Topics: Colonial Writing – Thomas J Waters – Meiji Restoration
Meg Vivers’ academic publications include ARTICLES and BOOKS on Australian colonial history from a woman’s perspective, and the engineering and architectural achievements of Thomas James Waters and his family before and after the Meiji Restoration in Japan. An area at Kagoshima, where the remains of factories designed or supervised by T J Waters still stand, has recently been recommended as a UNESCO world heritage site.
Drawing by T J Waters of a ‘paper money’ factory designed for the Japanese Government.
(Copyright: National Archives of Japan)
The Formative Years of Lucy Gray
Colonial Writing – Formative Years
The formative years of middle and upper class British women who wrote about colonial life have been, in many cases, overlooked as much as, or more than, the writers themselves and their actual participation in the colonial enterprise. This is particularly true of women
Landscapes or Inscapes
Colonial Writing – Women’s Written and Pictorial Texts
In an attempt to reconstruct the circumstances surrounding frontier life in colonial Australia, historians have depended upon contemporary representations produced mainly by European men. The use of ‘suitable’ primary source material that supports a cause and effect argument emphasising imperial progress
Thomas James Waters and the Mint at Osaka
Meiji Restoration – Thomas J Waters
One of the first and most important initiatives of the incoming Meiji Government in 1868 was the building of a Mint at Osaka. This was necessary for the production of a new uniform coinage of high quality. The important role played by Irishman Thomas James Waters
Engineers and Agents in the Westernisation of Japan
Meiji Restoration – Agents and Engineers – Thomas J Waters
Much has been written about the many Western experts, particularly engineers, who travelled to Japan and contributed to the country’s modernization in the years following the Meiji Restoration (1868). In this paper it is argued that more emphasis could be placed on the contribution made, not only by experts in situ