The House of Blue Glass

Acclaimed historian Alan Atkinson pieces together the life of Penelope Lucas, the first professionally qualified woman to emigrate from Europe to Australia. In The House of Blue Glass, Alan Atkinson – author of the award-winning Elizabeth and John: The Macarthurs of Elizabeth Farm – explores the life of Penelope Lucas. While she is known as the Macarthur family governess, Atkinson reveals Penelope was primarily an accountant whose bookkeeping work made an important difference to the Macarthurs’ success. Penelope Lucas came to Australia in 1804–1805, in her thirties, unmarried and looking forward to living on inherited income. While Elizabeth Macarthur was unsurprisingly upset when John arrived back from three years in England with a woman she had never heard of, Penelope went on to live with the Macarthurs for over thirty years and became close friends with Elizabeth. In this revelatory work, Atkinson brings together fifty years of scholarship as he explores the gender dynamics of the Macarthur household and the life of a single woman of means in Georgian England and early colonial Sydney.