A beautifully executed mezzotint portrait of William Lamb, second Viscount Melbourne, after whom the capital city of Victoria was named in 1837. Although printed in 1839, at the height of Melbourne's career and while he was serving as Prime Minister of Great Britain, the mezzotint is based on a youthful portrait of the great statesman by Sir Thomas Lawrence R.A.

A beautifully executed mezzotint portrait of William Lamb, second Viscount Melbourne, after whom the capital city of Victoria was named in 1837. Although printed in 1839, at the height of Melbourne's career and while he was serving as Prime Minister of Great Britain, the mezzotint is based on a youthful portrait of the great statesman by Sir Thomas Lawrence R.A.

The city of Melbourne grew from humble beginnings, when John Batman explored the Port Phillip Bay area against the express wishes of Sir Richard Bourke, Governor of New South Wales. Within two years Bourke was forced to acknowledge the rapidly growing settlement which he named in honour of Viscount Melbourne in 1837. In doing so Bourke replaced a variety of names for the fledgling settlement including Bearbrass, Bearport, Glenelg and Batmania (so called after John Batman). Largely due to the gold-rushes of the mid nineteenth-century Melbourne became one of the most prosperous and fastest growing cities of the British Empire.