Assembling Collections: Isabella Parry and the Distribution of Aboriginal Material Culture at the Port Stephens Australian Agricultural Company Settlement, 1830–1834

Abstract

This article revisits a suite of Worimi objects in the British Museum whose collection is attributed to Sir Edward Parry, Australian Agricultural Company commissioner from 1830–1834, and brings into view the oft-overlooked diaries and letters of his wife, Lady Isabella Parry. By foregrounding Lady Parry as the primary distributor of material, I shed light on her circulation of objects from Port Stephens to her family estate in Cheshire. Finding herself isolated in an unfamiliar environment, Parry wrote letters and assembled collections in an attempt to exert control over her surroundings and reassert connections to England. While Parry never achieved a sense of belonging within the colony, her material legacy illustrates the importance of collecting and gift-giving to imperial women’s identity formation. Her archive speaks to the value ascribed to colonial material culture within British families, generating knowledge about some of the many Aboriginal objects housed in museums throughout Britain.