POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Notes

This ship model was made by Samuel Harvey before 1879. Samuel was born in 1822, the son of James Harvey and Grace Stanaway. At the age of 28 Samuel arrived in New South Wales in 1853 on aboard the 'Malvina Vidal' a German ship which had left Plymouth on 17 Mar 1853 and arrived in Sydney on 20 June 1853. He was accompanied by his wife, Elizabeth (nee Coad), also 28. According to the shipping records Samuel was an agricultural labourer from St Agnes, in Cornwall. Samuel and Elizabeth had four children, Julia Grace Harvey 1854-1911; Robert Harvey 1856-1875 (he drowned in a boating accident on the Parramatta River); Elizabeth Harvey 1857-1926 and Samuel Harvey b. 1860. Samuel was a "Family Grocer" on the corner of Harris and George Streets, Parramatta. He died in 1888 "at his residence" on the corner of Harris and George Streets, probably above the shop. Two years earlier, Samuel's daughter, Elizabeth Harvey, had married Joseph Holt in Parramatta in 1886. Joseph Holt took over his father-in-law's grocer's shop and in 1891 offered to loan Samuel Harvey's three models and International Exhibition medal to the Museum. The Museum agreed and the models were sent by train from Parramatta to Sydney at the Museum's expense. Not long after loaning the models to the Museum, Joseph and Elizabeth Holt moved to "Hollingworth" Balmoral on the "Southern Line" not far from Picton, south of Sydney. Correspondence with the Museum at this time saw Holt ask the Museum's then Curator, J.H. Maiden, if the Museum would like to purchase the models and medal but this was declined on account of there being no funds available. There does not appear to be any further correspondence between the Holt family and the Museum regarding this loan. Joseph and Elizabeth Holt had five children, Harvey Holt b. 1887; Charles Frederick Holt b. 1889-d.1951, Melba Holt 1891-1974 and James Cook Holt b. 1895. The Holt family subsequently moved to The Meadows, Seven Hills. Joseph Holt died in 1923 and was buried at Rookwood Cemetery while his wife, Eliza Holt, died in 1926 at her daughter's home in Leichhardt. References Letters of correspondence between Joseph Holt and the Museum's curator J.H.Maiden (1891) Proudfoot, A., "Exhibition as Idea for the Powerhouse Museum" in Proudfoot, P, Maguire, R & Freestone, R., "Colonial City Global City - Sydney's International Exhibition 1879" (Sydney, 2000)