Biographical entry Backhouse, James (1794 - 1869)

Summary

James Backhouse was a Quaker missionary who visited Australia in 1832-1838, making observations of Australian flora and fauna as well as writing about Australian society.
As a botanical collector in Australia and Norfolk Island, he contributed to the classification and taxonomy of eucalypts. Notably, Joseph Hooker (qv),George Bentham (qv) and Ferdinand von Mueller (qv) named eucalypt specimen collected by James Backhouse.

Details

Backhouse was apprenticed to a chemist in Darlington and trained for two years in a Norwich nursery. On return to England, he gave two manuscript volumes of botanical recollections in Australia to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Commemorated by Backhousia, a genus of a myrtaceous shrub.

Events

1816 - 1831

Career position - Nursery owner in York, UK

1832

Life event - Arrived in Australia (Hobart)

1832 - 1834

Career position - Reported on penal settlements and Aboriginal establishments in Tasmania

1835 - 1837

Career position - Collected herbarium for Kew Gardens (England?)

1835 - 1837

Career position - Reported on penal settlements and Aboriginal establishments in New South Wales, Norfolk Island and Moreton Bay

1837 - 1838

Career position - Visited Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth promoting temperance and Aboriginal protection committees

1838 - 1841

Career position - Missionary work in Africa

1841 -

Nursery Manager in York, UK

1843

Career position - A Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies published in London

1844

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus maculata Hook, of which Backhouse collected a syntype, was described

1866

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus siderophloia Benth. Var. rostrata Benth. (= Eucalyptus fibrosa F. Muell. (1859)), of which Backhouse collected syntype, was described

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Australian Botanists - Biographies, MS 064; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

• James Backhouse - Records, 1831 - 1841, B730-732; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• James Backhouse - Records, Ab 124; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• James Backhouse - Records, 1835, C393; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• James Backhouse - Records, 1831 - 1868, FM 4/3134-3148; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Linnean Society of London - Records, 1792 - 1870, FM 4/2699; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection

• Linnean Society of London - Records, 1790 - 1870, M596-597; State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection. Details

Published resources

Books

• Hall, Norman, Botanists of the Eucalypts : short biographies of people who have named eucalypts, whose names have been given to species or who have collected type material, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Melbourne, 1978, 101 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Trott, Mary Bartram, 'Backhouse, James (1794-1869)', in Douglas Pike (ed.), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 1, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1966, pp. 45-46. Also available at http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A010042b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• Gilbert, Lionel, 'Visit of an Early Naturalist to Victoria', Victorian Naturalist, no. 68, 1952, pp. 175-178. Details
• Maiden, J.H., 'A Century of Botanical Endeavor in South Australia', Australasian Association for Advancement of Science, vol. xi, 1907, pp. 158-199. Details
• Maiden, J.H., 'Records of Victorian Botanists', Victorian Naturalist, vol. 25, 1908, pp. 101-117. Details
• Maiden, J.H., 'Records of Australian Botanists - (a) General, (b) New South Wales', Journal and Proceedings of The Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. xlii, 1908, pp. 60-132. Details
• Maiden, J.H., 'Records of Queensland Botanists', Australasian Association for Advancement of Science, vol. xii, 1909, pp. 373-383. Details
• Willis, J.H., 'Botanical Pioneers in Victoria', Victorian Naturalist, vol. 66, 1949, pp. 83-89; 103-109; 123-107. Details

Online Resources

• 'Backhouse, James', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-638012. Details