Matson Manifold Genealogical Tree of Family History

James McKain Meek
JT Smith & Co, Christchurch (printer)
Matson Manifold Genealogical Tree of Family History c.1880
lithograph
86 x 66cm
Canterbury Museum
Christchurch, New Zealand

Trees held a special magic for Meek; he found them inspiring in nature and also in art. The tree motif recurred in his works from
his earliest sketch to his last large wall hangings. In this commissioned family tree, Meek extended the text into the foliage “containing fruits” on which the births of family members were recorded.

James McKain Meek James Curtis, Caxton Printing Works, Ballarat (printer) Ballarat’s Historical Gum~Tree (proof copy), 1895 photolithograph 61.7 x 48.7cm Art Gallery of Ballarat Gift of Austin McCallum, 1979 Described by historian James Flett as ‘a very strange picture … called an ‘Historical Tree’,10 this work is quintessentially Meek. It teems with historical and statistical data and features an eccentric text about incidents on the Ballarat diggings. Meek’s version of early events is not always shared by historians and some of his claims are contested.