AUS-Tasmania-L Archives

Archiver > AUS-Tasmania > 2004-12 > 1103151942


From: "Meryl Yost" <>
Subject: Re: Letter to a Convict - Mary Walsh
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 10:11:03 +1100


Dear Listers,
forward of a message from the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery re the
"Letter to a Convict", forwarded with the permission of Niccole Warren.

Dear Meryl,

I am the Assistant Curator of History at the Tasmanian Museum and Art
Gallery. I have been involved with the letter from the time that the Museum
first decided to purchase it, and so am very familiar with it. Its
acquisition was possible due to the generous sponsorship of Australia Post,
who purchased the letter as a Bicentennial gift to the Museum. As the State
Museum, our collections, including the letter, belong to all Tasmanians.

I am not precisely sure of the copyright status of the letter, and if
somebody was inteding to use it commercially then I'm sure the Museum would
be concerned. However, I am personally very happy that the letter has caused
such interest, and I would be very excited if it's posting on your site lead
us to discover some of Mary's decendents. I do have two concerns though.
The first is that the transcript of the letter that appeared on your list is
incorrect. The mistakes are small yet significant. To rectify this I am
happy to forward a correct transcript to you for you to re-post. My second
concern is that the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery is not acknowledged as
the source. Again, this is easily rectified, and I am aware that perhaps
the Museum did not own the letter at the time it was originally posted on
the Tipperary site.

I have done some preliminary research, using Mary's convict records here and
the National Archives of Ireland records etc., but unfortunately I have not
had the opportunity to do any further research of late. We do not yet know
whether Mary was re-united with James.

I am happy to share any information that I have with your listers, however
as a draft article is currently with the editor of the magazine Forty
Degrees South, I would appreciate it if everyone could wait until that is
published before they contact me with any further questions. There is some
indication that this will be in the next edition of the magazine.

Regards,
Niccole Warren
Assistant Curator of History
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery

This thread: