Rachel Mary Roxburgh (21 September 1915 – 13 April 1991) was an Australian artist, potter, colonial historian and environmental activist.

Early life and education

Roxburgh was born in

Point Piper Point Piper is a small, harbourside eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, east of the Sydney CBD, in the local government area known as the Municipality of Woollahra. Point Piper has been historically r ...

, New South Wales on 21 September 1915. She attended Ascham School and the

East Sydney Technical College The National Art School (NAS) is a tertiary level art school, located in , an inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The school is an independent accredited higher education provider offering specialised study in studio arts ...

, where she received Grade A (over 83%) for both the Introductory Art Course in 1932 and the Intermediate Course in 1933. She then attended the Adelaide Perry Art School in Sydney.

Awards and legacy

Roxburgh received a British Empire Medal in 1979 for services to the community. A 1939 portrait of Roxburgh by Adelaide Perry is held in the

National Portrait Gallery of Australia The National Portrait Gallery (NGPA) in Canberra is a public art gallery containing portraits of prominent Australians. It was established in 1998 and moved to its present building on King Edward Terrace in December 2008. History In the early ...

. The Art Gallery of New South Wales holds 21 boxes of papers relating to Roxburgh's work as a painter and potter, including extensive personal correspondence from 1945 to 1990, diaries, sketchbooks, newspaper cuttings and exhibition catalogues. One folio package and 19 boxes of her extensive research into the history of colonial buildings about which she wrote, correspondence and family papers all gathered between 1960 and 1986 are held by the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

. The National Trust held a Retrospective Exhibition of her paintings, pottery, books, photographs and memorabilia at

Cooma Cottage Cooma Cottage is a heritage-listed former farm and tuberculosis sanatorium and now house museum and historic site at Yass Valley Way, Marchmont, Yass Valley Shire, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1830 to 1837 by Cornelius and Reb ...

, Yass and

Riversdale, Goulburn ''Riversdale'' is a heritage-listed house in the early colonial Regency style located in , New South Wales, Australia. The house was built in about 1840 and some of the outbuildings were constructed even earlier. The house is listed on the New S ...

in May–June 1993.

Works

Books

* ''History of Riversdale, Goulburn'', The National Trust of Australia New South Wales, 1970 * ''Early Colonial Houses of New South Wales'', Ure Smith, 1974, * ''Colonial Farm Buildings of New South Wales'', Rigby, 1978, * ''Berrima Court House'', Berrima Court House Trust, 1981, * ''Throsby Park: An account of the Throsby Family in Australia 1802-1840'', NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service, 1989

Articles

* "Thomas Potter Macqueen of Segenhoe", ''Royal Historical Society Journal'', vol. 58, pt. 3 September 1972

Death

Roxburgh died on 13 April 1991 at Castle Hill, New South Wales.

References

External links

Rachel Roxburgh
1939 portrait by Adelaide Perry in the National Portrait Gallery {{DEFAULTSORT:Roxburgh, Rachel 1915 births 1991 deaths People educated at Ascham School 20th-century Australian women artists 20th-century Australian artists Australian potters 20th-century Australian historians