George French Angas (1822-1886) was an artist and shell collector, who published many illustrations of the plants, native animals and peoples of the southern hemisphere. The son of the shipping magnate and land developer George Fife Angas, he came to Australia from England in 1843 at his father's behest. His work over the next few years proved of such interest to people ignorant of the newly 'discovered' southern lands that he soon returned to present an exhibition in person to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. In Piccadilly his works were complemented by Aboriginal and Maori costumes and implements, bird specimens, and a Maori orphan in native attire. In 1853 Angas became secretary to the Australian Museum, where he undertook cataloguing and research, particularly into shells. He returned to England in 1863.
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