A rare taste of goldfields life in 1855 miner's diary
(As a collector of gold coins, I found the excerpts of this 1855 gold miner's diary pretty facinating. It's set in Australia at a time when the California Gold Rush was reaching its peak.- A.C. Dwyer)
Excerpt from diary - "Knocked off shortly before sunset and went along to Moses, Gold Broker, to sell some gold. The cursed Jew tried to cheat me and, when I detected him, he got into a funk and was trying to make me believe I had insulted his feelings. This would not do, as I made him give me back my gold. I sent him to h-ll and left the wretch's shop." (More excerpts at: Link)
(The Courier: AU) A rare 1855 diary written by a miner on the Ballarat goldfields will go on display at the Gold Museum later this month.
The State Library of Victoria purchased the diary this month from a Melbourne antiquarian bookseller for a price believed to be around $50,000.
The diary had been on loan to the library until it could raise sufficient funds to buy it.
SLV Foundation executive Michael van Leeuwen said donations from the public, as well as from Lihir Gold, Newcrest Mining and Rio Tinto had made the purchase possible.
"It is a fascinating diary," he said.
"It gives a clear picture of the sheer backbreaking slog that was involved in mining at the time _ people dying, falling down shafts, breaking bones. It was very dangerous work."
The 223-page diary was written over a six-month period from July to December, 1855.
In it, the digger recounts the murder of a local butcher, the arrival of new prostitutes to town, a fire in Ballarat that killed 11 people and the escape of a Bengal tiger that forced Main Road to close.
Sovereign Hill deputy CEO Tim Sullivan said it was the author's description of "ordinary life" that made the diary so fascinating.
"What's really nice is the level of detail about the ordinary aspects of life in what must have been a marvellous adventure," he said.
The author's name . . .
Full story at: Link
Excerpt from diary - "Knocked off shortly before sunset and went along to Moses, Gold Broker, to sell some gold. The cursed Jew tried to cheat me and, when I detected him, he got into a funk and was trying to make me believe I had insulted his feelings. This would not do, as I made him give me back my gold. I sent him to h-ll and left the wretch's shop." (More excerpts at: Link)
(The Courier: AU) A rare 1855 diary written by a miner on the Ballarat goldfields will go on display at the Gold Museum later this month.
The State Library of Victoria purchased the diary this month from a Melbourne antiquarian bookseller for a price believed to be around $50,000.
The diary had been on loan to the library until it could raise sufficient funds to buy it.
SLV Foundation executive Michael van Leeuwen said donations from the public, as well as from Lihir Gold, Newcrest Mining and Rio Tinto had made the purchase possible.
"It is a fascinating diary," he said.
"It gives a clear picture of the sheer backbreaking slog that was involved in mining at the time _ people dying, falling down shafts, breaking bones. It was very dangerous work."
The 223-page diary was written over a six-month period from July to December, 1855.
In it, the digger recounts the murder of a local butcher, the arrival of new prostitutes to town, a fire in Ballarat that killed 11 people and the escape of a Bengal tiger that forced Main Road to close.
Sovereign Hill deputy CEO Tim Sullivan said it was the author's description of "ordinary life" that made the diary so fascinating.
"What's really nice is the level of detail about the ordinary aspects of life in what must have been a marvellous adventure," he said.
The author's name . . .
Full story at: Link
posted by A.C. Dwyer at 12:31 PM
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