Bound for Australia: Anne Trotter’s needlework specimen book, 1840

Laura Jocic

Museums Victoria / Collections & research / Journals / PRISM / PRISM Volume 1 / Bound for Australia: Anne Trotter’s needlework specimen book, 1840
A glass negative of the three-masted barque Acacia, a similar ship to the Dale Park, which brought Anne Trotter to Australia.
The three-masted barque Acacia, a similar ship to the Dale Park. / Source: Museums Victoria / Photo: Allan C. Green

Abstract

Among the possessions that Irish-born Anne Trotter packed in her trunk to start a new life in Australia was her needlework specimen book. Anne, who arrived in the Port Phillip District in 1844, was one of many assisted migrants that were given a passage to Australia as part of the government’s immigration schemes. Anne’s needlework book, which was donated to Museums Victoria in 2014 by a descendant and includes various plain sewing exercises and finely-stitched miniature shirts, provides an insight into the formal schooling provided to young working-class women in nineteenth century Ireland and the skills that they brought to Australia. This article discusses the context of the needlework book and posits its value to a young female emigrant.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.24199/EKNO9361

Citation

Jocic, L. (2025). Bound for Australia: Anne Trotter’s needlework specimen book, 1840. PRISM, 1, 48–65. https://doi.org/10.24199/EKNO9361

Gallery

A page from Anne Trotter’s needlework book showing two patterned fabric samples. A page in Anne Trotter’s needlework book showing a multicoloured length of knitted wool. A page from Anne Trotter’s needlework book showing two patterned fabric samples.

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