Tasmania Reads: Sir John Franklin and his Expedition of 1845 (Part One: The Challenge)
The State Library and Archive Service is issuing a challenge to Tasmanians to read five different examples of nineteenth century handwriting from our Heritage Collections, each featuring a different set of records held in the State Archives.
The scripts are selected to give you insights into some of the key strengths of our collection and we hope they will pique your interest to explore further.
Today’s challenge is to decipher a note (which the library holds a reproduction of) made on a British Admiralty template by the members of Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated expedition for the Northern Passage of 1845. The State Library holds many resources relating to Franklin’s time as both Lieutenant Governor and as an explorer.
Your Transcription Challenge
This note has multiple parts to it, with writing in all directions. This challenge focuses only on the writing in the centre of the page, and not the marginalia. This is a challenging transcription that gives two very different messages to the reader…
The Answer …
will be published in our blog this afternoon. Stay tuned!