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The present contribution deals for the first time with the problem of authenticity and authorship of herpetological drawings by Wilhelm von Blandowski which are stored in the Historical Picture and Correspondence Collection of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. The bundle of documents consists of more than 50 sheets of paper. It is part of the material brought back from Australia by Blandowski and belongs to his legacy. The drawings and watercolors with turtles, frogs, lizards and snakes are among the earliest figures of southeast Australian herpetological species. They were created by several persons, among them the famous animal illustrators Gerhard Krefft and Arthur Bartholomew. The drawings offer a unique view into the history of Australian herpetology in the middle of the nineteenth century where Blandowski was an important part of. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the conference "Der Kult des großen Plans um 1910: Gestaltung von Metropolen in historischer Perspektive," held on November 25-26, 2010, at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany. The conference discussed philosophies and standards of urban planning in the early 20th century in cross-cultural perspective, with papers focusing on various cities, including Chicago, Illinois, Vienna, Austria, and Canberra, Australia.

The article reports on the panel "Grenzmissverständnisse in der Globalgeschichtsschreibung (ca. 1500-1900)" at the Deutscher Historikertag (Annual Meeting of the Verband der Historiker und Historikerinnen Deutschlands [VDH, German Historians' Association]), from September 28 to October 1, 2010, in Berlin. Several papers on the concepts of borders and frontiers in European imperialism and colonialism in Asia, Africa, and Australia, from the perspective of global history, were presented.