and improved terrestrial pocket globe, 1817
Small round globe of the world encased in fish skin displayed on a wooden stand. The globe represents the world as it had been charted to 1817. The inside of the case depicts the celestial globe with charts of the stars.
The globe shows a completed map of Australia with the east named New South Wales and the west named New Holland. It was designed for travellers, desktops or simply decoration. The Newton family of cartographers were among the leading English globe makers of the early nineteenth century, producing floor standing, table, and pocket globes under various names. The firm's history dates back to Nathaniel Hill, who taught the art of globe making to Thomas Bateman (fl. 1754-1781), who then trained John Newton (1759-1844), the patriarch of the Newton firm. John Newton began his firm in 1780, first publishing a reissue of a Nathaniel Hill pocket globe in partnership with William Palmer.
Creator: Newton family
Date of creation: 1817
Associated locations: South Australia, Australia, New South Wales, New Holland
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