Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1788 - 1883 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
24 volumes, paper
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Evelyn Ferrar was the daughter of Hartley Travers Ferrar, geologist on the British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901-04, and Gladys Helen (née Anderson). In 1942 she married Lachlan Maxwell Forbes.
Forbes lived in several countries throughout her life, including Egypt and New Zealand. In New Zealand she studied natural sciences with a focus on geology and botany at the University at Victoria College. After graduating she carried our geological fieldwork in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Archival history
The Ferrar Diaries have a different provenance history to the Ferrar Papers and Prints. The diaries came to the College in the early 1990s via Evelyn Forbes née Ferrar, who died in 2004. Although not documented or confirmed, the likely provenance route of the diaries is through the male line of an Irish branch of the Ferrar family from which Evelyn Forbes was descended, namely through her father, Hartley Travers Ferrar (1879-1932), his father, John Edgar Ferrar (1852-1938), his father, Michael Lloyd Ferrar (1796-1884) and his father, William Hugh Ferrar (1771-1826). Forbes' donation also included a printed book entitled A view of ancient and modern Dublin, with its latest improvements by John Ferrar published in 1807, which is catalogued and part of Magdalene's Old Library.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
The collection consists of twenty four diaries. Two of the diaries are by William Hugh Ferrar and the remainder are by his son Michael Lloyd Ferrar.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
- English