Leadbeater's Possum, Gymnobelideus leadbeateri

This lithographic print was commissioned by Sir Frederick McCoy, Director of Museum Victoria as part of the two-volume work "The Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria" which was Museum Victoria's first major publication beginning in 1878. The unique attributes of Australia's marsupials and monotremes would have fascinated McCoy's curious mind, but he was working in the shadow of John Gould, the brilliant naturalist and entrepreneur, as well as other European authorities. Gould visited Australia from 1838 to 1840, collecting specimens which would later comprise his great folio productions, A Monograph of the Macropodidae (1841-42) and The Mammals of Australia (1845-63). By this time he had illustrated every terrestrial and arboreal species from Australia then known to science. McCoy's opportunity for a significant new contribution to the scientific literature of living species came in 1867, when two small possums from the Bass River in South Gippsland were brought to him for identification. He named the new species in honor of John Leadbeater, the taxidermist who prepared these and many other specimens for exhibition Museum Victoria. Leadbeater's Possum was the only arboreal mammal in the Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria and was both illustrated and lithographed by John James Wild. The Prodromus project followed a popular formula of the time, seeking to identify and classify the natural wonders of the 'new world'. Such publications reached a peak in popularity with the work of John Gould in England and the earlier work of James Audubon in America. In Australia, many professional and amateur publications, including Aldine's systematic studies of the colonies and Louise Anne Meredith's Bush Friends From Tasmania, contributed to the genre. The publication of the Prodromus was an enormous undertaking, utilising the work of numerous artists, collectors, lithographers and publishers, over an extended period of time. Although costly in both financial and professional terms, it was met with critical acclaim and wide popular support. Financial battles were waged and lost by McCoy, but ultimately the Prodromus has stood the test of time and remains one of Museum Victoria's finest publications. McCoy died without completing his systematic study, but even at the time few believed that 'any of us will live to witness the completion of the work, if the entire Fauna of Victoria is to be illustrated.'