Louisa Thomas married Henry Gipps (1837-91)in 1863. They had six sons and two daughters. While Louisa and Henry Gipps were to die in Sussex, two of their sons, Frederick George De Visme Gipps (1867-1953) and Richard Brook Woodthorpe Gipps (c.1872-1946) migrated to Queensland, possibly bringing with them their mother’s sketchbook.The collection of artworks that are included in the sketchbook are often of outstanding aesthetic and artistic significance. In the variety of subject matter and the geographical places represented, it is historically significant as a document recording the postings of Colonel Henry Gipps, 9th Norfolk Regiment, and his wife Louisa to locations in the Mediterranean and West Asia. The large bound sketchbook has a marbled cover with blue binding. The name Louisa Goulburn Thomas and the date 1862 are faintly inscribed in pencil on the front page. However the book contains pen and ink and pencil drawings, watercolours, and photographs, which both predate and postdate 1862. The approximately 75 works are loose-leafed items and [currently] do not form a chronological, geographical or thematic sequence. Creators identified on some drawings and watercolours include Mary Julia Wilder Thomas, JFV Wright, ELG (Edward Louis de Bondell Gipps?), L Nicholson, Bertha Isadore Thomas, and HG (Henry Gipps?). Many of the works are signed and dated, and include rural landscapes and seascapes, archaeological sites, animal studies, and portraits. While most of the works were created in the British Isles, others are scenes of Venice, the Ionian Islands, Cape Town, Hong Kong and Japan. [A number of the ‘oriental’ paintings on silk were probably purchased from local artists.] The art works in the book are at various stages of completion and represent a diverse range of artistic skills. What may be the earliest work in the sketchbook is a drawing of three uniformed soldiers. An annotation on the reverse records that the drawing is of a Group of Soldiers after [Philipp Jakob] de Southerbourg 1830. The birth of Louisa Thomas' oldest son, William Henry Houston Meyrick Gipps (1864-1903) in Corfu perhaps explains why a number of scenes and items in the album are of the Ionian Islands. Louisa is probably the creator of a number of still life and botanical studies in the album. These range from floral studies to a bird’s nest. The painting of objects was to remain a socially ‘approved’ specialty of amateur and professional women artists into the 20th century. The complete contents of the album will be uploaded to accompany this record. Some items may be published separately on Victorian Collections, but will acknowledge their origins in the sketchbook."Louisa Goulburn Thomas / 1862"victorian sketchbooks, manuscripts - kew historical society, 9th norfolk regiment, rosemary (gipps) vaughan smith, vaughan-smith collection

Alick Gipps (1928-2014) was the son of Richard Brook Woodthorpe Gipps (1872-1946) and Mary Alys Kirkland (1889-1981), and the older brother of Christopher David Gipps (1930-52) and Rosemary Alison Gipps (1930-2013). While many scrapbooks of the period were created by, and or added to by their child owners, it is believed that "scrapbooks were considered by later Victorian parents to be an educational tool to teach children how to organise and classify information and to develop their ‘artistic’ senses" (Margaret Simpson, MAAS, 2008), and that the scrapbooks may have been compiled by the parent, rather than the child.The scrapbook is part of a large and significant collection of items donated by Rosemary Vaughan-Smith, past member and office-bearer of the Kew Historical Society. between 2005-12. The collection includes costumes, scrapbooks, autograph books, artworks and objects.Hard cover, 50-page album covered in red cloth and red leather corners and spine, the latter embossed with the words 'SCRAP BOOK' in gilt lettering. On the inside front cover, top left is an oval green label with retailer information - "WEDDING CHRISTENING / R. E. PENN. / Bible Warehouse / 213 REGENT St / BIRTHDAY PRESENTS". The paper used for the pages are in alternating blue, cream and green-coloured sections. The front pages of the scrapbook include the signature of the owner as Alick Kirkland [Goulburn] Gipps (1928-2014). Items pasted into the scrapbook include black and white and coloured illustrations, photographs, and extracts from books. Items selected for the scrapbook fill a single page or are arranged in groups. The oldest items in the scrapbook appear to date from 1859 and include a colour cover of the Illustrated London Almanack and pictorial handbills of electoral results for the seat of Holmesdale and Filmer in Kent, England. While other items in the book are of later periods, most can be classified as sentimental Victorian-era illustrations. The biblical scenes in the scrapbook reflect one aspect of the values of the Gipps family. The focus in the album on material about or published in Great Britain also suggests a preoccupation with, and a valuing of, traditional British culture. This is confirmed by the memberships of Alick and his sister Rosemary (Gipps) Vaughan-Smith in the English-Speaking Union Club, for which they welcomed guests at an 'Elizabethan party and barbecue' during the Coronation festivities of June 1953. (The Age, 3 June 1953, page 5). The album entered the collection of the Kew Historical Society as part of the Raymond and Rosemary (Gipps) Vaughan-Smith donation.manuscripts - kew historical society, rosemary vaughan-smith, vaughan-smith collection, alick kirkland goulburn gipps, scrapbooks - 20th century

The owner of the 'Autograph' book was Mary Alys (Gipps) Kirkland, the daughter of Richard Brook Woodthorpe Gipps (c.1872-1946). The family had migrated from Great Britain to Coorparoo, Brisbane, where most of the items in the album were created. In June 1925, The [Brisbane] Telegraph reported the wedding of Richard Gipps to Mary Alys Kirkland at Elvaston, The Righi, South Yarra. The bride, like the groom, was originally from Queensland, but at the time of her marriage lived with her parents at 21 The Righi. The album passed to their daughter Rosemary Alison (Gipps) Vaughan-Smith, and thence by donation to the collection of the Kew Historical Society. While the signatures are interesting, they are not rare. Rather it is the illustrations that dazzle with the surety of their design and execution. In the portraits, one can recognise the debt that Edwardian art and design owed to the Pre-Raphaelites whose serene and poised idealisations of women are exemplified in the drawings, albeit simplified for a new 20th century sensibility. Typical, is a very early portrait from 1906 of Mary Alys Kirkland by a 20-year-old Garnet Agnew (1886-1951). Agnew later became an illustrator for The Brisbane Courier and The Queenslander Illustrated Weekly, creating cover illustrations for these publications between 1926 and 1930. Another pen and ink portrait of Mary Alys Kirkland was created in 1910 by Augusta Frances Isabel Hobday (1884-1961). Augusta, with her brother and sister, Percy Stanhope Hobday and Gladys Hobday, were artists and teachers. Each was involved for many years in the Queensland Art Society. While the album has historic, aesthetic and social significance to Brisbane’s history, as a document, its preoccupations have a wider Australian relevance and importance. Compiled between 1905 and 1922, the 'Autograph' book has considerable aesthetic coherence, even though drawings and text are by different hands. Together, it provides a vivid depiction of social life and values in Brisbane in the period preceding the First World War. Like other autograph albums of the period, it is a compilation of pen and ink sketches, watercolours, quotations, poems, aphorisms and signatures. Most entries are from Queensland, particularly Coorparoo in Brisbane; friends and acquaintances from other Australian States also contributed items. The autograph album predictably contains numerous mementoes of the notable and the forgotten. It includes the signatures of the British contralto Dame Clara Butt (1872-1936) her husband, the baritone R. H. Kennerley Rumford (1870-1957), and that of the Australian actress and singer Nellie Stewart (1858-1931). autograph albums, manuscripts - kew historical society, rosemary vaughan-smith, vaughan-smith collection, dame clara butt, garnet andrew, augusta frances isabel hobday, coorparoo - brisbane, nellie stewart, mary alys kirkland, mary alys gipps (nee kirkland)