Exiles and Emigrants
Education Resource


The Journey

 
 

John Charles Dollman
The immigrants' ship 1884

Playing with her doll the young girl is safely occupied while her exhausted mother rests. Her father contemplates his situation and their future. These passengers may have received assisted passage for their journey. They shared travelling space in steerage i.e. lower deck, measuring about one by two meters. These passengers had to provide their own bedding and eating utensils and were fed biscuits, gruel, potatoes and occasionally preserved meat.

John Charles Dollman
England 1851–1934
The immigrants' ship 1884
oil on canvas
111.0 x 162.5 cm
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Transferred from the office of the Agent-General for South Australia, London, 1979