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Photo 1145(3)

Record Id:

040-003182387

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-003182384

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100026599951.0x0012e0

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Photo 1145(3)

Title:

Interior of Free Library, Melbourne. Photographer: Johnson, Barnett

Scope & Content:

Inscription: Inscribed ‘Free Library Melbourne’ in ink on a bleached-out portion of the print.

Genre: Architectural Photography

View looking along the Queen’s Reading Room of the Melbourne Public Library, with readers seated along the main table and posed beside the two large globes. The view was taken shortly before the opening of the reading room on 24 May 1859. A very similar photograph, clearly taken on the same occasion from exactly the same camera position and inscribed in the same hand, is reproduced in Alan Davies and Peter Stanbury, ‘The Mechanical Eye in Australia’ (Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1985), p. 37. The accompanying description records the taking of the photograph. It is also stated that the photograph was the basis of an illustration in the ‘Illustrated London News’ of 28 April 1860, ‘the engraver adding more people to the scene, removing the clutter of chairs, and placing shades on the closest gas light.’ In fact, it is clearly this photograph that was used as the basis for the engraving, rather than the one reproduced by Davies and Stanbury.

Collection Area:

Visual Arts

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-003182384
040-003182387

Is part of:

Photo 1145 : Photographic Views of Australia. Photographer(s): Johnson, Barnett

Photo 1145(3) : Interior of Free Library, Melbourne. Photographer: Johnson, Barnett

Hierarchy:

032-003182384[0003]/040-003182387

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Photo 1145

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 item

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Not applicable

Scripts:

Not applicable

Techniques:

Albumen Print
Photograph
Photographic Print
Silver Printing-Out Paper Print

Start Date:

1859

End Date:

1859

Date Range:

1859

Era:

Access:

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