lifeasdaddy

My talk @ the Powerhouse Museum's #CommonGround event. Part 2: Requests for images.

I ain't too proud to beg, sweet darlin'

As I said,  I've been asked to speak this coming Saturday night at the Powerhouse Museum's piece of the global Flickr Common Ground event.

There's going to be an outdoor image slideshow using giant projection onto the outside of the Powerhouse Museum's mothership building in Ultimo.  See the test projections here.  It's going to be big in every way.

I've been selecting images to project during my talk, which are from The Commons on Flickr.  All except for four images.

The images I want have to be in high resolution format so that they can make a reasonable showing on the giant screening surface. 

As you may know, the custodians of the such iconic photographic images usually licence the images for use at a fee.  Sometimes the fee is high, sometimes less so.

Since my speaking fee for this engagement is a big fat zero, I'm going to try to get the images I need for a commensurate sum.  Also zero.

The first two images I need are of Roger Fenton's iconic 1855 Crimean War photographs usually known as The Valley of the Shadow of Death.  Lots of institutions have a copy of one of his photos, but only one that I know of has both images with cannon balls on and off the road.  The photos I'm talking about are shown near the top of Erroll Morris's blog post for the New York Times here.

They are credited to the Harry Ransome Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin.  So I've sent a begging email to the Curator of Photography for high resolution electronic copies of the two photographs.  And I politely  requested expeditious consideration due to the time constraints.

Secondly, I need to use a wonderful image of 1901 Federation Celebrations.  This one held at the National Library of Australia.  So I've asked them to come to the party too.

The last non-Commons image I need is held by State Records New South Wales, our state archives.  It's one of Bennelong Point seen here on Flickr, and here at their Photo Investigator site.  And I ain't too proud to beg.  I know that State Records NSW is very interested in becoming involved in social media, so I'm quite hopeful they'll help spread the joy.  Check out their very fine blog, Archives Outside, including an example of dating a photograph by the length of shadows in the photograph.

Let's see how far the love spreads.

I'm tagging my blog posts on this topic here as #CommonGround.

You can also follow progress on twitter at #CommonGround.

Here's how the image projections are going to look in the forecourt of the Powerhouse Museum:

(Above image used with permission of Paula Bray )

Powerhouse Museum Favourites - Part 9 : The final presentation.

I'm so proud of Edward.  He did a great job with his half of the presentation today.

For those who couldn't be at the Powerhouse Museum earlier this afternoon I'll give you an overview of the slides and our script.  The talk was not delivered exactly according to this script, but you will get the idea.  I'll redact a few images from the slides, because I don't have permission yet to publish some of the last minute stuff from the Powerhouse Museum here - I haven't asked yet.

Simon, the duty IT/AV tech did a great job getting us set up, and Ali Gordon introduced us.

The Sydney Observatory is great. I loved the 3-D movie there.  To see the movie you have to wear special glasses which make normal things blurry, but the movie is OK.  I also enjoyed looking through the telescope and going on the tour.

 

The Odditoreum is a place where everything is odd.  And the Odditoreum had robots and were trying to get a cow with a mouth down the bottom to eat grass, but it would not eat it.  In the Odditoreum there was like this giant shoe which had  bicycle handles in it.  It was really for the Olympics and was decorated with licorice allsorts, freckles and glitter.

In Zoe’s house there are lots of things to do.  You can push trucks with blocks in them.  There is a crane that’s broken.  There is a conveyor belt and a boom gate. 

I love seeing all the different kinds of transport like a train.  There’s also a bell for a boat in that room 

Here’s a photo of me in the zero gravity space lab.  It feels like you are turning around, but it’s really one bit that turns around to make you feel like you are turning around. Sometimes you feel dizzy when you come off. 

The space lab is where you can do things like in space and you can see a bit of what a space shuttle looks like.  But there is not the whole space shuttle.  You can do a bit of a computer thing.  There’s like a computer and you can switch some things that have lights and you can see this video of Andy Thomas, and he talks about stuff at NASA.

 The Powerhouse Museum tags itself as a Science and Design museum.  On the design half of that tag rests the decorative arts.

Josiah Wedgwood was one of the leading industrialists of the late 1700s and a hugely successful businessman.

 Although there is much to love about the Wedgwood  you see here [ image redacted] – this one from about 1790 is more than half a metre tall- it isn't the Wedgwood piece I love most ... It's a piece that is just about the size of a 50 cent piece.... 

  

Josiah Wedgwood became deeply involved in the movement to put a stop to the world wide slave trade.

To help the cause, he had one of his chief designers Henry Webber  modellers William Hackwood design a statement piece.  It became known as the slave medallion. 

  

This one here, from the Powerhouse Museum’s collection is thought to be from 1787.   We see here, on a white ceramic background,  a black man in chains, kneeling, begging. Around the border of the oval disc – although a bit difficult to read from this image -   is the motto of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade,

“AM I NOT A MAN AND A BROTHER?” ….

The motto became famous and the medallion became a very fashionable item.  It could be worn as a brooch, a necklace ornament, or even adorning a hairdo. 

There are some examples in other museums showing what we now call an “after market addition” giving it a means to be worn such as a metal rim with a piercing for a pin or chain.

As such, it became the first fashion item to also bear a political message….

On request from a bloke in the then new nation the United States of America called Benjamin Franklin, Wedgwood shipped nearly 200 of the slave medallions to Franklin in Boston  also helping him to raise awareness for the need to end slavery in the United States.  Something that would take a further 80 years and a terrible Civil War in the USA to achieve.

I love the Slave medallion because it symbolises one of the most important civil rights movements of the past 300 years.  A political movement that was right, honourable, improved the human condition and actually succeeded.

You can see both of the extremes of Wedgwood design out there now in the “Inspired! Design across time” exhibition on level 3.

As a father who takes a keen interest in his son’s education – I’ve become a connoisseur of children’s books and early childhood educational aids.  I’m going to talk about one now. 

Let’s look at Maggie’s ABC book.

[ All images of Maggie's ABC book redacted ] 

One hundred and fifteen years ago, in 1894,  William Harrison, , hand made a Christmas Present for his niece Maggie Harrison back in mother England, in Avon. William was just 13 years old himself, and living in Australia. 

The book is personalised for her… painstakingly hand lettered…

 And painstakingly hand illustrated.  Illustrated both with pictures of things which would have been familiar to young Maggie in her home and some less familiar to her but representing the exotic new homeland of her uncle Will.

Go into any library in Sydney or any bookshop and pick up a kids’ book for ages 3 or 4.  You’ll find plenty of examples with big letters of the alphabet and words starting with that letter and accompanying pictures too.

So that educational device is tried and true.

 As a parent, I’ve spent plenty of time teaching Edward about the days of the week, the division between the weekdays and the weekend – and every morning at his primary school starts with talking about the day of the week and the date.

Again, not much has changed in 115 years.

The quality of the production of Maggie’s ABC book is just extraordinary for a 13 year old boy.

William Harrison went on to be Art Director and later advertising manager for Wunderlich Limited, the venerable manufacturer of pressed metal ceilings and building windows.

There are a few other items by William Harrison in the Powerhouse Museum collection – but none of them rival Maggie’s ABC book.

One of the things I love about the Powerhouse Museum is that it can be all things to all people.  There is something here for everybody, and now with more and more items from the collection being able to be viewed on line – the museum goer can make his or her trip on line too.  And not be limited by the constraints of exhibition space.

I can construct or curate my own personal exhibition around my personal interests.  One of my areas of deep interest is Australia’s maritime history, particularly in wartime.  I’ve spent hours trawling through the museum’s on line collection and discovered something intriguing.

World War Two began 70 years ago this week.  After Poland was invaded;  France, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia declared war on Germany, forming the allies.   

The remainder of 1939 and most of 1940 were pretty dark days for the allies.  There were few victories.  One famous victory was a battle in the Mediterranean sea on 22 July 1940 when HMAS Sydney sank the Italian warship Bartolomeo Colleoni.  After that battle in which the HMAS Sydney sustained some serious damage it made its way home to Australia and the port of Sydney on 11 February 1941. There was a huge welcome. 

Between 200,000 and 300,000 people lined the streets of Sydney, including school children who had been given a public holiday, to cheer 400 of the crew marching from Man O’War steps by what is now the Sydney Opera House to Town Hall.

There was a civic reception in the Sydney Town Hall for the crew, and a plaque was unveiled commemorating the naval victory.  Then the assembled ships company received a replica of the plaque in the form of a medallion.  Each medallion was engraved with the man’s name and service number.

[ images of the replica medallion plaques redacted ]

Here they’re pictured in Martin Place outside the G.P.O.

Enough replica medallions were produced to permit one to be presented to each member of the crew. 

The Ship’s plaque was fixed to a gun turret on the ship.  One large identical plaque sits in Sydney Town Hall today. And two of the replica medallion plaques sit in the collection of the Powerhouse Museum

This one was awarded to Frederick Mozart MURRAY ( 20100 ) who was an assistant yeoman of signals.

Fred Murray was not one of the 645 who perished with HMAS Sydney.  He survived the war, and even prospered, being promoted as an officer, and retiring from the navy in 1964 as a Commander.

A lovely piece of naval history.

( Left hand side  photograph from the Tyrrell Collection of the Powerhouse Museum. Right hand side photograph by the author )

The way I first came to love the Powerhouse Museum was though the museum’s online activities.  Chiefly from their presence on Flickr where for a bit over a year they have been displaying photographs from their archival collection – many of them historical images of Sydney and New South Wales.

They exist as fragile glass plate negatives – and prints from the negatives have never been publicly exhibited within the Powerhouse Museum, either through a perceived lack of public interest, or lack of exhibition space, or lack of motivation.

On the internet there are few limitations on exhibition space.  When scanned uploaded and hosted by Flickr the photo sharing website they cost the museum very little to display.  I discovered them there, on the flickr website one day. 

I then started a little photographic project of attempting to take contemporary photographs from the exact same position as that from a century before. 

Here’s George Street, looking south, that’s the corner of Margaret Street on the right.  100 years ago, and the one I took last year.

( Left hand side photograph from the Tyrrell Photographic Collection of the Powerhouse Museum.  Right hand side photograph by the author.)

Here’s the Sydney Observatory – around a hundred years ago, and in honour of the International Year of Astronomy, my pic from earlier this year. 

( Left hand side photograph from the Tyrrell Collection of the Powerhouse Museum.  Right hand side photograph by the author )

Another familiar building is Customs House at Circular Quay, One hundred years ago, and again late last year as a part of modern, busy, bustling Sydney.

Without the Powerhouse Museum setting those historic photographs free on the internet, I would not have been able to do my little photography project.

Thanks to the people who invited us to talk, and thank you for listening to Edward and I and thanks to Edward for his support today.

If you spot any factual errors in the script please let me know.

I especially thank Ali Gordon and Erika Dicker of the Powerhouse Museum for providing illustrative images and helping prepare our talk.

Melvin Vaniman's panorama: Sydney from a balloon, 27 March 1904

Sydney from a balloon, 27 March 1904, originally uploaded by State Library of New South Wales collection.

It's impossible to really tell how wonderful this image is on the little computer screen you are looking at now.

There's just one way to find out. The State Library of New South Wales has made some large scale prints of this circa 1904 panoramic photographs of Sydney and put them on display in the Mitchell Galleries as part of the Nelson Meers Foundation Heritage Collection.

I encourage you to take a look. It would be particularly good for high school level students in the next two weeks' school holidays. when I visited the exhibition today a few tourists were enjoying it too.

It's free. Until January 2010.

Exhibition guide here.  If you can't get there, read this. And a beautifully designed guide it is too.

Exhibition home here.

On Flickr here.

ADDED 11 July 2009:  This exhibition at the SLNSW does appear to be slightly recycled from the similar 2001 exhibition held at the SLNSW entitled "A different perspective: Vaniman the acrobatic photographer".

Click on these thumbnails from the 2001 exhibition to get some good views.

Maybe the giant prints currently on show in 2009 are new, although the library's "Achievements 2002/02" report does refer on page 13 to "its giant panoramic scenes of Sydney and beyond."

The current exhibition is no less worthy for having been shown before, and has the added benefit of a current 2009 panoramic view of Sydney Town Hall and the Queen Victoria Building for a then-and-now comparison.

Sydney then and now: State Library of New South Wales

Then (between 1942 and 1983):  

[ Photograph used with permission of the State Records NSW, Digital ID: 12932-a012-a012X2442000009.jpg  and on Flickr ]

Now (2009):

Now, this is the reading room of the Mitchell Library, part of the State Library of New South Wales.  Not the one in Scotland.  The main reading room is located in a newer building nearby.

Sydney then and now: Lansdowne Hotel

Then, in 1926 by the commercial photograph Milton Kent, from the Warden Archive of the Powerhouse Museum, via the Photo of the Day blog entry by Jessica McLean:

Now:

The hotel was completed in 1926 and y0ou can see the NSW Heritage listing here.

Sydney then and now: Binishells

The Killarney Heights Public School has some distinctive buildings in the form of Binishells.  The Binishell is a distinctive architectural and construction format developed in the 1960s and popularised in Australia in the 1970s by the New South Wales Departments of Education and Public Works.

These particular Binishells were designed for use as the school library.  

Then exterior (1974):

[ Dr. Dante Bini generously supplied this 1974 photograph and permitted use. ]

Now exterior (2009):

The Binishells at Killarney Heights Public School have proven to be very durable. Thirty-five years later, one of the only differences between the external views is that the earlier photograph displays wooden framed doors, and the later view shows aluminium framed doors.

Then interior (1974)

[ Dr. Dante Bini generously supplied and granted permission to use this 1974 photograph ]

Now  interior (2009):

The school library is now housed in a different, conventional building and the large Binishell has been converted to a multiuse venue.  Some school sport takes place there, such as gymnastics since it does not involve high altitude projectiles which would collide with the pendant lights and ceiling fans.  It is also used for meetings and assemblies.

To permit this multi-purpose use the sunken casual reading area shown on the floor of the 1974 view has been filled in. 

Copies of the original architectural drawings were made available to me by Dr. Dante Bini:

More information about Binishells and related other architectural and construction systems can be found here.

It looks like Binishells may also get a new life as a green construction method.

Sydney then and now : In search of Willoughby Falls

Image 1.  Willoughby Falls, originally uploaded by Powerhouse Museum Collection.

mm

Image 2. Willoughby Falls by Charles Kerry Studio uploaded to Flickr by the Powerhouse Museum.

The Powerhouse Museum has posted two images on Flickr from the Tyrrell Collection which are identified in their caption as being Willoughby Falls. Both images are by the Charles Kerry Studio.  Willoughby is a suburb of Sydney.

Image 3. View of a waterfall from the Phillips glass plate negative collection held by the Powerhouse Museum

Recently another image of a waterfall was added to Flickr by the Powerhouse Museum, this time from the Phillips collection, but without any identifying caption. Comparing the three images, that is the two known photographs of Willoughby Falls and the third unidentifed falls, I thought it likely that the third photograph too was of the Willoughby Falls.  See some discussion of my reasons in the Flickr comments section here.

But how to confirm this?

Someone has tagged Image 1 on Flickr with "primrose park", and a Google search for primrose park willoughby falls leads to this page from North Sydney Council which states,

"Primrose Park was originally occupied by the Cammeraygal people.

The Willoughby Falls area in the western gully was a favourite picnic spot in the early days of white settlement."

That page also leads to "Primrose Park - North Sydney Harbour Foreshore Bushwalk Guide" which contains a map with a clearly marked waterfall.

Checking it on Google Maps I see the geotagging on flickr by the Powerhouse Museum has also linked through to Google Maps which by clicking through links directly to the old-time image of Willoughby Falls in the Tyrrell collection.

A field trip is required.

Primrose Park is built on reclaimed land and the waterfall is in the north-west corner of the park shown here

(Image 4)

the remnants of the North Sydney sewage treatment plant can be seen in the middle distance.  The sewage works were completed in 1899 to service North Sydney parts of Willougby and Mosman.  It closed in the late 1920s.

As far as I can make out from online sources, the Sewage works employed a number of different methods for treatment and or discharge over the years of operation.

This must have involved some works on the course of the Willoughby Falls and its run-off creek because some human intervention has created a U-shaped channel at the bottom, pictured here:

(Image 5)

Notably, there is an aqueduct in the middle distance supported by two reinforced concrete columns which are plain with Doric capitals shown closer here:

(Image 6)

But, to the falls.  In Summer, the flow of water down the falls was only a trickle, but the form and geometry of the rocks could be seen here:

(Image 7)

Looks nothing like the Images 1, 2, & 3, eh?

It seemed to me that some of the very large rock forms visible in Image 7 were so large that they were neither the result of construction rock blasting, nor would they have moved there in the past 100 years given the generally stable geology of the area.

Let's approach it from another direction.  From the top.

Grafton Street, Cremorne runs above the top of the north-west edge of Primrose Park, and is about 70 metres above the area where I took the photograph Image 7.

Google Street view shows the outlook from Grafton Street to above Willoughby Falls here.

 

View Larger Map

The concrete apron you see between the edge of the road and the fence is directly above Willoughby falls, and gives some idea of the major construction works which have been undertaken in the immediate area over the years.

 

So,I went to the fence, looked down and could see the top of Willoughby Falls:

(Image 8)

Due to the point of view, the photograph does not adequately convey the distances involved.  The sandstone ledge you see at the bottom of Image 8 is about 1.5 metres below the camera.  The next green coloured sandstone ledge above it in Image 8 is about 3 metres below the camera.

 

The pool of water in the middle of Image 8 is about 20 metres below the camera.

Due to the near vertical drops on either side of the upper falls I was unable (unwilling) to get a front view of the upper falls for comparison with Images 1, 2, & 3.

Perhaps someone else will be more intrepid.

 

 

 

Sydney then and now: Sydney Observatory

Sydney Observatory, originally uploaded by Powerhouse Museum Collection.

I could not get to the same position as the original photographer because that place is now in the air above the Cahill Expressway Loop.

This is the best I could do today wihtout a crane and a suspension cage:

and here is a view of the building unobscured by the trees:

The Sydney Observatory  is now part of the Powerhouse Museum.  Today we checked out the observatory, did the tour, and looked through the telescope and I'll blog more about that visit soon.

Sydney then and now: Scots Presbyterian Church and Assembly Hall

This 1930 photograph is in the Tyrrell Collection of the Powerhouse Museum, by an unknown photographer. 

Paula Bray blogged about it here.

Paula wanted to know if I could take a comparison shot, so here's one I took today:

The Heritage listing for the building can be found here, although it is out of date, as it does not include the recent complete redevelopment of the interior of the Church combined with the addition of an apartment development within, behind and above the Church which can be seen in this photograph behind the facade.

I have been to a service in this Church since the redevelopment, and it's really beautiful.

Sydney then and now: North Sydney Post Office

This image is from State Records NSW ( Digital ID: 4346_a020_a020000128.jpg.)

You can check it here at State Records NSW's photo investigator archive or here at their Flickr photos.  Used here with permission.

 

The photograph is undated.

Here is my January 2009 view:

Now, let's see how far we get trying to date the first photograph.

At State Records NSW, the photograph comes from Series No: 4346, images which date between 1880 and 1940.

The obvious difference between the two photographs is the addition of the clock tower.

Now, the building is probably listed under the Heritage Act, NSW.

So let's check the NSW Heritage listings.  There we find the post office was constructed between 1885 - 1889.  We also find this important information,  

"... and 1889 when construction of the Post Office was finished. The office was ready for occupation on 31 January 1889, with the cost of the Post Office section being £4500. A clock was installed over the front entrance to the Office, later being transferred into a new tower. The clock tower was built over the entrance in 1895 at a cost of £965, with the clock being installed in July 1900."

Therefore, the photograph was taken between 31 January 1889 and 1895 inclusive.