‘At the Frontier’ 2011 Museums Australia Conference

This year the Museum Australia Conference provided me with an opportunity to catch up on what’s been going on in the sector but also to visit Perth for the first time. The conference name was inspired in part by Perth being one of the most isolated cities in the world but I didn't realise how isolated it was until I realised the trip to Perth was longer than the flight to Wellington. Travelling by day over Western Australia much of the time was taken up looking out the window at the huge tracts of empty country. Every now and again however we could see signs of human habitation like the straight lines of the roads and pits of the odd mining or farming operations like this one.

The conference itself was in the new State theatre located in the cities cultural hub which consisted of the W.A. Museum, the State Library, art galleries and the University of Technology. All of this equalled a nice range of good coffee and pubs for after conference activities within walking distance of the conference. The first keynotes started on the Tuesday morning with a wonderful welcome directed by Trevor Walley on behalf of the Noongarpeoples.

There followed a series of key note talks. The first of which was by John Holden from City University London who as a member of the UK Cultural Think Tank DEMOS, talked about cultural leadership and highlighted some of the challenges facing museums in the way they deliver content. Holden suggested that before 1995 it was a small social group who mainly enjoyed the art and museums and that this group defined the cultural products these institutions produced as being superior to other cultural products. To exist this elite could not rely on commercial models to get enough people through the doors and relied heavily on government support.

On the other side of the coin Holden placed Pop Culture, music, car shows, film etc which could survive as commercial entities. In fact he suggested that this the elite felt adoption of pop culture forms actually dumbed down culture approved for heritage institutions. However both high and pop models shared something in common and that was their reliance on gatekeepers to only open the doors to approved forms of art (it fact it all sounds very like curatorial models once in place in many museums). The example Holden used was pop music controlled and marketed by an elite in much the same way as Art galleries controlled the art business.

1995, according to Holden, marked a turning point after which a third culture, consisting of home-made music, amateur theatre and choirs, and craft,s began to take up a life of their own and their products increasingly started to infiltrate the cultural sector. Leadership has been forced to acknowledge this new wave and increasingly this has seen the boundaries between high, pop and home-made works become blurred. People increasingly can make their own judgements on what they like, while technology has put the means of producing work into the hands of more people than ever before.

As a result Holden believes cultural institutions and leadership must encourage the home grown and regional as much as the urban and elite.

Another highlight was the upfront and forthright talk by Kylie Winkworth and Alison Russell. I was surprised at Winkworth's claim that Australia had more museums per head than any other country in the world, 1 museum for every 7,500 people, but she went on to explain how many of these were small privately run affairs spread across the length and breadth of an already scarcely populated country. Winkworth and Russell's questioning of the sustainability of this sector given this large numberwas posited in relation to the kinds of standards expected of professional in the sector. She suggested that perhaps a 'diet' was required to ensure the funding was not so dispersed. But as she has pointed out elsewhere ... “Museum-making in regional Australia is based on a deep attachment to place and it is an expression of community self-belief. It is not just about celebrating the achievements of the past, but believing in the future.” 

I wasn't sure how I felt about this but after managing the Collections Australia Network over the past year I feel that perhaps it would be best not to tamper too much with the current arrangement. I say this mainly because I feel that anyone who wants to start a museum, historical society, gallery or heritage home should not be constrained by too many barriers. I understand that this does lead to a certain amount of inconstancy across the sector but at the same time this the egalitarian approach also allows for many different approaches and we are never going to be able to preserve everything to the standards and protocols set by large professional institutions. However this questioning talk stimulated a vigorous set of questions and was I think one of the more thought provoking sessions of the conference.

This talk was followed up neatly by Laura Miles who outlined Museums Australia's accreditation guidelines and how this could help direct funding once adopted by smaller to middle sized museums. Laura also pointed out how these could be used in conjunction with the newly released MA National standards committee, Museum standards. National Accreditation schemes can also be seen at UK Accreditation and American Association of Museum Accreditation

Sometime at a conference you serendipitously watch a talk which gives you a surprising insight into the museum sector. This was certainly the case with Andy Greenwood's excellent talk on managing the costs of life planning for exhibition technology. Andy talked about his work at Museums Victoria in developing databases outlining the electrical and replacement costs associated with the various lighting environments associated with exhibitions. To do this Andy metered power consumption over the lifespan of various lights and other technologies and entered all of this info into a database. This has enabled the Museum to now factor all these costs into the exhibition development process. I couldn't help but think how useful it would be if Andy made this data available to others in the industry? When asked about LED lighting Greenwood felt the industry was not developed enough to replace traditional lighting methods mainly due to the inconsistency in the production. One of the other areas I thought may be good for a follow up was the use of smart sensors embedded into the infrastructure of the museum to monitor electricity and redundancy – not sure how much take up there has been of this in museum due to costs but certainly got me thinking.

Another inspirational presentation was Peta Knott's talk on the new Victorian Collections a new database currently in beta which will allow users to upload their collection data into a shared online database. This software was developed on the back of what used to be Collectish which was managed by Museums Victoria. This new use of the project seems like a great modification and comes with the added bonus of Peta who is able to travel and offer assistance in getting started with the software.

I enjoyed the addition on the stage of some of the art work of cloth and other material draped over ladders and chairs and it provided the perfect backdrop for Susan Cross's talk on how stories can be used to bridge experiences. Susans was an excellent raconteur and perhaps because of this my notes are a little sketchy but the main points about making content were as follows:

• Characters are key to engagement but you also need a cracking beginning and end
• Use language carefully to vary the pace and uses pauses to create a tone for the story or the character.
• The contagious nature of stories is the silver bullet of interpretation. Without repetition and discussion the value of the story is reduced.
• Storytellers need to watch their audience and respond to feedback to develop stories that work.
• “interpretelling” you need to respect and have command of the content if you don't, don't tell your story.l

The session I was in on Thursday was great fun and rather than write another summary its probably easier to visit Stephanie Rosestone's blog post which does a great job already, in fact she has done a great job on posting for the four days and I would suggest looking at all of Stephanie's conference posts. However I would like to add that during the question time I was interested to note how the three presenters, Michael Harvey (Australian Museum) Michelle Stevenson (Museum Victoria) and myself (Powerhouse Museum) all had adopted quite different approaches to the use of social media based on the guidelines of each of the institution.

Lastly I would just like to add how inspired I was by the final keynote presentation This was Professor Peter Read's paper on Museums and National Reconciliation which looked at state crime and state punishment in Chile and Australia. I was particularly taken with his descriptions of how people had occupied and claimed ownership of the torture houses in the centre of the city in the wake of the dictator's removal and then how the state had then inserted its more sanitised and and euphemistic versions of the role of these houses once they were turned into museums. It was a timely reminder, especially in the wake of John Holden's talk on the need for museums to accept, and participate more, with more home-made product from the broader community and also loosen some of the constraints on content producers employed in museums to personify their own products.

My flight back was the red-eye which left at 11.00pm on Friday so I had an opportunity to have a bit of a look around Perth before getting on the oversight and arriving back in Sydney at 6.00 am the next day to a very quiet and slow Saturday at home. Finally - to all the organisers and volunteers who were so welcoming and so happy to assist – THANK YOU 

George Bell, Kerry and Co. Photographer

George Bell, Australian Journal of Photography, 1908

The photographer George Bell was employed by Kerry and Company in 1890, and the work he produced over the following ten years, stands amongst the best of this period. Bell's pictures transcended hackneyed journalistic records of people and places, and his best photos, contain a lyrical quality, at odds with the demands of journalistic realism. His main strength was his ability gain the confidence of his subjects and click the shutter at just the right moment to slice a moment out of time, and successfully capture a story. Initially these focussed mainly on life in rural Australia and some of his photographs were so successful they defined Australian outback mythology in the eyes of many of his contemporaries. 

Unfortunately Bell's photographs have, in some ways, fallen victim to their own success. Published in numerous magazines, articles and turned into postcards in the early 1900s, they became iconic images of Australian life and carved themselves into the nation's consciousness in the wake of Federation in 1901. Many now appear to be overly sentimental or even clichéd, but they are still beautifully composed and considered images, the best of which tell heir story eloquently.

Born in Cornwall, England, Bell found his love of travel and of photography while working as a surveyor for the Victorian Government Engineers. One of his first professional ventures with the camera came in 1890. This was the year he was commissioned as photographer on the Victory expedition to New Guinea, sponsored by the New South Wales Government and the Burns Philp company. Upon his return he was employed by Charles Kerry who immediately set about instructing him in the finer points of landscape photography. This was completed quickly and Bell was soon dispatched, with a carefully worked-out map, to photograph rural New South Wales. 

Between 1890 and 1900 Bell, not only honed his craft, he produced many of his most memorable images. Among the best of these are 'Pioneers', 'On the Road to Dorrigo', 'The Farmers Daughter', 'Rounding Up', and perhaps his best known, 'The Waterbag' or 'Halt for refreshment'. 

In 1900 he left Kerry's studio, taking up a position as photo-journalist at the Sydney Mail newspaper. When interviewed in 1908 Bell was still at the top of his game and able to combine the high volumes demanded of him as a photo-journalist without compromising the quality of his images. Only a few of the photographs in this selection have been positively identified George Bell's work, but given their style, and subject matter, it is likely many others were taken by him.

Geoff Barker, 2011

References
David, Millar, Charles Kerry's Federation Australia, Sydney, David Ell Press, 1981
Valdon, 'Our Artistic Workers; Mr. George Bell', Australian Photographic Journal, Volume 17, Number 199, December 21, 1908

Electric Clocks at the Sydney Observatory

Clocks are basically instruments which maintain and measure oscillations to determine time. Early clocks measured the movement of a pendulum whose energy was allowed to escape through the appropriately named escapment. This allowed wheels to record the rate set by the pendulum through the hands on the clocks face. 

The efficiency of these devices was measured by the degree with which the pendulum could swing unhindered by the devices attached to it as well as by reducing the effects of temperature and pressure changes. 

By the 1700s observatories had adopted pendulums 994 millimetres in length as these beat at one second intervals. As clocks evolved mercury and other metals were used to make pendulums which were less affected by heat and this improved their accuracy. 

The next major change in the development in observatory clocks was the introduction of electrically driven mechanisms. Early experimental work was done by Alexander Bain in the 1840s but it was probably the installation of Charles Shepard's clocks at the 1851 Great Exhibition and at Greenwich Observatory that marked the electric clocks first real success. These early clocks used pendulums to drive the clock but the electrical current allowed other clocks and time balls to be synchronised with its beats. 

In 1891 a German, Dr. Siegmund Reifler introduced a new form of escapment which freed the pendulum from the clocks mechanism. These pendulums could be mounted in vacuum cylinders and their motions controlled and recorded using an electrical current which then powered 'slave' clocks. 

In 1895 Hope-Jones and Bowell patented their first gravity impulse transmitters. Two years later they founded the Synchronome Company which began making electric clocks which were sold throughout Britain and the Colonies. 

In the following decades a number of other electrical innovations challenged the Synchronome clock place in the British market. These included the 'Standard Time Company's' transmitters, the 'Pulsynetic' system and the 'Lowne' primary spring system. 

In 1921 Mr. W. H. Shortt, who had worked closely with Hope-Jones, patented a new clock which allowed two pendulums to swing in precise sympathy. These took the load of the slave clock away from the master clock and were initiated by the master clock. These electric clocks, often referred to as 'Shortt clocks', brought a new level of accuracy to the world of timekeeping. From1925 Shortt clocks set the benchmark for electrical clock and they were installed in observatories, government departments and commercial businesses around the world. 

References
Stevenson, Roger, 'Mechanical and Electrical Clocks at Greenwich', appendix three in Howse, Derek, 'Greenwich Time and the Discovery of Longitutde', Oxford University Press, Oxford, England, 1980
-Jones, F., 'Observatory Time Installations', The Synchronome Company, London, 1925?
Haswell, J. E., 'Horology', The Empire Press, Norwich, 1947

Early Photographs of Sydney by William Hetzer

George St, Sydney, photo by William Hetzer, 1858-1863, original held by Powerhouse Museum 




The first two photographic processes were the daguerreotype (which created a positive image on a silver plate) and the calotype (which created a paper negative). Both became commercially available in 1839 but ufortunately the small population, patent restrictions and uncertainty about their permanence limited photography's use in Australia before the 1850s. 

The daguerreotype was certainly the more successful of the two processes, and was the one adopted by Australia's first commercial photographer, George Baron Goodman, who arrived in 1842. The calotype on the other hand found more general use among gentlemen amateurs in England when its inventor William Henry Fox-Talbot relaxed his patents to allow non-commercial use of the process. As a result the process became more viable and one of the first commercial photographers to use the process in Australia was William Hetzer. 

Hetzer, a German immigrant, arrived in Sydney, with his wife, in 1850, where they immediately set up a photographic studio at 15 Hunter Street. Hetzer did not just specialise in calotypes and, as new collodion based positive/negative processes, like the ambrotype and albumen prints, appeared in the early 1850s he embraced these as well. His wife Thekla apparently assisted William in his studio and for this reason can possibly lay claim to being the first woman photographer in Australia, although no work credited to her survives. In addition to building up his photographic studio Hetzer taught amateur photographers new photographic processes and printed their negatives for them. 

In 1858 Hetzer embarked on what is now his best known enterprise, the publication of a set of 36 albumen prints taken with a stereo-view camera. The stereoscopic camera had become commercially available in 1855 and had revolutionized the speed with which outdoor photographs could be taken. Their uniform size also meant people could collect sets of views and this led to the setting up of publishing houses to reproduce views for sale at home and abroad. 

Hetzer's views of Sydney - "... its harbour, principal buildings, streets and neighbouring scenery, &c." were among the earliest outdoor photographs taken in Sydney and were certainly more extensive than others produced before 1858. The first set appears to have done well and Hetzer produced more sets of stereo-views of Sydney and its harbour, right up until 1863. 

The twenty five photographs in the Powerhouse Museum collections are of well known building such as St James Church, St Patrick's Church, Government House, The Exchange, George St, but also include a wide range of scenic views from the North Shore to Penrith in the Western suburbs. It is important to note however, that the wide range in the quality of the images makes it is almost certain that Hetzer, like many other publishers of views, used amateur negatives was well as his own. 

On 22 December 1859, the Sydney Morning Herald published an article on the first photographic exhibition held by the Philosophical Society of New South Wales. This society, of which Hetzer was a member, was modeled on the Royal Society of London and its show at the Australian Subscription Library displayed 1013 photographs. Of these 703 were stereo photographs, and of 268 were Australian stereo views contributed by society members Joseph Docker, Robert Hunt, Arthur Onslow, Jenner Plomley, Professor John Smith, William Stanley Jevons, Mathew Fortescue Moresby, E. W. Ward, Edward Dalton and William Hetzer. Of these Dalton and Hetzer were the only professional photographers; the others were all amateurs. 

By this time Hetzer was a well respected member of Sydney's artistic and scientific community. In addition to exhibiting his works with the Royal Society of New South Wales he was also awarded an honourable mention for his studies of trees at the 1861 Sydney Exhibition. This was held in preparation for the 1862 London International Exhibition, to which Hetzer also sent a huge 116 x 60.9 composite portrait of the 23 officers of the Sydney Provincial Grand Lodge of Freemasons.

It is unsure what happened to cause Hetzer to decide to leave Australia but in March 1867 the Sydney Morning Herald announced the auction of Hetzer's studio at 287 George Street. This included his photographic equipment and about 3500 registered negatives, all of which were purchased by the photographer Joseph Degotardi. Hetzer and Thekla, returned to England in the same year ending their 17 year adventure in the colonies, and luckily for us, leaving behind a fascinating collection of early Sydney views.

by Geoff Barker

References
Davies, Alan and Stanbury, Peter, The Mechanical Eye in Australia; photography 1841 - 1900, Oxford University Press, New Zealand, 1986
Leibovic, Joseph, Masterpieces of Australian Photography, auction catalogue, Joesph Leibovic Gallery, Paddington, Australia, 1989 
Newton, Gael, Shades of Light; photography and Australia 1839-1988, Australian National Gallery, 1888

Chronometers

The invention of a marine clock (chronometer) which could be used to accurately measure longitude was arguably the most significant development in maritime navigation in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Before their invention ships had great difficulty finding their way from one port to another. Fog, bad weather, and inaccurate charts made navigation, when no land was in sight, both dangerous and time consuming.

Latitude and longitude can be thought of in the same way as the index of a city street map with the latitude being north/south and the longitude being east/west co-ordinates. Once both are known a position can be accurately pinpointed. 

While latitude could be found by observing the position of stars longitude proved far more difficult to find. In fact an accurate means of finding an east/west position baffled navigators until 1759 when the clocks made by the Englishman John Harrison were finally acknowledged as being accurate enough to keep time at sea. 

In 1714 the English government had set up the 'Board of Longitude' to oversee the distribution of the enormous sum of 20,000 pounds to anyone who could devise a way of a measuring longitude. By the middle of the century two methods had emerged as the likely claimants for the money. The first of these, supported by the English astronomer Maskelyne, was based on observing the lunar distances of the moon to measure a vessels longitude at sea. 

The second was far simpler in theory but required an extremely accurate timekeeping device. This method, which would eventually win Harrison the prize, required setting a clock's time at a point of known longitude and keeping this time accurately during the corse of a voyage. This time could then be compared to the local time aboard the vessel and the longitude was then computed from this information. 

Harrison was awarded the prize money in 1773 after he completed five prototypes which were tested and found to be accurate enough to be used to find a ship's longitude. One of the conditions of the prize was that Harrison submit his prototypes to the examination of three other clockmakers selected by the Board of Longitude. As a result the Board of Longitude commissioned Larcum Kendall to make a copy of Harrison's fourth prototype, H.4, and it was this chronometer that was used by Captain James Cook on his second and third voyages to the South Pacific. 

From this period on navies and private shipping companies around the world began to purchase chronometers for their vessels. In England the best of them were submitted to the Board of Longitude and later the Royal Greenwich Observatory where they were tested and awarded prizes for their accuracy. The winners were then acquired by the Royal Navy, like Earnshaw's 520, part of the Powerhouse Museum Collection, which travelled with Matthew Flinders, were essential to the success of many historic voyages. 

The industry of which surrounded the making of chronometers lasted around 150 years before the use of radio time-signals in the 1920s essentially made them redundant. The chronometer became technically mature around the 1820s which was early in its development and this combined with their extreme durability meant many were in use for 50 to 60 years. In one example cited by Alun Davies a chronometer first used on board HMS Victory in 1796 was still being used in 1906. 

Aside from their extreme durability the failure of the British chronometer industry to modernise its methods of manufacture also played a part in the industry's decline. Most watchmaking companies, including Mudge, Earnshaw, Dent and Arnold, used hand crafted parts made in places like Prescott and Christchurch which were then finished in Clerkenwell. The maker whose name is on the instrument typically organised for the parts to be brought together and supervised the final stages of its construction such as 'springing' or adjusting the mechanism. By 1820 the British firms of Earnshaw and Dent as well as the French firm of Barraud used this system to produce chronometers in batches and dominated the industry. 

By the end of the nineteenth century a downturn in demand led to a decrease in the number of firms making chronometers. Of these the chronometer makers Mercer and Kullberg dominated the industry while a number of small independent makers modified basic models provided by these two large firms. In a move that sometimes makes attribution confusing these smaller firms often put their own names on the finished chronometer. To justify this they sometimes added a special feature of their own before putting their name on an instrument supplied by a larger firm. That this was no small part of the industry can be seen in the example of Mercer who in the 1890s supplied chronometers to over 150 nautical opticians. 

A final flurry of activity followed during the First World War but at the finish of the conflict the Admiralty found itself overstocked with chronometers. Outstanding orders were cancelled along with the Greenwich chronometer trials. Some makers like Mercer diversified into other branches of engineering but many simply disappeared. The introduction of the radio-transmission of time-signals in 1924 effectively sounded the death knell of the mechanical chronometer in Britain. Even so they are still recognised for the quality with which they were constructed and the important place they hold in development of Colonial enterprises across the globe. 

References
Davies, Alun, 'The Rise and decline of Chronometer Manufacturing', Antiquarian Horology, Number 3, Volume 12, 1980
Gould, Rupert, T., 'John Harrison and His Timekeepers', monograph reprinted from The Mariner's Mirror, Quarterly Journal of the Society for Nautical Research, Great Britain, 1935 
Howse, Derek, Greenwich Time and the Discovery of the Longitude, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1980
May, W. E., A History of Marine Navigation, G. T. Foulis & Company Limited, Oxfordshire, 1973
Tooth, Thomas, It was All a Matter of Time, Thomas Tooth, Katoomba, New South Wales, 1993

Australian Eclipse expedition to Wollal 1922

On the 21 September 1922 an eclipse of the sun passed across the centre of Australia providing optimum conditions for observations. 

The scientific community used this opportunity to confirm Einstein's prediction that light passing the sun would be bent by gravity, by 1.76 seconds of arc. As a result a number of eclipse expeditions made their way to Australia in August 1922. The largest group of observers were based at a remote post and telegraph station at Wollal, in Western Australia. 

Here there were three international parties, the Lick Observatory party, under the direction of W. W. Campbell, a group from the University of Toronto, under C. A. Chant and the Indian expedition supervised by J. Evershed. In addition Australia provided a fourth group from the Perth Observatory. They were directed Mr. Nossiter and included Mr. Nunn, Mr. Matthews, Mr. Dwyer and Mr. Yates. 

Two vessels were used for the last part of the journey from Broome to Wollal. While most of the equipment and men were stowed aboard the 80 ton schooner Gwendolen the rest of the group were guests on board the steamer Governor Musgrave which towed the smaller vessel to her destination. 

The unloading of stores was supervised by the Australian naval party accompanying them and supervised by Commander Quick. The shallow nature of the approach to Wollal meant the boats were anchored three or for miles from the high-water line and stores were transported by the donkey wagons seen in this picture. This activity took three days to finish being finally completed on September 1. 

The success of the Wollal expedition was confirmed in May 1923, "… as a result of the observations secured last September, together with the two previous confirmations from the 1919 eclipse, leave little room for doubting that the deflection deduced from Einstein's theory is the correct one." H. Spencer Jones, Greenwich Observatory. 

References
Campbell, W. W., 'The Total Eclipse of the Sun, September 21, 1922', Astronomical Society of the Pacific, provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System, May 2008
Evershed, J., 'Report of the Indian Eclipse Expedition to Wollal, West Australia', Kodaikanal Observatory, Bulletin, number LXI
Spencer Jones, H., 'The Total Solar Eclipse of 1922 September 21', The Observatory, May 1923

Freeman Brothers Sydney Large Format Collodion Negatives

Reverend W. B. Clarke, from collodion negative, Freeman Brothers Studio, 1871-1875,Powerhouse Museum, H8504-1 



Over the last couple of months I have been working on a previously uncatalogued collection of large format, 50.8 cm x 44.5 cm, glass plate negatives donated to the Powerhouse Museum in 1969. The 28 collodion portraits were found in a chest in our stores at Castle Hill and have been identified as all being originally taken by the Freeman Borthers Studio here in Sydney. We are currently conserving and cataloguing the photographs but hope to be posting them onto flickr commons by the end of the year for researchers to use.
 
The Freeman Brother Studio lays claim to being the longest running studio in Australia. It was established as the ‘Freeman Brothers and Wheeler’ by William Freeman and his brother James in George Street
in 1854; it was still running nearly 150 years later. James was the more experienced of the two having worked in Richard Beard’s gallery in Bath before coming to Australia and was certainly instrumental in the success with which they plied their trade in Sydney.[1]

One of the keys to their success was their continual upgrading of equipment and premises to deliver the latest techniques. As a result they attracted the cultural elite of Sydney to their studios where they were photographed using the techniques of the day. Thus surviving examples can be found as daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, collodion glass plates, flexible sheet negatives all of which were then used to make albumen, gelatin and platinum prints on card, glass, and paper.

In 1864 the brothers undertook a major renovation of their studio which opened to the public in January 1865. Here they claimed … the most artistic arrangements in the distribution of light and shadow have been effected in their Gallery. In carrying out these alterations, Messrs. Freeman Brothers have availed themselves of the very best and latest improvement in the construction of a Photographic Studio, which have been forwarded them from home, "and which they have adapted to the requirements of ' the climate according to the dictates of their experience. By a simple and beautiful arrangement, any kind of light can be thrown on the sitter, to suit the varieties or dress or complexion, so that the sunniest effects of a Lawrence or a Reynolds can be obtained, varying down to the most somber and effective tones of a Rembrandt. These remarks Messrs. Freeman wish apply to all the varieties of Photographic Portraiture, from the largest style adapted to Photography down to the universally popular Carte de Visite. While announcing the above important improvements, Messrs. Freeman wish to recall the attention of the public to their beautiful Sutton's Panoramic Apparatus from the camera, of which they have now a splendid and varied collection of Views of Sydney and its neighborhood …[2]

In January 1867 James Freeman went to England leaving his brother and their partner Victor A. Prout to take control of the business.[3] Why James left is unclear, perhaps illness or an argument but it was clearly unexpected for it was February before the official notice of his retirement from the studio of ‘Freeman Brothers and Prout’ was published in the papers. From this date William and Victor Prout took over the formal management under the name of ‘Freeman and Prout’.[4]

In 1868 the studio acquired over 20,000 negatives from the demise of Dalton Brothers, one of Sydney’s other pre-eminent studios. It turns out the acquisition was not just photographs for in advertising this acquisition they also called attention to the tinted and coloured cards and miniatures produced by Miss Hunt, … for so long favourably known while in Mr. Dalton's employment …. Miss Hunt must have greatly added to the studio for  the surviving coloured work from Dalton Studio ranks among the best produced in this period in Australia.[5]

James Freeman’s retirement appears to have been accompanied by a desire to return to England for in 1868 both brothers returned to there. This arrangement lasted only for a few years until William returned to manage the Sydney studio after the death of James in 1870. The studio suffered a huge blow in November 1871 when a fire on the premises destroyed their entire stock of negatives, including those acquired from Dalton Studio’s.[6]

In 1890 Freeman Brothers passed to William Rufus George who managed the studio until his son Alfred took over in 1903. Harold Cazneaux worked for the studio from 1904 to 1918, a period which saw them embrace a more informal style of portraiture and wedding photography. During the depression the studio was in competition with the street photographers who would snap passers by in the street. Valentine Waller who managed the business though this period was instrumental in lobbying for the State Government to bring in the regulation and registration of this form of photography in 1937. The company continues to survive and evolve moving to digital photography in 2003.[7]

The scale of their enterprise did not seem to affect the quality of the work they produced; in fact the studio from its inception spared no effort in touching up, and printing, their photographic prints. This combination of high quality work and patronage by the elite of Sydney makes their early work excellent examples of nineteenth-century Australian photography, illustrated by their winning silver and bronze medals at the London International Exhibition in 1862.

References 

Advertisement, The Sydney Morning Herald, Tuesday 3 January 1865, page 8

Alan Davies, Freeman Studio in the Picture Gallery, exhibition catalogue, State Library of New South Wales, 2003

Advertisement, The Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday 2 May 1868, page 1

Notices, The Sydney Morning Herald, Tuesday 12 February, 1867, page 1

Notices, The Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday 2 May 1868, page 1

Government Notices, The Sydney Morning, Saturday 11 November 1871, page 2

---

[1] Alan Davies, Freeman Studio in the Picture Gallery, exhibition catalogue, State Library of New South Wales, 2003

[2] Advertisement, The Sydney Morning Herald, Tuesday 3 January 1865, page 8

[3] Notices, The Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday 2 May 1868, page 1

[4] Notices, The Sydney Morning Herald, Tuesday 12 February, 1867, page 1

[5] Advertisement, The Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday 2 May 1868, page 1

[6] Government Notices, The Sydney Morning, Saturday 11 November 1871, page 2

[7] Alan Davies, Freeman Studio in the Picture Gallery, exhibition catalogue, State Library of New South Wales, 2003