sketcher and draughtsman, son of Thomas and Hannah Agate, was born on 14 February 1812 in Sparta, New York, where he studied art with his brother Frederick and the painter Thomas Cummings. Agate was appointed 'portrait and botanical artist’ on the United States’ world expedition of 1838 42 led by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes. Travelling with the scientific team on board the USS Relief, he reached Sydney in December 1839 and stayed there until March 1840 with the other 'civilians’ while Wilkes continued on to the Antarctic with the naval members of the expedition.
In New South Wales Agate drew views of Sydney and its environs. Several were published as engravings in Charles Wilkes’s Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition for which he prepared over half the illustrations. The second volume contains four engravings of Australian subjects after Agate’s sketches – Sydney, View from Kirribilli looking South, Corrobory New Holland, Settler’s Cottage and Forest, Illiwarra [sic], N.S.W. - as well as several vignettes.
Agate married Elizabeth Hill Kennedy of Alexandria in 1845, but died of tuberculosis at Washington DC on 5 January 1846. His sketches from the voyage are in the Natural History Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
