sketcher and amateur photographer, son of Dr Godfrey Howitt and Phoebe, née Bakewell, came to Melbourne from England with his parents and other relatives in the Lord Goderich in April 1840. His father had brought out a prefabricated wooden house which was erected on their land in Collins Street; later they established a large family property at Cape Schanck. In 1852 Edward joined his uncle, the writer William Howitt, and his cousins Alfred and Charlton on their travels around the Victorian goldfields. The small party also included the artist Edward La Trobe Bateman . In his letters about their travels, published as Land, Labour and Gold (London 1855), William Howitt noted that in December 1852 Edward and Mr Bateman had sketched a huge fallen tree they had come across on the way to the Ovens diggings. The character Phineas Dyson in William Howitt’s A Boy’s Adventures in the Wilds of Australia; or Herbert’s Notebooks (London 1854) was said to be closely modelled on Edward.
Rejecting a second trip to the goldfields, Edward Howitt reportedly stayed behind in order to experiment with his new toy, a daguerreotype machine. His mother exhibited several of his daguerreotypes at the 1854 Melbourne Exhibition. Although Edward and Alfred Howitt had planned to travel down the Murray River taking photographs, it is not known if Edward’s exhibits were the result of any such expedition.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
