Cyclopaedia of Australasia (First Edition)

A one-volume dictionary of the Australasian colonies to 1881, billed as the first attempt to systematise the whole range of facts about them, and still used by family historians for its biographical entries.

David Blair (1820–1899) was born in Ireland and studied for the ministry before coming to Australia in 1850. He turned to journalism, sat in the Victorian Legislative Assembly, and wrote a series of books on Australasia, among them The History of Australasia (1878). The Cyclopaedia is billed as the first attempt to systematise the entire range of facts bearing on the past history and present condition of the British possessions in the Southern Ocean. The entries run alphabetically through facts, events, dates, persons and places, from the earliest discovery in the Southern Ocean to 1881.

The book is still in use as a reference. Blair's History of Australasia told the story as narrative. The Cyclopaedia is its dictionary counterpart, a single volume the reader can consult entry by entry.

Cyclopaedia of Australasia; or, Dictionary of Facts, Events, Dates, Persons, and Places Connected with the Discovery, Exploration, and Progress of the British Dominions in the South, from the Earliest Dawn of Discovery in the Southern Ocean to the Year 1881. In One Volume.

First edition. Thick quarto. xii, 780, xv, [i: colophon]pp. Original green cloth, lettered in gilt with blind decorations. Near fine. Covers a touch marked and worn. Contents exceptionally bright and clean throughout. Text block edges cut, but a few leaves remain unopened at the upper edge, most likely since publication. 

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Catalogue Number: HH000787