John Carmichael

Curator

Dr Breda Carty

Collection

One of the first European deaf people who came to Australia in the early 19th century was John Carmichael. He was a young Scottish engraver and artist who arrived as a free settler in 1825 at the age of 21. He produced lots of engravings of early colonial items such as stamps, maps and illustrations, and other artistic work as well. He made a career as an engraver at a time when there were few other deaf people in the colony. He must have been an adventurous and brave young man!

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1810s

“Carmichael had also a mania for horse-racing, to gratify which he was most cheerfully, since he left school, the first and last of the Edinburgh people, trudging five long miles every day in the race week to and from Musselburgh Races. He then came to us, proud of being again great in our eyes, giving rapid, yet distinct gestural pictures of the different races, horses and their riders, which he had observed with minute attention.”

Alexander Atkinson

Alexander Atkinson, schoolmate of Carmichael in Edinburgh, quoted in Carty, B. (2000). John Carmichael: Australian Deaf pioneer. Deaf History Journal, 3 (3), 24-36.

John Carmichael Arrives in Sydney

1826

King of black Native : watercolour portrait by John Carmichael, 1826

Image courtesy of the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales. https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/nQR2Aaj1

Carmichael's Work and Writing

1834

Map of the Colony of NSW

Drawn by the surveyor general and etched by Carmichael.

Image courtesy of the National Library of Australia. Mitchell, Thomas, Sir, 1792-1855 & Carmichael, John, 1803-1857 & Derby, Edward George Geoffrey Smith Stanley, Earl of, 1799-1869. (1884). To the Right Honorable Edward Geoffrey Smith Stanley this map of the Colony of New South Wales [cartographic material] / compiled from actual measurements with the chain & circumferenter, and according to a trigonometrical survey is (with the greatest respect), dedicated by his most obedient humble servant T.L. Mitchell, Surveyor General ; drawn by T.L. Mitchell ; engraved by John Carmichael. http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-232396607

1838

Irrawang vineyard and pottery, East Australia, [a bill head], 1838

Image courtesy of the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales. https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/1wN2aEpn

1840s

This tiny engraving was probably intended for a wrapper or label.

Image courtesy of the National Library of Australia. Carmichael, John & Aldis, William H. (1840). Aldis, tobacco merchant, George Street, Sydney Retrieved January 12, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-133067149

1848

Bay whaling off the Boyd Town light house, Twofold Bay, N.S.W, 1848

Image courtesy of the Dixson Library, State Library of New South Wales. https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/Yold2XW9

1851

Sydney from the North Shore, 1851

Image courtesy of the Dixson Library, State Library of New South Wales. https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/npAd7361