Global Histories: The Edwin Fox and the Colony of Western Australia

Join us for a conversation about the extraordinary and intertwined global histories behind the merchant vessel Edwin Fox.

The merchant vessel Edwin Fox was exceptional for being unexceptional. It was neither large nor fast and had none of the prestige of the great tea and opium clippers that captured the public imagination in the mid-nineteenth century.

The life and career of this undistinguished ship coincide with a pivotal era in globalisation when global trade intensified, industrialisation and imperialism spread, and environments were changed. People moved about the world in unprecedented numbers, and indigenous peoples in many places suffered the consequences brought on by the arrival and increasing establishment of colonial settlers. 

Using the arrival of the Edwin Fox at Fremantle on the 20 November 1858, this talk will explore the extraordinary and intertwined global histories that frame the story of this common, everyday merchant vessel. 

Join visiting co-authors Boyd Cothran and Adrian Shubert as they take a view from the deck in an age of rising empires, sweeping economic transformation, and social change.

About your presenters 

Adrian Shubert is Professor Emeritus of History at York University and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Boyd Cothran is Associate Professor of History at York University.

The Edwin Fox: How an Ordinary Sailing Ship Connected the World in the Age of Globalization, 1850-1914, by Boyd Cothran and Adrian Shubert (2023; University of North Carolina Press) will be available for purchase at this event.