Name/TitleMichael Carr and Michael Bulger : Old Melbourne Cemetery, c. 1920
About this objectElevated photograph of headstone placed over the remains of Michael Carr, and his brother-in-law Michael Bulger. The stone, with triangular top with quarter-circular shoulders, takes up the bottom half of the image. A railing, trees and memorials are in the background.
Selby writes that this tombstone is "the earliest Catholic memorial that remained down to the time of exhuming".
Unfortunately, because the photographer is looking down on the headstone, the inscription is difficult to read; and the reading isn't helped by the faded image. However, the same image in photograph form is clearer.
The decorative motif at the top of the stone shows a cross above IHS within a sun symbol, surrounded by the words, GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO.
Followed by:
Memento Mori
This Stone is Erected by
Mrs. Catherine Carr widow
of the late Mr. Michael Carr
late of Dublin who departed
this life on the 19th of
October 1839 Aged 36 Years
Also her Brother
Mr. Michael Bulger who
Departed this Life on the
11th of March 1841
Aged 29 Years
Requiescant in pace
Selby, in his Memorial History of Melbourne, tells us that, "[Carr] bought land at the first land sale, and was one of our earliest publicans. His burial was the sixth in this [RC] Division of the Cemetery."
Carr and Bulger were reinterred in Fawkner Cemetery, Section: Old Pioneers, Grave 388.
This image is attributed to Everard Studley Miller who photographed many graves and tombstones in the Old Melbourne Cemetery (established in 1837) in the 1920s as part of a project led by Isaac Selby to record and commemorate all aspects of Melbourne's second cemetery (the first being at Flagstaff Hill). The RHSV holds original glass negatives and albums of the photographs from this project.
One of the many glass slides purchased from retailers or specifically made for illustrated lectures given by Isaac Selby between c. 1930 and c. 1955 to raise money for the Old Pioneers Memorial Fund.
For more information about this image contact Royal Historical Society of Victoria.
MakerMiller, Everard Studley, 1886-1956.
Maker RolePhotographer
Measurements8.2 x 8.2 cm
Period1910-1920
Object TypePhotograph
Subject and Association KeywordsSelby, Isaac, 1859-1956
Subject and Association KeywordsMiller, Everard Studley, 1886-1956.
Subject and Association KeywordsOld Melbourne Cemetery (Melbourne)
Subject and Association KeywordsCarr, Michael, 1803-1839
Subject and Association KeywordsMonuments and memorials
Named CollectionImages collection
Object numberGS-TM-13
Copyright LicenceAll rights reserved