Movement of peoples Defining Moments, 1750–1901

Learning module:

Setting the scene

3. Interrogating images

The images below show different aspects of the immigration experience:

The Journey
Keeping in touch
Transportation
Female migrants
Searching for a better life

1. Look at each image and ask:

Who can you see?
Where are they?
What are they doing?
How do you think they are feeling?
What message do you think the artist is trying to convey?

The journey

View Gallery The Immigrants’ Ship by John Charles Dollman, 1884

View Gallery Lochaber No More, by John Watson Nicol, 1883

Who can you see?
Where are they?
What are they doing?
How do you think they are feeling?
What message do you think the artist is trying to convey?

Keeping in touch

View Gallery

View Gallery Painting of a woman holding a newspaper as three other people gather around her watching and listening intently. They are dressed in 19th century clothing and a printed piece of paper with the title ‘EMIGRATION TO AUSTRALIA. THE SHIP HOPE’ hangs on the wall.

Painting of a woman holding a newspaper as three other people gather around her watching and listening intently. They are dressed in 19th century clothing and a printed piece of paper with the title ‘EMIGRATION TO AUSTRALIA. THE SHIP HOPE’ hangs on the wall.

Who can you see?
Where are they?
What are they doing?
How do you think they are feeling?
What message do you think the artist is trying to convey?

Transportation

View Gallery Colourful illustration showing men pushing wheelbarrows on a construction site, with ships in the background.

View Gallery A Government Jail Gang, New South Wales, by Augustus Earle, 1830

Who can you see?
Where are they?
What are they doing?
How do you think they are feeling?
What message do you think the artist is trying to convey?

Female migrants

View Gallery Illustration of a rotund woman dressed in travelling attire adjacent to a slim man carrying a travel case. Below is text that reads ‘EMIGRATION IN SEARCH OF A HUSBAND’.

Illustration of a rotund woman dressed in travelling attire adjacent to a slim man carrying a travel case. Below is text that reads ‘EMIGRATION IN SEARCH OF A HUSBAND’.

View Gallery

An emigrant’s thoughts of home by Marshall Claxton, 1859

Who can you see?
Where are they?
What are they doing?
How do you think they are feeling?
What message do you think the artist is trying to convey?

Searching for a better life

<p>‘Here and there; or emigration a remedy’, published in <em>Punch</em> magazine (London), 8 July 1848</p>

Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23241802

Who can you see?
Where are they?
What are they doing?
How do you think they are feeling?
What message do you think the artist is trying to convey?

2. Overall, what impression do you get of the immigration experience from these images?

Learning module: