{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O546193"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O546193/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2008BT9182/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2008BT9182/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2008BT9182","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O546193","accessionNumber":"E.988-1983","objectType":"Print","titles":[{"title":"Kangaroos","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"John Graham was an Irish man sentenced in 1825 for stealing hemp. His punishment was seven years in an Australian penal colony. He quickly escaped and lived for several years with Aboriginal people in Duungidjawu country near the city of Brisbane in Queensland. In 1836 he assisted with a rescue party to K'gari (also known as Gari, or Fraser Island) where the survivors of a wrecked Scottish brig, the Stirling Castle, had been taken ashore by the indigenous people. Eliza Fraser was one of the survivors and her account of the events were widely published in the 19th century to the extent that she became a cultural figure of some note in Australia. ","physicalDescription":"","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Robert Gibbings","id":"A2866"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[{"name":{"text":"Faber & Faber","id":"AUTH326244"},"association":{"text":"publishers","id":"AAT25574"},"note":""}],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"paper","id":"AAT14109"}],"techniques":[{"text":"wood engraving","id":"AAT53303"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"","categories":[{"text":"Prints","id":"THES48903"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2008BT9182"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLC (VA)","id":"THES49171"},"free":"","case":"EW","shelf":"144","box":"A"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"print","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Britain","id":"x32019"},"association":{"text":"printed","id":"x46159"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1937","earliest":"1937-01-01","latest":"1937-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Patience Empson","dimensions":[],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Wood engraving to illustrate 'John Graham, Convict' by Robert Gibbings, 1937.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"The following excerpts are from 'In the wake of first contact' by Kay Schaffer, Cambridge University Press, 1995. The book attempts to unpick much of the myth, complexity, and colonial history surrounding the Stirling Castle shipwreck:\r\n\n'Although John Graham is the rescuer of record, he may have been assisted by another escaped convict, David Bracefell, the rescuer of legend...after the penal colony had been disbanded, he [Bracefell] alleged that he had rescued ‘the lady’, and walked her back to Moreton Bay. But, complaining of his treatment, she had betrayed him at the edge of civilisation, breaking her promise to intercede on his behalf for a pardon. The official report, however, names Graham alone, who is said to have claimed Eliza from the ‘hostile natives’ by representing her as the ghost of his dead wife. She had spent fifty-two days in their company...\nThe centrality of Bracefell’s place in the narrative would be displaced in 1937 with the publication of a book by Robert Gibbings, <u>John Graham, Convict</u>, 1824. The historical biography, written to commemorate the sesquicentenary of Australia, tells of Graham’s heroic past, his impoverished background in Ireland, his transportation to New South Wales for a petty felony of stealing six pounds of hemp to support his widowed mother, and the harshness of the British penal system on the Irish.'\n"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[{"text":"Australia","id":"x30016"}],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["E.988-1983"],"accessionNumberNum":"988","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":1983,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-05-02","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-30","availableToBook":false}}