[Kangaroo Head] / by Gerard Krefft, 1861

Biographical History: Gerard Krefft, zoologist, artist, and museum curator, arrived in Australia in 1852. He was naturalist to the Victorian Government Collecting Expedition to the lower Murray and Darling Rivers under Wilhelm Blandowski in 1857-1858, then employed at the National Museum, Melbourne to catalogue the expedition's collection. On Governor Denison's recommendation, Krefft was appointed Assistant Curator at the Australian Museum in Sydney from 1860-1864, and then Curator from 1864-1876. Krefft expanded the Australian Museum's collection and won international repute as a scientist, corresponding with Charles Darwin, Sir Richard Owen, and Albert Gunther of the British Museum.