How did Australian politicians of the nineteenth century campaign, in the days before today’s pervasive electronic media? They went to where people gathered in their daily lives, and held political meetings in gathering places such as pubs, Mechanic’s Institutes, and open air venues such as a local park or even under a particular tree. These weren’t always mass meetings. Many, possibly the majority, were of small groups of people. The museum has recently acquired a rare picture of one such meeting in a pub, by the artist William Wadham.
The work shows two men addressing a small group of onlookers – all apparently men - and is set within a…
The Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House recently acquired a collection of images by the notable Australian artist Tom Thompson. Approached by his local member of parliament, Murray Sainsbury, in October 1982, Thompson ventured from his home in nearby Braidwood to depict proceedings of the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra. A number of eminent Australian politicians of the era are depicted in the sketches, including Malcolm Fraser, Bob Hawke, John Howard, and Billy Snedden. The images capture glimpses of the final months of Malcom Fraser’s Liberal Government prior to the ascension of the Labor government…
Just as visitors to museums may develop an attachment to certain objects, so too do curators. Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House curator Corinne Perkins loves the Cromwell coin, which dates back to the period of the English Civil Wars (1642-52). The English Civil Wars were a series of armed conflicts and political clashes within and between the kingdoms of England, Ireland and Scotland, and concerned the nature and limits of royal power, the nature and extent of religious liberty for Protestants and Catholics, and the relationship between the peoples of Britain and Ireland. At the heart was a fundamental debate about the…
A recent addition to our collection is this photo, taken in 1911, of the Bathurst Football Club rugby union team, including future prime minister of Australia J. B. Chifley. Chifley appears in the middle row at right of picture. The photo was recently scanned from the family collection of Lynne Pearson for the museum, by a family member aware of our particular interest in prime ministers. Sam Malloy, Coordinator of the Chifley Home at Bathurst, has commented that it is the best he has yet seen of Chifley in his rugby days.
Born in Bathurst on 22 September, 1885, Chifley was 26 when this photo was taken. He attended Patrician Brothers’ High…
As Australia went onto a war footing, seventy years ago the Australian Parliament readied itself for action. ‘Strained relations exist with Germany. … Take necessary action in accordance with Commonwealth and Departmental War Books’, the Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Department wrote to the Clerks of the Houses on 2 September 1939. A day later Robert Menzies sadly announced that we were at war, broadcasting from the Commonwealth Offices in Melbourne: ‘It is my melancholy duty to inform you officially that, in consequence of a persistence by Germany in her invasion of Poland, Great Britain has declared war upon her, and that, as a result,…
We’ve recently acquired an important item for our collection. The photo album, ‘Views of Sydney’, is a handsome leather-bound volume of photographs, largely of Federation arches, taken in Sydney and Melbourne in 1901. The photographer is unknown. The album was purchased from a second hand book dealer. These unusual photographs are coloured. After seeking the advice of photographic experts at the National Gallery of Australia and the Australian National University, it appears most likely that they are photo lithographs from a negative, with the colour being printed from hand drawn tint stones.
The images from the album are on the Old Parliament…
As any entrepreneur knows, one of the best ways to make a fortune is to own and manufacture technology that enables other businesses to increase their productivity and make money. William Stickney Lamson from USA was an entrepreneur par excellence. In 1879 he invented the ‘cash railway’ system for the rapid transferring of cash in small cages from the point of sale to the accountant’s office upstairs (after the failure of trials of tying the money in a handkerchief and throwing it up!). His Lamson Cash Carrier Company grew and bought out other similar companies.
The pneumatic tubes system however, was invented much earlier in the 1800s by a…
Regular visitors to Old Parliament House, or those who once worked in this building, may remember the large terracotta panel known as The Greek Mother. It once sat outside the Parliamentary Library and has also resided in King’s Hall. This wonderful sculpture will form part of our new permanent exhibition located in the Parliamentary Library.
The Greek Mother is by the artist George Tinworth (1843-1913) and was produced in 1904-06. It is an unglazed terracotta panel mounted in a glazed walnut case, with an inscription which reads, The Greek Mother giving the shield to her son with the words ‘Either bring this shield back or be bought back…
