Biographical entry Blandowski, Wilhelm (1822 - 1878)

Summary

Wilhelm Blandowski was Zoologist at the National Museum of Victoria from 1854, and was the first museum staff member appointed by the government. He led numerous expeditions across Victoria and surrounds collecting and illustrating thousands of specimens of Victoria's flora, fauna and geology. Blandowski also helped found the Geological Society of Victoria (1852) and the Philosophical Society of Victoria (1854). After repeated irreconcilable disagreements with Professor Frederick McCoy - palaeontologist to the Geological Survey of Victoria - he left the museum in 1859. Next he left Australia after being threatened with legal action for not returning all his specimens and illustrations and after refusing to remove material from his "Preliminary Report on Recent Discoveries in Natural History on the Lower Murray" as demanded by the Philosophical Society.

Details

Events

1834 - 1836

Career position - Entered the Royal Prussian Cadets at Chelmno (Kulm)

1849

Life event - Arrived in Australia (Melbourne?)

1852

Career position - Co-founder of the Geological Society of Victoria

1854

Career position - Co-founder of the Philosophical Society of Victoria

1854 - 1855

Career position - Collecting expeditions to the coastal areas of Victoria and the region of McIvor (Heathcote) and the Black Ranges

1854 - 1857

Career position - Government Zoologist at the Museum of Natural History

1856 - 1857

Career position - Leader of a government expedition to the region at the junction of the Darling and Murray Rivers for collection of specimens for the National Museum

1857

Career position - Preliminary Report on Recent Discoveries in Natural History on the Lower Murray presented to the Philosophical Society of Victoria

1859

Life event - Left Australia for Germany

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

• Augustus Charles Gregory - Records, 1819 - 1905, ML MSS 291; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Johann Ludwig Gerard Krefft - Records, 1859 - 1881, ML MSS 956; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Wilhelm Blandoski - Records, 1855, PXE 864; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre

• Colonial Secretary's Office - Records, 1851 - 1863, VPRS 1186; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details
• Colonial Secretary's Office - Records, 1851 - 1863, VPRS 1189; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details

Published resources

Book Sections

• Allen, Harry, 'William Blandowski's Fish: an Ethnohistorical Account Near the Junction of the Murray and Darling Rivers', in A. Anderson, I. Lilley and S. O'Connor (eds), Histories of Old Ages: Essays in Honour of Rhys Jones, Coombs Academic Press, Australian National University, Canberra, 2001, pp. 211-224. Details
• Paszkowski, L. K., 'Blandowski, William (1822-), Naturalist', in Douglas Pike (ed.), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 3, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1969, pp. 182-183. Also available at http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A030174b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• Humphries, Paul, 'Blandowski Misses out: Ichthyological Etiquette in 19th-Century Australia', Endeavour, vol. 27, 2003, pp. 160-165. Details
• Iredale, T., 'Blandowski.', Victorian Naturalist, vol. 49, 1932, pp. 90-96. Details
• Paszkowski, L., 'William Blandowski: the first Government Zoologist of Victoria', Australian Zoologist, vol. 14, no. 2, 1967, pp. 147-172. Details
• Wakefield, N. A., 'Mammals of the Blandowski Expedition to North-Western Victoria, 1856-57', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, vol. 79, pt 2, 1966. Details
• Whitley, G. P., 'Blandowski', Victorian Naturalist, vol. 49, 1932, pp. 90-96. Details

Online Resources

• 'Blandowski, William', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1045788. Details

See also

• Science and the making of Victoria, with Royal Society of Victoria, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/smv/scripts/smv-dynindex.php3?EID=P000237. Details