Portrait Arctic Explorer Governor Tasmania Sir John Franklin (with Signature) London c.1830

Original stipple engraving by Paton Thomson after the painting by William Derby, prior to his ill-fated Voyage to find the North West Passage in 1845. 

Published by Fisher, Sons & Co, London, C.1830

Condition = Excellent

Platemark  = 221 x 148mm

Sir John Franklin (1786–1847), Arctic explorer and Lietenent-Governor of Tasmania, served under Matthew Flinders on the Investigator in 1802–1803,  on the Bellerophon at Trafalgar in 1805 and his first Arctic quest to find the ‘Northwest Passage’ between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. He ventured to the Arctic again in 1819, leading a three-year expedition across Canada, following which he became a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. After 30 years’ naval service, he accepted an appointment as lieutenant-governor of Tasmania, arriving in Hobart in 1837. Franklin, his second wife Jane and his private secretary Alexander Maconochie brought progressive ideas about the cultural growth of the colony and the reformation of the penal system, but powerful colonists, enjoying convict labour, harried him until he was recalled in 1843. Franklin disappeared on his final expedition to the Arctic in 1845. His widow sponsored four expeditions to find him before it was established that he and all of his crew had perished.