Monthly Archive for October, 2009

The association of bats with Halloween may have originated with the discovery of the vampire bat in the 17th century.

These two taxidermy specimens are Australian flying-foxes, otherwise known as fruit bats. They are mammals, and are members of the Pteropodidae family, found mostly on the eastern coast. Flying foxes are very social animals and often roost in large numbers. A cloud of dark winged creatures travelling across the evening sky is a familiar sight in Sydney when members of the Royal Botanic Gardens’ flying-fox colony venture out from their permanent camp in search of nectar, fruit and pollen in the local area.

There is more about the Australian flying-fox at the Botanic Gardens Trust

Photograph: Australian flying foxes, by Henry King. Tyrrell collection
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Post by Kathy Hackett, Photo Librarian

The Sydney International Exhibition opened the doors of its main building the ‘Garden Palace’ on 17 September 1879. 130 years later the event still represents a milestone in the development of Sydney and over the seven months it was open 1,045,898 visitors that passed through its gates.

The main feature of the Sydney exhibition was an ornate building, the ‘Garden Palace’. This photograph was taken from Macquarie Street looking towards the gates on the western face of the ‘Garden Palace’ exhibition building. The architect James Barnet had designed the east, rather than west, face to be the main frontage. But the grandeur of this building, sketched out in a week, is still evident even from this angle. The exhibitions which first greeted visitors entering from this side were the New South Wales Court, on the left, and the Queensland and New Zealand Courts, on the right.

Photography by Richards & Co; 1879 – 1880
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Post by Geoff Barker, Assistant Curator

This image, showing a group of people holding fish, was taken on the 21st February 1937 on the south coast of New South Wales at a beautiful area known as Lake Conjola (see Google Maps). This lake is located 10 km north of the town Milton and is a very popular holiday destination where the lake opens up to the sea. This is another image from our collection titled Lake Conjola shore that was probably taken slightly further up the lake, plus some others that were taken by the same photographer in this area.

They were shot by Sydney born photographer, Tom Lennon, who operated a commercial and portrait studio at 64 Victoria Road, Drummoyne, NSW during the 1930s and 1940s. We have 1796 negatives in this collection that showcase social scenes in and around Sydney including balls and dinners held in Sydney, but also include weddings, funerals, work events, parties, portraits, pets, fashion and horse races.

Photography by Tom Lennon
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The 80s was such a flamboyant decade with fluro colours, big hair, shoulder pads and asymmetrical designs. It was a decade of excess but perhaps you have a different perspective of this era! Our exhibition The 80s are back , which opens in December, will showcase toys and fads, video games and technology, nightclubs and music, architecture and design trends, current affairs and events.

This behind-the-scenes image was taken during a photographic shoot that we recently undertook for our upcoming exhibition The 80s are back. We were using our photographic studio for and audiovisual shoot for a specific feature in the exhibition.

Photography by Sotha Bourn
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Clothing courtesy of Zoo Emporium

This is one of the many images produced by the Kerry studio for the lucrative postcard trade and a particularly fine example of the combined skills of the 19th century photographer and taxidermist.

Australian flora and fauna was a popular subject matter but the latter could be difficult to photograph in the field. The photography of taxidermy specimens in the controlled environment of the studio allowed for aesthetically pleasing compositions using the lighting and length of exposure necessary to capture the maximum amount of detail. In many of the photographs, such as this one, some of the area around the backdrop is visible; however, once the image was cropped and reduced to postcard size, the birds or animals often looked convincingly life-like. Sometimes techniques like shallow depth of field were used to blur the background and enhance the effect of the creatures being in the wild.

It is not known who created the specimens photographed in the Kerry studio, however, many taxidermists were women, such as Jane Tost, who, in 1864, was employed as a taxidermist at the Australian Museum. Jane later opened a shop in William Street catering to the growing demand for taxidermy from museums, private collectors and for interior decoration. For more on the fascinating story of Jane Tost, see: Australian Dictionary of Biography online.

Photography by Kerry and Co
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Post by Kathy Hackett, Photo Librarian