Ferdinand von Mueller

Copy

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Copy given by Daley to Lady Spencer following Baldwin Spencer's death.

Public Library. Museums, and National Gallery of Victoria

The National Museum.

Melbourne 23.1.25.

Chas Daley Esq. B.A. F.L.S.

My dear sir,

I have read with much pleasure your articles on the late Baron v. Mueller appearing in the Vict.. Hist. Magazine.

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Daley (1924), published in parts in Victorian historical magazine, vol. 10, May and December issues.

Perhaps you will allow me to point out one or two things in regard to the paragraph dealing with "memorials", which is not strictly accurate, historically. They are of little consequence, but the account as published is incomplete. Part of the truth — probably known to yourself as to many of us who were intimately associated with the Baron's works — cannot of course be published.

The Baron died on Oct 10th 1896, leaving to his executors Rev. Wm Potter, and Dr. Büttner

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Alexander Buttner. Buttner's brother Hermann Buttner was also an executor of M's estate.

everything that he possessed. the former to have charge of all his papers and to have the power to reside in his house until such time as he (Potter) should have edited the papers and written a life of the Baron. So far as can be ascertained the Baron's relatives got nothing. For years Potter lived rent free in the house in Arnold St.

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M's will did not leave everything to Potter and Büttner; see Last Will and Testament, in this edition as 84-06-17.

Buttner, apparently, as co-trustee, managed the estate. After some trouble, the Chief Secretary's Dept. secured numbers of books that belonged to the Gov. but had been stored in the Baron's house. These are now in the Herbarium Library.

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Some of M's library was not transferred to the Herbarium until after Potter's death in 1908, while action through the Crown Solicitor by the then Government Botanist, Alfred Ewart, was in progress for its recovery as government property following the Government's purchase of it for £450 in 1898; see the accounts prepared by the executors in 1900 (62/802 Ferdinand J H Von Mueller: Grant of probate, VPRS 28 Probate and Administration Files, Public Record Office, Victoria; Cohn (2005), p. 149). By 1908 the Herbarium and the Government Botanist were no longer under the Chief Secretary's Department but the Department of Agriculture.

Potter collected subscriptions for a memorial which was finally erected on the Baron's tomb, but no one ever knew how much money he secured or spent.

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The monument on M's grave was unveiled on 26 November 1901 by the Governor-General of Australia, the Earl of Hopetoun (Argus, 27 November 1901, p. 9, col. a).

On the Baron's death, I wrote a short article with a photo in the Naturalist (Nov 5 1896)

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W. B. Spencer, 'Baron von Mueller', Victorian naturalist, vol. 13, no. 7 (5 November 1896), pp. 87-92.

and, towards the end of 1897 (Nov) on my own initiative, after conference with two or three friends, C. French, C.A. Topp etc. called a meeting of members of different societies and those interested to take steps to secure some definite memorial as it was then quite evident that Potter would do nothing, & people were beginning to forget.

The Mayor of Melbourne presided and we formed a committee called the "Baron von Mueller National Memorial Committee' with Sir John Maddern

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i.e. Madden.

as Chairman, Mr Wiesbaden (to represent the German element) and myself as secretaries. (See Victorian Naturalist, 14, 100-15 Dec 9 1897. The original "Committee" but named by Mr Frost was one formed by Rev. Potter but no-one knows what subscriptions were received.)

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Sentence in parentheses written at the bottom of the page, its intended position shown by asterisks. See earlier sentence about Potter's collecting subscriptions.

With the aid of one or two of my University students I sent out 3000 circulars all over the world but did not have the success that we should have doubtless met with had the appeal been made earlier.

At the meeting of the A.A.A.S. in Sydney in 1898 on the request of the Nat. Mem. Committee (already formed & at work) Messrs Liversidge and Maiden were added to it to represent the Association,

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Report of the seventh meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, p. xlix.

which however had nothing whatever to do with the initial suggestion of the Committee.

After hard work we succeeded in gathering in £450. Meanwhile Potter did nothing — he had possession of the Baron's papers, but apparently did not put pen to paper, & as he had supreme control under the will nothing could be done, — though one or two of us tried in vain to work through the relatives.

Owing to slow communications with foreign countries — of which Germany responded scarcely at all — the fund dragged on. In 1901 I went away for a year to the Centre leaving the matter in the late Dr Hall's hands and asking him to bring it before the A.A.A.S. and request the Council to take charge of the fund — this of course with the consent of the Memorial Committee which was as usual more a nominal body than anything else.

The Association agreed to the suggestion made by the Committee of a Medal, & at its Hobart meeting in 1902 appointed a Committee to award it, consisting of its President, & Treas. (afterwards changed to (General Sec.) & four others

The medal with the Baron holding a spray of an Acacia ( A. dictyophleba if I remember rightly) with a waratah on the "obverse" was designed by myself (I'm rather proud of it) & sent home to Paris to have dies made, which are now in the possession of the Association

You will find the original conditions as communicated by Mr Hall to the Council of the A.A.A.S. at the Hobart meeting in VOL. IX. 1902 p.xlvii.

What happened to the Baron's house & papers I do not know but Potter lived in it until his death, when presumedly it was sold on behalf of the remaining relatives in S. Australia. The papers must be somewhere, but the life still remains unwritten — nor am I sure that anything further than your very interesting record is necessary. The only other memorial that I know of is a bas-relief head & bust made by a German moulder named Saupe (now dead) in the form of a large medallion, which for many years was, & probably still is in the Royal Society's Hall. The one place where there should be a memorial is the National Herbarium, which is really the monument of the Baron's work. There are but few of us left now who go back as workers to the older days — thirty or more years ago, when he was a very well-known figure. French of course knows more about his inner life & methods of working than anyone else, as he was his trusty assistant for long years right through the early days of the Garden period & for long after.

Excuse the length of this note, but your account called up recollections of very pleasant old days.