Caroline Dexter

Dexter was born Caroline Harper in Nottingham, England on 6 January 1819, in. Her parents were Mary Harper née Simson, and Richard Harper, a watch maker and jeweller. She was educated privately in England and Paris, where she became good friends with novelist George Sand. In 1843, in Nottingham, she married the painter, William Dexter, who later migrated to Sydney, Australia aboard the Bank of England in 1852. Dexter followed in 1855 aboard the Marie Gabrielle. {{cite Australian Dictionary of Biography|last1=Ryan|first1=J. S.|title=Dexter, Caroline (1819–1884)|id2=dexter-caroline-3407|access-date=20 July 2019|edition=published first in hardcopy, Volume 4 (1972)}}

In Sydney, Dexter and William opened and ran a Gallery of Arts and School of Design, where Dexter was a teacher. However, this soon failed as a venture. They subsequently moved to Gippsland in 1856. While in Gippsland she wrote Ladies Almanack: The Southern Cross or Australian Album and New Years Gift. When it was published in 1858 it was the first ladies' almanack published in the colonies. Soon after the book was complete Dexter separated from William, who moved back to Sydney, while she moved to Melbourne.

After lecturing about the bloomers in London and beyond, Dexter continued to pursue her interest in dress reform in Australia.{{Cite journal|last=Urwin|first=Tiffany|date=2000|title=Dexter, Dextra, Dextrum: The Bloomer Costume on the British Stage in 1851|journal=Nineteenth Century Theatre|volume=28|issue=2|pages=91–113|doi=10.1177/174837270002800201|s2cid=193319585}} Her continued support for dress reform caused controversy in the Sydney Morning Herald.{{Cite journal|last=Stevenson|first=Ana|date=2017|title='Bloomers' and the British World: Dress Reform in Transatlantic and Antipodean Print Culture, 1851–1950|journal=Cultural & Social History|volume=14|issue=5|pages=621–646|doi=10.1080/14780038.2017.1375706|s2cid=165544065}} Nonetheless, she ran an Institute of Hygiene and promoted divided skirts for women and the abolition of corsets in Melbourne.{{Cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/5053997|title=Caroline Dexter: Bloomerism in England and its introduction to Australia|website=www.academia.edu|access-date=2016-05-28|last1=Lance|first1=Stieve De}}

File:'Low Tide at Boulogne'by Richard Parkes Bonington, 1824, National Gallery of Victoria.jpgDexter met Harriet Clisby through their shared interests in social reform and feminism. Together in 1861 they produced the first all-women publication called the Interpreter which released two issues.

In 1861, Dexter married solicitor William Lynch, who became the mayor of Brighton. Together they held a salon at their Brighton residence, and acquired an important collection of Australian art. Lynch stated "It was my wife's mind that attracted me, and from her I learned all that I know of art".

Dexter and Lynch acquired a large collection of Art which included Richard Parkes Bonington's Low Tide at Boulogne, which was later acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). However, this artwork was stolen from gallery in 1999. The NGV discovered it was missing five years later during an audit, listed it on the lost art register, and reported it to police. However, it was later reported that they did not inform the State Government until 2011 which sparked controversy.{{Cite news |date=2012-01-24 |title=Gallery left painting theft unreported for 12 years |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-25/gallery-left-painting-theft-unreported-for-12-years/3791850 |access-date=2025-03-04 |work=ABC News |language=en-AU}}

Dexter died on 19 August 1884, in North Brighton at her residence 'Bombala', aged 65.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article222467083 |title=Family Notices |newspaper=Weekly Times |issue=781 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=23 August 1884 |access-date=4 March 2025 |page=15 |via=National Library of Australia}}

• Dexter Street in the Canberra suburb Cook is named in her honour.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article236924141|title=Australian Capital Territory National Memorials Ordinance 1928-1972|date=1976-04-13|work=Australian Government Gazette. Periodic (National: 1974–1977)|access-date=2020-02-09|pages=1}}
• A book about William and Caroline, Folie A Deux: William and Caroline Dexter in Colonial Australia, was written by Patrick Morgan in 1999.{{Cite book|last=Morgan, Patrick, 1941-|title=Folie à deux : William and Caroline Dexter in colonial Australia|date=1999|publisher=Quakers Hill Press|isbn=1-876192-05-4|location=Quakers Hill, NSW|oclc=46879917}}

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• [https://find.slv.vic.gov.au/permalink/61SLV_INST/1sev8ar/alma9916366673607636 Correspondence and other miscellaneous material relating to Caroline and William Dexter, 1857-1860. [manuscript].] at State Library of Victoria.

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Category:1819 births

Category:1884 deaths

Category:Australian feminist writers

Category:English emigrants to colonial Australia

Category:19th-century Australian journalists

Category:19th-century Australian writers

Category:19th-century Australian women writers

Category:19th-century British women writers

Category:19th-century British writers

Category:British salon-holders

Category:19th-century Australian women journalists