[Calligraphic Presentation Broadside] Melbourne Gaol, February 1881, Marianne Henry, Matron, Melbourne Gaol
![[Calligraphic Presentation Broadside] Melbourne Ga](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/846/849/1664849846.0.x.jpg)
- SIGNED
- Melbourne, Victoria, Australia , 1881
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 1881. Very Good. Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: 1881. Large original pen-and-ink calligraphic and watercolor broadside (ca. 58x45cm.) Calligraphic text written in gilt ink within a wonderfully intricate and colorful watercolor border of finches and flowers--we count at least twenty floral specimens, none of them native to Australia as far as we can surmise. Damp staining to top and bottom margin, the latter slightly affecting image, tiny loss at top left-hand corner not approaching text or image, else a Very Good, bright example.
Beautifully intricate send-off to retiring prison matron Marianne Henry, signed by thirty-four (34) associates of the jail, including at least eight other women. "Your large and varied experience in prison discipline, your consummate tact and sound judgment filled you pre-eminently for the important position you have so admirably filled, and justify the high opinion in which you are held by the people as Head of our Department." The text concludes with the godspeed of her colleagues as she retires to a life as wife and mother.
Being matron at the Old Melbourne Gaol would have been no easy task, the institution holding an incredible variety of inmates, including high profile murderers, "lunatics," young children, and short-term prisoners. The Gaol, which operated from 1845 to 1924, was the site of 133 executions, more than ten of these during Henry's tenure. By far the most famous of these was the hanging of bushranger and outlaw Ned Kelly, who was executed just three months before this broadside was presented, on November 11, 1880. Prison governor John Buckley Castieau and five other warders who witnessed the execution have also signed this broadside, a rather chilling parallel.
Apart from the esteem of her colleagues, little else is known about Marianne Henry apart from her request ten years earlier to increase the number of servants at the prison (see John Buckley Castieau's memoir "The Difficulties of My Position" (2004). This broadside a splendid, if somewhat anachronistic relic of a woman holding a difficult position in a difficult place.
Beautifully intricate send-off to retiring prison matron Marianne Henry, signed by thirty-four (34) associates of the jail, including at least eight other women. "Your large and varied experience in prison discipline, your consummate tact and sound judgment filled you pre-eminently for the important position you have so admirably filled, and justify the high opinion in which you are held by the people as Head of our Department." The text concludes with the godspeed of her colleagues as she retires to a life as wife and mother.
Being matron at the Old Melbourne Gaol would have been no easy task, the institution holding an incredible variety of inmates, including high profile murderers, "lunatics," young children, and short-term prisoners. The Gaol, which operated from 1845 to 1924, was the site of 133 executions, more than ten of these during Henry's tenure. By far the most famous of these was the hanging of bushranger and outlaw Ned Kelly, who was executed just three months before this broadside was presented, on November 11, 1880. Prison governor John Buckley Castieau and five other warders who witnessed the execution have also signed this broadside, a rather chilling parallel.
Apart from the esteem of her colleagues, little else is known about Marianne Henry apart from her request ten years earlier to increase the number of servants at the prison (see John Buckley Castieau's memoir "The Difficulties of My Position" (2004). This broadside a splendid, if somewhat anachronistic relic of a woman holding a difficult position in a difficult place.