For this month's segment, the State Library of WA's Kate Gregory has dug deep into their archives to share a bit of French nautical history with us!

The Freycinet Collection is a series of eighteen drawings, engravings and watercolours created after two French maritime expeditions which visited our coast in the 19th century.

The first of these expeditions was undertaken by captain Nicolas Baudin from 1800 to 1804 in three vessels: firstly the Géographe and the Naturaliste and later the Casuarina - names that may be familiar to many of us WA locals!

The second expedition was under the command of Louis de Freycinet in the vessel Uranie (and then the Physicienne) from 1817 to 1820 - and where the collection takes it's name.

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