An Ode to Mrs W. Fletcher’s Music Folios

Music is a multi-sensory experience, rich with meaning even when the notes are static on the page. This presentation will discuss the mysterious provenance as well as the gendered and cultural significance imbued within the music folios of early Hobart resident Mrs W. Fletcher. These three matching folders of pianoforte sheet music were bound into albums in 1834 and are currently held by the Tasmanian Archives. They are the earliest known folios of this type within the archive and provide a unique window into the gentrification of Hobart Town.

Carla Baker is passionate about Tasmania, her family and cultural history. Her Honours thesis, completed at the University of Tasmania in 2021, focussed on Mrs W. Fletcher’s folios. She was the recipient of a UTAS Humanities in Place Industry Engagement Scholarship to undertake this project, which was awarded First Class Honours. Carla is currently a first year History PhD candidate at UTAS with her research investigating the notions of the centre and periphery, and race and purity, using Northern Tasmanian apples as an exemplar. Carla also works in the family-owned mower and chainsaw shop and is mum to two beautiful girls.