This image titled Ladies’ toboggan race, Kerry and Co, Sydney, Australia, c. 1884-1917 is one of the images from our Tyrrell photographic collection that was posted to the Commons project on Flickr. last week. It has already been viewed 48 times, received 18 tags and two rather interesting comments. One of our contacts has posted a comment suggesting this image is a studio set up and not actually shot in the snow at all.
She says:
Students of Victorian photo art history might find this of interest – this looks suspiciously like a tourist set up studio style photo – they were becoming very popular in the late Victorian era. Clues are: the unruffled hats and tidy bows, neatly turned out fashionable day wear dresses, with lace, women in stays and perhaps even corsets, and not sports clothing. The group shows no signs of exertion, or cold weather sporting. Very similar to other tourist photos using false scene backdrops in studios – EX: families sitting in boats with tropical ocean scene behind them. British Queen Alexandra & daughters made one of that style in late 1880s – Also suspect is the difference in perspective and resolution from the men and buildings in the background in respect to the subjects in the foreground. Wonder if anyone else noticed – Pam Eisenberg, photo archivist – OC Register, Santa Ana, CA
They do look suspiciously composed and together after traveling down a slope on a toboggan. What do you think?
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Since there are no tracks directly in front of the toboggans, you could take it that it may be the starting point of the race, as they could hardly have stopped in a neat line like that, barring the possibility of retouching to remove any tracks in front of the toboggans.
As a point of interest, this photograph also appears as plate 48 in the book Charles Kerry’s Federation Australia by David P. Millar [ David Ell Press, Sydney, 1981 ] and is captioned as this:
” LADIES’ TOBOGGAN RACE Taken near Kiandra, this 1900 photograph shows, left to right, Agnes Eastwood, Ada Pattinson, Philomena Kilfoyle, unknown person, Mary Kilfoyle and Amy Pattinson.”
This caption appears to leave out the person directly behind the lady at far right. That partially concealed person looks to me like a man. If it was a man, perhaps he was positoned there to keep the craft still.
It is worth noting too that all ladies are wearing their large hats, typical of the period which surely would have soon blown off or become dilapidated if held by a hat pin once they set off on toboggans. This lends credance to it being a posed photograph, and not a real race. On the other hand (although I am not a historian of social mores) perhaps since they were being photographed, none wanted to appear bare headed for posterity
Regardless, based on the fact that there are few other photographs of woman in snow sport pursuits from that period, the women are trailblazers – and this would have encouraged other woman into sports.
There’s something else worth knowing about Charles Kerry and snow. In Jack Cato’s 1955 book on the history of photogrpahy in Australia titled The Story Of The Camera In Australia, he writes on page 67, “… his chief contribution was to the development of snow sports in Australia. He was rightly called the Father of Skiing in this country…. Having pioneered Kiandra for snow sports under tremendous difficulties … His inspiration led to the opening up of Kosciusko, to the building of a road, and a hotel. He was made president of the Alpine Club, and the “Kerry Course” is to this day his lasting memorial.”