Diercke, Carl, 1872-1915.

Carl Diercke (1872-1915) was the son of a famous German cartographer, Carl Diercke (Snr.), who created the Diercke atlases. Carl Diercke (Jnr.) was married to Helene Blanche (Nellie) Parkinson. Nellie was the daughter of Richard and Phoebe Parkinson. Richard Parkinson was a scientist of German/Danish origin, famous for his book, Dreissig Jahren in der Sudsee (Thirty years in the South Seas). Phoebe was Queen Emma's sister, both of the Samoan royal family Malietoa. Together with Parkinson and Diercke they created the first commercial plantations in New Guinea in the late 1800s. The letters were written and received by Carl Diercke (Jnr.) at his plantation in Tinputz (Woskawitz) in German New Guinea. In general the letters are requests for foodstuffs and sundry goods which were delivered mainly by the ship "Sumatra". The family were striped of land holdings by Australian officials after World War I because of the family's German links. Rudolf Diercke, son of Carl and Nellie Diercke, stayed in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands where he managed plantations for W.R. Carpenter & Co. and later for the Catholic Church at Vunapope, East New Britain.