Ann McGrath

Transformed into Josiah Wedgwood’s Hope Medallion, Sydney's clay crossed hemispheres - this ‘primitive earth’ transports us on journeys of early modern science and industry, where ideas of antiquity encompassed earth history, fossils and Greek legends. In 1788, the astronomer, mineralogist and natural scientist of the LaPerouse expedition, Abbey Jean le Mongez alerted Arthur Philip, the newly arrived first governor of the colony of New South Wales, to a fine quality clay valued by the Gweagal People of Botany Bay. Key European scientists took a keen interest in both the clay and the Medallion.