Monthly Archive for October, 2008

Portrait of an articulated skeleton on a bentwood chair

Published by imageservices on October 31, 2008 0 Comments

Seeing as today is the 31st of October, otherwise known as Halloween, we thought we it would be appropriate to blog this unusual image that we recently came across whilst scanning glass plate negatives. According to Wikipedia the internationally celebrated Halloween started in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain which was at the end of the harvest season.

Halloween conjures up images of skeletons, black cats, ghosts, witches, spiders and anything ghoulish really. Will you be trick-or-treating with the kids, having a costume party or making a pumpkin glow? If so you might want to check out Play at Powerhouse for details on how to make a witches hat.

Photographer unknown
No known copyright restrictions.

Town Hall, Ashfield

Published by imageservices on October 30, 2008 0 Comments

This image showing Ashfield Town Hall was taken c. 1884-1917and shows the Town Hall with several groups of people gathered at the front of the building including men on bicycles, horse and carriages and a group of women wearing large hats, although slightly blurry. There is also a telegraph pole with an enormous amount of wires on it.

According to Ashfield Municipal Council the area started to change from a village after the railway station was introduced in 1855. In 1871 it changed to a Municipality titled “Borough of Ashfield” with the first Council meeting held on February 15 1872.

We have just loaded a few images from the Tyrrell photographic collection to the Commons project on Flickr from the Ashfield area and you can see these in our Ashfield set.

Photography by Kerry and Co, Sydney, Australia, c. 1884-1917.
No known copyright restrictions

Racing

Published by imageservices on October 29, 2008 0 Comments

This is a composite of two images shot for the photographic immersive that we have on at the moment in our Modern Times exhibition. Jean-Francois went to Brisbane to photograph the Centenary Pool Centre to feature in the immersive. He hired an underwater housing for a digital SLR and spent a couple of days at the pool photographing people swimming and the amazing space-age architecture. This pool was designed by the City Architect James Birrell and was constructed in 1959. You can read more about its history on the Environmental Protection Agency Queensland Government website.

File #00z29064

Photography by Jean-Francois Lanzarone.
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0

Spraying Loco 3830

Published by imageservices on October 28, 2008 0 Comments

This image shows the spray painting of Loco 3830 at the Eveleigh Railway workshop in Redfern, NSW. This locomotive was purchased in 1988 and restoration began in August 1992, which was jointly undertaken by the Museum and 3801 Limited, operators of steam locomotive 3801. This train made a trip in September to the Blue Mountains for a heritage train trip from Central Station to the Zig Zag Railway at Lithgow carrying 300 passengers. We had two photographers documenting that journey and I will post some of the images soon. There is more information on this train on our collection search.

File #00700154

Photography by Scott Donkin
© All rights reserved

Parking under the opera house

Published by imageservices on October 27, 2008 0 Comments

This really interesting image has been taken from one of the members of our Modern Times group on Flickr. I love the lighting in this shot highlighting the expansive, concrete ribbed roof of the Sydney Opera House car park. This is a great example of modernism in Australia from a contemporary perspective. You can check out more of this photographers work at his website: Tim Bayman or at his doublebug Flickr photostream.

Photograph by doublebug.
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

Mosman in 1880

Published by imageservices on October 26, 2008 0 Comments

This image shows Mosman taken in 1880 and comes from the Tyrrell photographic collection. It is not fully catalogued so this is all the information we have regarding this image. If you know more about the history of this image please let us know. If you are interested in the area then you may like to check out the Mosman Festival that is currently on at the moment. This 10-day festival aims to encourage community spirit and pride in the area. Also if you are passionate about photography you may want to see the photographic competition exhibition that the festival is running, this was judged by Stills Curator Sandy Edwards. See the Mosman Festival photo group on Flickr for more details.

Photography by Kerry and Co, Sydney, Australia, c. 1884-1917
No known copyright restrictions

William Street at night

Published by Paula Bray on October 25, 2008 0 Comments

This great image was taken by the photographer David Mist in 1969. David photographed this originally for the publication, ‘Sydney, A Book of Photographs’. I am going to post a new image of David’s work over the following weeks to highlight some of his amazing work that is in our collection. This image shows William Street in Sydney photographed on a wet night back in the late 60s. David worked as a photographer from the late 60s onwards and captured some great moments of Australian life. You can see more of David’s photographs that are currently on view at the Museum of Sydney exhibition ‘David Mist: Swinging Sydney’.

Photography by David Mist
© All rights reserved

Coogee Beach

Published by imageservices on October 24, 2008 0 Comments

We have added this gorgeous image of Coogee beach, taken some time between 1884-1917, to the Commons project on Flickr this week. If you go to the all sizes page you can clearly see just how many people are actually on the beach, around the headland and along the promenade. I wonder if this was a typical day at the beach or if there was something special on that day. There is no one in the water but many of the children have taken their shoes off, rolled up their pants and are paddling in the water.

This is a reproduction of one of 7903 glass plate negatives that make up the Tyrrell Photographic collection. We add 25 of these images each week to the Commons project on Flickr.

Photography by Kerry and Co, Sydney, Australia, c. 1884-1917
No known Copyright restrictions

Deserted general store

Published by imageservices on October 23, 2008 0 Comments

Jean-Francois took this image showing a store constructed during the Cultural Revolution within Ming Dynasty fortress and local residents on their motorbikes when he spent a month photographing China for an exhibition. He recalls

“We were real strangers in DeShengBao in the Xinrong suburb next to Datong in China and we could feel it. The inhabitants of the village have used the bricks of the Ming Dynasty fortress that surrounds the village to build their own houses and protect their family, far away from the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. None of the villagers came up to us and were probably wondering why we were taking all these photos except two work experience teachers at the local school. As we were walking with them in the village two local residents on a motorbike turned right in front of the deserted general store constructed during the Cultural Revolution and rode through the “Baozhang Gate” to get out of the village.”

File #00×03783

Photography by Jean-Francois Lanzarone
© All rights reserved

Stud ewes

Published by imageservices on October 22, 2008 0 Comments

This image of stud ewes is from the Tyrrell photographic collection. Having not seen this type of fleece on sheep before I thought it would be good to post to show the unusual, highly folded skin and dense fleece that is typical of these American Vermont sheep. Apparently this type of sheep was brought in to increase the wool yield but ended up reducing the fineness of many flocks and breeders realised that the heavy fleeces were coarser and smaller in weight after washing.

Two of our Curators are speaking about the rise of the Australian Merino and the wool collection we have here at the Museum at our Talks After Noon event today on level 2 at 12.30pm. They will be discussing the good and bad decisions that influenced the development of the Australian Merino in the 1800s.

Photography by Kerry and Co, Sydney, Australia, c. 1884-1917.
No known Copyright restrictions