GS-BCS-25; Parliament House, Spring Street, Melbourne, Victoria c. 1890; Gunn's Slides (Firm); This photograph of Parliament House, which is located on the east side of Spring Street opposite Bourke Street, has been taken looking south from the west side of Spring Street. The photograph captures the shorter north wing of the building and the long west facade, colonnade and steps.
The building was designed in the Neoclassical style by Peter Kerr, who extensively reworked plans drawn up by Charles Pasley, the Colonial Engineer, who commenced construction in 1856. The west facade and colonnade were not completed until 1888, and the north wing was partially completed in 1893.
A hansom cab stands at the curb in the middle foreground. The grounds around Parliament House, designed by Guilfoyle, can be seen in the lower left of the image. Young street trees with their trunks protected line Spring Street in front of the Parliament grounds.
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; Photograph; Images collection
GS-BCS-26; General Post Office, Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, 1901; Cooper, William H. (photographer); This photograph of the General Post Office, which is located on north-east corner of Elizabeth and Bourke streets, has been taken looking north from the south side of Bourke Street.
This is an unusual photograph of the General Post Office, captured at night during a fireworks display celebrating Federation. The building's architectural features are decorated with lights, and illuminated signs reading, ADVANCE FEDERATED AUSTRALIA on the Elizabeth Street facade, and PROSPERITY BE WITH OUR COMMONWEALTH on the Bourke Street facade.
In the foreground a large, mainly male, crowd is gathered in the street, looking towards the building and the fireworks in the night sky.
This image was probably taken during the evening of January 1st, 1901, the day the Commonwealth Constitution Act was proclaimed in Centennial Park, Sydney.
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; 1901; Photograph; Images collection
GS-BCS-37; Interior : John Danks factory, South Melbourne, c. 1920; T.W. Cameron (Company); This photograph has been taken inside one of the John Danks & Sons factory buildings located at Moray Street, South Melbourne. The workers are engaged in a machine engineering process.
John Danks (1828-1902) arrived in Australia with his brothers in 1857 and set up a plumbing business in 1859, which grew into a company supplying and manufacturing a variety of plumbing and engineering products such as brassware, pumps, windmills and bells.
From 1859, the company's first premises were in Bourke Street in the city, but then expanded to Moray Street north, South Melbourne, in the early 1870s. A newspaper report of a visit to the Moray Street factory in 1894 described the "immense capital laid down in materials and premises."
Following John Danks' death in 1902 his son Aaron (1861-1928), later Sir Aaron, led the company.
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; Photograph; Images collection
GS-BCS-38; 'First House in Toorak', c. 1860?; Gunn's Slides (Firm); This image, taken from the street and front-on, is of a single-storey weatherboard house with attic room, front veranda, and corrugated iron, pitched roof. The image also shows windows symmetrically positioned either side of the front door, two chimneys positioned symmetrically either side of the roof, a picket fence and open gate. There are a few plants growing in the small front yard which is paved.
A brick built house with a slate roof can be seen on the left of the image.
Selby has written, 'First House in Toorak', in his thick black pen on the border of the glass slide.
This image is similar to a structure identified as 'site of the first house built in the village of Toorak 'in E.M. Robb, "Early Toorak and District" (1934), p.83 (see GS-EV-58).
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. Selby gave a lecture on "Old Melbourne, Old Prahran and Toorak" at St John's Parish Hall in October 1929.
For more information about this image contact Royal Historical Society of Victoria; Photograph; Images collection
GS-BCS-42; University of Melbourne: Ormond College, c. 1883; Dunscombe Optician Bristol; This photograph of the main entrance wing and tower of Ormond College, located on the northern end of the University of Melbourne campus, has been taken from the north-west, within the college grounds.
There is very little vegetation around the building which welcomed its first students in 1881, and, the south-west wing, which was completed in 1885, does not seem to be present in the photo. These two points suggest that the photograph was taken between these two dates, c. 1883.
The college is named after a very generous benefactor, Francis Ormond, a Western District farmer, parliamentarian and philanthropist, who believed in the transformative power of education.
The architects Reed and Barnes designed the front, south-west and Victoria (1888-9) wings, in the high Victorian Gothic style. The building was constructed using sandstone and cream brick.
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; Photograph; Images collection
GS-BCS-62; Scots' Church, Independent Church, and Burke and Wills Statue, Collins Street, Melbourne, c. 1885; View of the north side of Collins Street, Melbourne, looking west from near the intersection with Exhibition Street.
Shows, looking west, Independent Church, Scots' Church, the Equitable Co-operative Society at 89 Collins Street, and the clock tower of Melbourne Town Hall.
At the bottom left of the image is the back of the statue of Burke and Wills by sculptor Charles Summers (1865). The statue is in its original position in the middle of the intersection of Collins and Russell Streets where it acted as a roundabout. However, an increase in traffic and the laying of tram tracks required that the statue be relocated in 1886.
The town houses on the right of the image are occupied by physician surgeons.
The only vehicle on tree-lined Collins street is a horse-drawn coach heading east in front of the Independent Church.
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.; Glass slide; Images collection
GS-BCS-72; Residence of H. F. Young, "Normanhurst", Brighton Road, St Kilda [Elsternwick], c. 1910; T.W. Cameron (Firm); This photograph is of a large two-storey Late-Victorian Italianate-style house with filigree decoration, surrounded by an ornamental garden including a fountain, small lake and summer house, as seen in the foreground. The house had 12 main rooms and sat on one and three-quarter acres.
"Normanhurst" was located on the west side of Brighton Road, next to and north of the Elsternwick Hotel which still stands on the corner of Glen Huntly Road. It was sold in 1938 for ten thousand pounds. Unfortunately, it has since been demolished and replaced by flats.
The house was built during the 1890s for Henry Figsby Young (1849-1925), the co-owner of the Young & Jackson Hotel, located on the corner of Swanston and Flinders streets. Young decorated his house with a fine collection of pictures and statues.
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.; Glass slide; Images collection
GS-EV-17; Finding the Duff children [basis of 'Lost in the Bush'], c. 1864; Gill, Samuel Thomas, 1818-1880; Glass slide of an illustration that depicts an Aboriginal tracker who famously saved the lives of the Duff children lost in the bush for nine days in 1864. It is a black and white copy of 'The Duff Children (August 20 1864)' and is one of a set of 10 colour lithographs by Samuel Thomas Gill.
This image shows the Duff children in the foreground, sheltered beside a tree in a bushland setting. The Aboriginal tracker is on a horse and has just discovered the children. There is a long pathway from the distant background to the foreground. In the background are several figures who were part of the party in search of the children.
One of 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.
Permission to be obtained for reproduction and publication. For a high resolution copy of this image, contact Royal Historical Society of Victoria; Glass slide; Images collection
GS-EV-63; Bay steamer: SS 'Edina'; T.W. Cameron (Firm); Glass slide that depicts a steam vessel carrying passengers.
The Edina was one of the longest serving screw steam vessels anywhere in the world. Built on the Clyde in 1854 by Barclay, Curle & Co. she was an iron hull single screw steamer of 322 tons with three masts. Edina arrived in Melbourne under sail in March 1863 and was purchased by Stephen Henty for use from ports in western Victoria and later carried gold prospectors across the Tasman to New Zealand. After a refit in 1870 she was used in the coastal trade along the Queensland coast for Howard Smith until returning to Victoria and the Melbourne-Geelong trade as a cargo-passenger vessel. [Source Museum Victorian] Often referred to as the ‘Old Lady of Port Phillip’, was finally broken up by George Seelf on the banks of the Maribyrnong in 1957.
One of 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.
Permission to be obtained for reproduction and publication. For a high resolution copy of this image, contact Royal Historical Society of Victoria ; Glass slide; Images collection
GS-EV-76; Liardet's Beach, wharf and buildings, Port Melbourne, c. 1850; T.W. Cameron (Firm); Glass slide of a watercolour by Liardet that depicts the buildings and wharf on Liardet's Beach in Sandridge.
In 1839, four years after the first permanent European settlement of Melbourne, Wilbraham Liardet settled at Port Melbourne, building a hotel and jetty on Hobsons Bay and operating a mail service to Melbourne. Many new migrants chose to disembark at Sandridge rather than in the Yarra.
There are vessels on the water, in the forefront. In the background are several buildings, wharf, trees and sky. There are three-horse drawn carriages on the water's edge, and a small group of aboriginals on the beach.
Published in: Liardet's water-colours of early Melbourne.
One of 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.
Permission to be obtained for reproduction and publication. For a high resolution copy of this image, contact Royal Historical Society of Victoria ; Glass slide; Images collection
GS-IT-69; Wedding of Charles Kingsford Smith to Mary Powell, December 1930; Gunn's Slides (Firm); Charles Kingsford Smith, the famous Australian aviator, married Mary Powell at Scots Church in Melbourne on the 10th December, 1930.
Kingsford-Smith first met Mary Powell aboard ship in late 1929 on a voyage from the US to Australia. She was the daughter of a Melbourne businessman and was engaged to Kingsford Smith before the end of the year. Kingsford Smith's first marriage to Thelma Corby had ended in an acrimonious divorce early in 1929. Because of this the Church of England would not marry him and so the wedding took place at the Presbyterian Scots Church.
The best man was Kingsford Smith's friend and fellow aviator Charles Ulm. The wedding was the society event of the year and attracted over 10,000 spectators, disrupting traffic in Melbourne's Collins Street for hours.
One of the many 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.
This image is provided for research purposes and must not be reproduced without prior permission.For a high resolution copy of this image, contact Royal Historical Society of Victoria; 1930; Glass slide; Images collection