Author Archive for Kathy Hackett

Faith, fashion, fusion: Susan Carland

Published by Kathy Hackett on May 24, 2012 0 Comments

Susan Carland is a Melbourne-based academic, media spokesperson and an Australian convert to Islam. She is a lecturer and PhD candidate in the Department of Political and Social Enquiry at Monash University, studying the way Muslim women are redefining their leadership roles within their communities. Susan is a regular commentator in the Australian media and has featured on ABC television programs such as Q&A and Compass. She was a presenter and co-founder of Muslim comedy and sketch show, Salam Cafe, with her husband, Waleed Aly. In 2009, Susan was listed as one of the ’500 Most Influential Muslims in the World’. In the same year, she was named as one of the international ‘Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow’ by the UN alliance of civilizations.

This photograph of Susan was taken at the opening of the exhibition, Faith, fashion, fusion: Muslim women’s style in Australia, on Saturday 5th May. Susan stands before her showcase in the exhibition featured alongside other influential Australian Muslim women and designers.

Melanie Pitkin
Assistant Curator,
Curatorial Design & Society

Photography by Marinco Kojdanovski
© All rights reserved

Florence Broadhurst 1920s

Published by Kathy Hackett on May 23, 2012 0 Comments Tags: , , .

This photograph shows Florence Broadhurst, who was to become one of Australia’s best-known designers. The location of the photograph is unknown, but Florence’s hat and dress make it likely to have been taken at some time during the heady days of her youth in the 1920s. She is holding a cane, which may indicate that the photograph was taken during her time as a dancing instructor in Shanghai.

Born into a middle-class family in Mt Perry, Queensland, Florence exhibited musical talent from an early age and performed regularly for family and friends. Later she joined a troupe called The Globe Trotters and, in her early twenties, travelled with them fifteenth month tour of Asia, departing from Brisbane in 1922. Some female impersonators in the group nicknamed the young Queenslander ‘Bobby’ and this became a stage name. After the tour, which included Singapore, Bali and Manchuria, Broadhurst and some other performers returned to Shanghai, the commercial centre of colonial Asia, where ‘Bobby’ opened The Broadhurst Academy.

The Broadhurst Academy Incorporated School of the Arts, a finishing school created to attract clients from the wealthy British and American expatriate communities, was Florence Broadhurt’s first business venture. The Academy offered classes in a range of disciplines including dancing, elocution, deportment and short-story writing.

Florence Broadhurst’s time in Shanghai was brief, a little over twelve months, but she made her mark, endeavouring to have her academy publicised whenever possible.

Today, Broadhurst is best-remembered for her striking wallpaper designs. Some of these designs, along with other photographs from the album that includes this image, can be viewed in the Powerhouse Museum online collection database.

Post by Kathy Hackett, Photo Librarian

Collection, Powerhouse Museum. Photographer unknown. 97/98/1-4/9
No known copyright restrictions

Palmer’s mystery hike #2

Published by Kathy Hackett on May 22, 2012 0 Comments Tags: , , .

This happy crowd were taking part in Palmer’s Mystery Hike No. 2, which was from Valley Heights in the lower Blue Mountains along the old Lapstone Road to Penrith on 10 July 1932. Four trains conveyed approximately 2,000 hikers and some hikers had to catch the ordinary train to the Mountains..

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that more than 2,900 people took part in the hike and that around 2,500 of those were women.

This photograph may have been taken at the start rather than the finish of the hike. The distance covered was 12 miles and many of the hikers had trouble with their feet due to the distance and the hard ground. The ambulance officers in attendance reported a particularly busy day.

In 1932 five mystery hikes around Sydney were organised by the railways, with the department store F.J. Palmer and Sons as the commercial sponsor. Hikers purchased a two-shilling train ticket and joined a train from Central Station to a mystery destination. The hikes, held on Sundays, were enormously popular. The third Mystery Hike from Cowan Station to the Hawkesbury River on 24 July 1932 used 12 trains to carry almost 8,000 participants.

Database reference: Melissa Harper. The Ways of the bushwalker: on foot in Australia. Sydney, UNSW Press, 2007 pp. 179-192 and Canberra Times, 11 July 1932 p.3

Post by Kathy Hackett, Photo Librarian

Photography by Tom Lennon, 94/63/1-57/8
No known copyright restrictions

Poetry in motion: the yacht Sao

Published by Kathy Hackett on May 20, 2012 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

This beautiful yacht was designed by leading British naval architect Dixon Kemp and built by Walter Ford at Berry’s Bay on Sydney Harbour in 1884. It was made from Australian timbers apart from its hatch covers (teak) and spars (American spruce) and was used for both cruising and racing.

The origin of the name Sao for a popular Arnott’s biscuit is a subject of some controversy, but not so with the yacht. It was named after one of fifty Nereides, sea nymphs and protectors of sailors in classical Greek mythology. An earlier yacht made for the same owner, Dr Frederick Milford, was named after the extremely fecund Doris, mother of the Nereides – and a single son, Nerites.

Perhaps the biscuit, first sold in 1906 when sailing was a popular spectator sport, was named after the well-known yacht. After all, the traditional savoury ship’s biscuit had helped Arnott’s grow from a small Newcastle bakery to a large Sydney firm, and the Sao is a savoury biscuit, suitable to eat on a sailing excursion, but much lighter and easier to eat than the ship’s biscuit – which was also called ‘hard tack’.

This photograph was taken by Henry King in 1889 and is included in the Tyrrell Collection of glass plate negatives.

Ref: The Australian Town and Country Journal, January 26, 1884, p.24

Post by Debbie Rudder, Curator
Curatorial Science & Industry

Photography by Henry King, Tyrrell Collection
No known copyright restrictions

Craft Punk: To Dye For #3

Published by Kathy Hackett on May 19, 2012 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

This photo was taken at Craft Punk: To Dye For, a program where participants have the opportunity to ‘get crafty’.

Craft Punk runs 4 times a year, each time there is a different theme. This class was screen printing with Donna Sgro, who was showing how to use here quirky designs and adapt them to up-cycle participants’ favourite garments. The image captures how involved the couple became in the creative process.

Keep an eye out for the next Craft Punk: Cover Your Bits on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 May at the Powerhouse Museum.

Post by Deborah Vaughan
Producer, Contemporary Programs

Photography by Sotha Bourn
© All rights reserved

Faith, fashion, fusion: Randa Abdel-Fattah

Published by Kathy Hackett on May 18, 2012 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

This is Randa Abdel-Fattah. Randa, born in Australia to Palestinian-Egyptian parents, is a lawyer, human rights activist and award-winning author. Raised in Melbourne, but now living in Sydney, Randa attended a Catholic primary school and an Islamic secondary college before studying for an Arts/Law degree at Melbourne University. Her greatest passion is writing and she wrote the draft for her first book, Does My Head Look Big in This? when she was only 15 years old. Written from the perspective of a teenage girl, the novel aims to breakdown common misconceptions of Muslims. Other popular titles by Randa include Ten Things I Hate About Me, Where the Streets Had a Name, Noah’s Law and The Friendship Matchmaker.

This photograph of Randa was taken at the opening of the exhibition, Faith, fashion, fusion: Muslim women’s style in Australia, on Saturday 5th May. Randa stands before her showcase in the exhibition featured alongside other influential Australian Muslim women and designers.

Melanie Pitkin
Assistant Curator,
Curatorial Design & Society

Photography by Marinco Kojdanovski
© All rights reserved

City of the Future exhibition at Royal Agricultural Show, 1947

Published by Kathy Hackett on May 17, 2012 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

This black and white photographic print of a photograph taken by Russell Roberts, shows the Atlantic Union Oil ‘City of the Future’ exhibition at Royal Agricultural Show, Sydney, 1947.

The model city was designed by industrial designer, artist and futurist Charles Frederick Beauvais of the ‘City of the Future’ with Atlantic Union Oil sign. Beauvais’ main area of interest was automobile design and transport systems. In the 1930s, he developed his concept for a ‘Car of the Future’.

It should be no surprise that the City of the Future designed up an industrial designer with a passion for automobile design and transport systems, and sponsored by an oil company, emphasises the car. According to our files, the City of the Future model “was approximately twenty feet long and made from plastic. There were 2000 plastic vehicles, which moved around ten lane highways on rubber conveyer belts.”

A future that includes such emphasis on transport obviously requires fuel, and exhibitors Atlantic Union Oil show their commitment to this on their sign at the rear of the model:

The City of the future
No matter what types or grades of petroleum products are demanded by the transport of the future, ATLANTIC will supply them.
In the world of tomorrow ATLANTA will still be taking great pride in its enviable reputation for always keeping pace with progress.
ATLANTIC UNION OIL COMPANY LIMITED

Does the ‘City of the Future’ ring true for you today? How would you imagine a city built in 2047?

Post by Susan Cairns, Digital Media Services volunteer

Model designed by Frederick Beauvais
Photography by Russell Roberts
© All rights reserved

Faith, fashion, fusion: Mecca Laalaa

Published by Kathy Hackett on May 15, 2012 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

This is Mecca Laalaa, one of the young Australian Muslim women featured in the Faith, fashion, fusion exhibition.

Mecca works as a Health Promotion Officer with the Live Life Well @ Schools and Munch and Move projects, part of the NSW Healthy Children Initiative. Known for her adventurous spirit, Mecca became the first Muslim woman to train as a surf lifesaver not long after the Cronulla riots in 2006 and three years later she walked the gruelling Kokoda Track. In fact, it was the image of Mecca in her red and yellow two piece burqini® surf lifesaving uniform, designed by Ahiida Zanetti, which prompted the idea for this exhibition (you can read more about this here).

This photograph of Mecca was taken at the opening of the exhibition on Saturday 5th May. Mecca stands before her showcase in the exhibition featured alongside other influential Australian Muslim women and designers.

Melanie Pitkin
Assistant Curator,
Curatorial Design & Society

Photography by Marinco Kojdanovski
© All rights reserved

Books: the best thing since sliced bread!

Published by Kathy Hackett on May 14, 2012 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

In this National Year of Reading, it seems appropriate that the Powerhouse Museum would mount a small display celebrating excellence is Australian book design and publishing. Held in conjunction with the 60th anniversary of the Australian Publishers Association’s (APA) annual Book Design Awards (BDA) and the 2012 Sydney Writers Festival, Cover story: 60 years of Australian book design showcases numerous BDA catalogues and over 60 award winning and highly commended books, including a selection of impressive award winning photography books.

The image on the cover of the 1998 BDA catalogue (illustrated above) and the conceptual caption, Books: the best thing since sliced bread! printed on the back cover, metaphorically highlight the relevance and significance of books and reading in everyday life.

The catalogue was designed by Dean Lahn of Lahn Stafford Design, Adelaide in collaboration with conceptual photographer Andrew Dunbar. APA invited Lahn to create the catalogue as he had designed a landmark book titled Body Piercing ( a self initiated project which was also produced in collaboration with photographer Andrew Dunbar), that was awarded both the Joyce Thorpe Nicholson Best Designed Book of the Year award and the Collins Booksellers Best Designed Jacket of the Year award in the 1998 BDA awards.

1998 BDA catalogue reproduced courtesy Australian Publishers Association

Post by Anne-Marie Van de Ven

Design by Dean Lahn
Photography by Andrew Dunbar
© All rights reserved

Cec Morrison

Published by Kathy Hackett on May 13, 2012 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

This photograph from the Tom Lennon Archive shows Cec Morrison, pianist and leader of ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Dance Band. The photograph is dated November, 1933. Tom Lennon was the official photographer for Australian Music Maker and Dance Band News at this time. The photograph may have been used for publicity or for an article about Morrison’s recent world tour.

In this image Lennon has made full use of the piano to place his subject in context and to create a dynamic composition using the diagonal of the piano lid and all of the surrounding angular shapes of the instrument’s interior and the architectural details of the room.

An article in the The Australian Women’s Weekly, published July 15, 1933, reported the impending return of Cec Morrison to Australia after an extensive tour abroad. The Weekly described Morrison as Sydney’s finest exponent of jazz, who, while in New York, received one of the highest honours that could be paid to a visitor when he was invited to by the National Broadcasting Company to broadcast on their network. On his return Morrison planned to introduce a big collection of dance tunes never before heard in Australia and to bring back the latest dance news from England, the continent and America. The article continues:

Early this week a large registered package of nearly a hundred all-English dance compositions formed the first consignment of British music which Mr Morrison has chosen for his Australian listeners. Mr Morrison is making special contracts with music publishers in London for British compositions to be published in Australia, which has hitherto been monopolised by American composers.

Cec Morrison died in 1935, aged only 35, following a car accident in Sydney.

Tom T. Lennon, was a commercial photographer whose studio was at 64 Victoria Road, Drummoyne. The 1796 negatives in the Powerhouse Museum Tom Lennon archive are largely of balls and dinners held in Sydney, but also include weddings, funerals, work events, parties, portraits, pets, fashion, horse races, and various places and events. Many images from the Tom Lennon archive have been posted previously on Photo of the Day.

Photography by Tom Lennon 94/63/1-100/9
No known copyright restrictions