Bernhardt Holtermann
Encyclopedia
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
- 28 April 1885, Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
) was a successful gold miner, businessman, and politician in Australia. Perhaps his greatest claim to fame is his association with the Holtermann Nugget, the largest specimen of gold ever found, 1.5 meters (59 inches) long, weighing 286 kg (630 pounds), and with an estimated gold content of 5000 ounces (57 kg). A larger find was made by the same men, but was broken up before being brought to the surface.
Holtermann emigrated in 1858 to avoid military service. He departed Liverpool aboard the ship Salem and reached Australia in August. After working at a variety of jobs, he teamed up with Polish miner Ludwig Hugo Louis Beyers. They began prospecting around Hill End, New South Wales
Hill End, New South Wales
Hill End is a former gold mining town in New South Wales, Australia, in Bathurst Regional Council. It owes its existence to the New South Wales gold rush of the 1850s, and at its peak in the early 1870s it had a population estimated at 8,000 served by two newspapers, five banks, eight churches, and...
. Years of unrewarding labour followed. On 22 February 1868, Holtermann married Harriett Emmett, while Beyers married her sister Mary.
Finally, things began looking up in 1871. The Star of Hope Gold Mining Company, in which he and Beyers were among the partners, struck rich veins of gold. Then, on 19 October 1872, the Holtermann Nugget was discovered. It was not strictly speaking a nugget, but rather a specimen or matrix (a vein of gold embedded in rock, in this case quartz
Quartz
Quartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...
), nor was Holtermann the sole finder, but the name stuck.
He built a magnificent mansion in St Leonards
St Leonards, New South Wales
St Leonards is a suburb on the lower North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. St Leonards is located 5 km north-west of the Sydney central business district and lies across the local government areas of Municipality of Lane Cove, North Sydney Council and the City of...
, a suburb of Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, complete with a stained glass window depicting himself and the nugget. He invested wisely and kept his wealth, allowing him to take up his true passion, photography.
Holtermann financed and possibly participated in Beaufoy Merlin's project to photograph New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
and exhibit the results abroad to encourage immigration. The work was taken up after Merlin's death in 1873 by his assistant, Charles Bayliss. In 1875, Holtermann and Bayliss produced the Holtermann panorama, a series of "23 albumen silver photographs
Albumen print
The albumen print, also called albumen silver print, was invented in 1850 by Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard, and was the first commercially exploitable method of producing a photographic print on a paper base from a negative...
which join together to form a continuous 978-centimetre view of Sydney Harbour and its suburbs." Some of the photographs, including the panorama, were displayed at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, where they won a bronze medal. The panorama was also displayed at the 1877 Exposition Universelle Internationale in Paris.
In 1882, on his third try, Holtermann was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
New South Wales Legislative Assembly
The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The other chamber is the Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney...
for St Leonards.
He died on his 50th birthday in 1885, leaving a wife, three sons, and two daughters.