Silvester Diggles b. 24 January 1817

  • Artist (Photographer),
  • Artist (Painter)
Regardless of whether he was painting a seashore scene on a mutton shoulder-blade, or showing his special skill in life-like and accurate natural history illustrations, Diggles' outstanding artistic achievement was the completion of 325 pencil and watercolour plates illustrating 600 birds for the impressive tome, 'Ornithology of Australia.'

Citations

  • (June 1965), 'Notes on Diggles’ “Ornithology of Australia”’, Queensland Naturalist, .

  • (July 1963), 'Silvester Diggles – a Queensland naturalist one hundred years ago’, Queensland Naturalist 17, .

  • Marks, E. (1972), 'Silvester Diggles’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol 4, ed. D. Pike, A. Shaw, M. Clark, B. Nairn, G. Serle and R. Ward, Melbourne, Victoria.

  • Burmester, C.A. (1974), 'National Library of Australia: Guide to the Collections’, Canberra.

  • Fisher, R. (12 March 1986), '“Through a glass darkly”: Photographers and their role in the Moreton Bay region before 1860’, Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland.

  • Diggles, S., 'Letter Book 1871/1877’, National Library of Australia ms 1551.

  • Information sourced from Davies, Alan.

  • Information sourced from Fisher, Rod.

Initial data sources

  • The Dictionary of Australian Artists: painters, sketchers, photographers and engravers to 1870