The essay pasted into this booklet was originally produced in a newspaper (name unknown). The original essay was written by Cornelius (Con) O’Mahony and in 1883 it won the Bowen Prize Essay Competition for the best essay written by a student or past student of the University of Melbourne. The Bowen Prize was established in 1874 by the Governor of Victoria, Sir George Bowen, and was awarded annually thereafter. It is still awarded today. Con O’Mahony was a lawyer in Kepler Street, Warrnambool from the 1880s to 1920, initially in partnership with E.W. Klingender and later operating under the name of O’Mahony and Murray. He was born in Bendigo in 1863 and studied at Melbourne University in the early 1880s. O’Mahony received a set of ten books, Lives of the Chancellors, for winning the Bowen Prize and this set of books is in the collection of the Warrnambool and District Historical Society today. This essay, although only a typed copy, is important because it is a prime example of the 19th century positive writings on the need for Federation in Australia and so it played its part in promoting the cause of the Federation movement. It was written 17 years before Federation came into being by Con O’Mahony, a person who also played a part in Warrnambool’s history as a prominent lawyer in the town for over 30 years. This is a soft cover booklet of 24 pages. The cover is brown with black print and has handwritten material written over the original printing on the front cover. The booklet, originally an insurance booklet, has a stamp and typed material (a Federation essay) cut out and pasted onto 17 of the original pages. The booklet was originally stapled but the staples have been removed. The cover is partly torn and detached from the pages. The first couple of pages have silverfish damage. ‘Apr 22 1914’ ‘The University of Melbourne, Bowen Prize Essay 1883 won by C. O’Mahony’ con o’ mahony, bowen prize, history of warrnambool, federation campaign in australia

Grey hardcovered book of 244 pages with a foreword by Lionel Lindsay. Numerous text illustrations, of which 134 are tipped-in or mounted bookplates. 20 of these signed or initialled by the artist, including the coloured frontispiece bookplate of Edward, Prince of Wales, by Adrian Feint. A standard edition of 210 copies of this book was privately printed at Beacon Press, Sydney. It contains fewer bookplates than the deluze edition. bookplate, adrien feint, thomas bewick, g.d. perrottet, albrecht durer, lucas cranach, john everett millais, timothy cole, w.e. home, george eve, bernard partidge, wiliam heinemann, edward gordon craig, lucien psisaro, w. sturge moore, james guthrie, frank bangwyn, john renniel, bruno heroux, adolf kinst, karl michel, edward wengert, r. rother, josef weiss, willi knabe, otto feil, rose reinhold, victor eichler, georg neurath, f. chalandre, victor stuyvaert, ludvic rudo, edward pellens, chris lebeau, agta mijer, anton pieck, harriet sundstrom, john refberg, s. joudowin, paul schillingorski, n. presirvesy, john rerberg, a.i. kravchenko, s.o. chrostowski, bruno osima, antonello moroni, bruno da osimo, alfred peter, peter boesch, k. hanny, o. stafl, j. votruba, jan paroubek, vojtech preissig, karel nemec, a. burka, jaro beran, fr bilek, ant dolezal, josepf hodek, joseph vachal, viktor vavra, fr horky, f. kobliha, anna mackova, j. dobrovolsky, george wolfe plank, j.j. lankes, allen lewis, rockwell kent, yumeji, tatsuo tuzawa, gentaro kobayashi, eikichi katori, kyosen kawasaki, shu hokusho, masama akinaga, hild wiseman, t.v. gilliver, peggy sherriff, stephen champ, roy hunt, alfred cook, norman lindsay, lionel lindsay, george collingridge, margaret oppen, edgar satchell, ethel spowers, j.c. goodchild, philip m. litchfield, h.r. gallop, w.f. mahony, adrian feint, john b. godson, john bewick, christian yandell, napier waller, erick thake, g. west, herman theodore radin, mabel dickinson, ex libris, w. halberg, peter lindsay, vere ritchie, percy nevile barnett, peter tansey, christain waller, w.c. schmidt, w.f. hopson, r.a. clive, bernard patridge, e. muruyamo, yoshimo muto, vioet pilling