In the Unit Place, Image and Object, I had 2 major assignments.
The first was an Annotated Map.
This was something I had never heard of before! After all the Unit lectures and much research I settled on my subject, my memories of my childhood home. After a lot of experimentation and many learning curves I produced a slideshow. I have reproduced it below as a video.
My mark for this assignment was 70% and the following feedback:
Hi Marcia,
Thank you for your mapped investigation of Boronia st. You used the elements of images of everyday family life, maps and drawings effectively. I don't know if there is any history of Dee Why itself that could be a future inclusion? The house drawing work well in this task due to the plan view of a house being a map of a home and its room.Well done.
I was a little disappointed with this mark, as I had put a lot of work into it.
FOND MEMORIES OF BRANDT FAMILY HOME
To view the video please click on the link below:
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The second assignment for Place, Image and Object was a Object Biography. It could be on anything from our Family that I could research and write a biography about.
I received 70% for this assignment and the following
feedback:
Hi Marcia,
Thank you for this great object biography, you have explored the photograph through a number of contextual frames including identifying its materials and techniques, its significance to people and its wider historical context - your detective work in finding the similar Kent photo and following up the writing on the trucks provided some really interesting wider context. For future object biographies try to pursue some of those threads a little more - if it wasn't an advertising image, why might it have been taken and perhaps follow up the sort of work Kent or similar photographers did at the time and the role that photographs played in the 1920s, and similarly the ideas that came out of the memories you unearthed could all be pursued - the solid tyres and what this tells us about transport history, the use of trucks to transport gas, the shifts in technology that allowed motor vehicles to take over from horses. Even though you haven't yet discovered the original function of the object, I was really interested by its transition in function to becoming a symbolic object for you - both in terms of the personal link it gives you to your ancestry but also in an aesthetic sense by being displayed for others to see. Well done.
My subject for this was an old photo from my Mother's possessions.
OBJECT BIOGRAPHY
SS BRIGGS CONTRACTOR ROZELLE PHOTOGRAPH
For my Object Biography I have chosen a photograph that was in my Mother’s possessions and I inherited after her death in 1996. It is a photo of her Father’s( Samuel Stanley Briggs) business.
It shows three English made Thornycroft trucks with the wording SS Briggs Contractor Rozelle on the side. It is mounted in thick cardboard with the Photographer’s information Milton C Kent in the bottom right hand corner. There isn't a date on the photo anywhere.
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Figure 1: My Object - Personal Collection -Marcia Moon SS Briggs Contractor Roselle (Photographer Milton C Kent, Haberfield) |
Milton C Kent was a well know Photographer of the time and specialised in Aerial Photography. Some of his clients were the Federal Government and the City of Sydney.[1]
With the aim of finding more about my Object photo and my Grandfather I started searching for other photos taken by Milton C Kent. This resulted in me finding another one taken in 1921, which was mounted in the same brown cardboard, with the information stating that it was a gelatine silver photographic print 14.3 x 20.3 cm on a mount 25 x 30.2 cm.[2] These are the exact measurements and mounting style of the photograph in my possession.
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Figure 2: Photograph from Trove -Milton C Kent Photographer Haberfield, c1921. Source: http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/189953821 |
I then found (again on Trove) an article for the auction of SS Briggs horses and lorries as he had purchased motors. This newspaper article was dated 11 July 1922.[3]
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| Figure 3 :Newspaper Article from Trove, Source:http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16012373 |
As my Object Photo clearly shows three trucks with SS Briggs on the side, I am estimating that the production of this photo is c1922.
As stated in the photo I used for comparison, the production was done with the Gelatine Silver process. I am basing my assumption of my Object Photo using this process as well. This involved using gelatine which is an animal protein, as the binder and developed silver to make a material image.
This process was the most common used for black and white prints at this time and is still used in some forms today.[4]
My feelings of my Object Photo is that it has been produced as an advertising tool. But in researching it, I have not as yet been able to find evidence of this photo anywhere else, other than in my possession!
My research has lead me to reminiscing with my eldest sister.[5] She remembers our mother telling her that her father had one of the first motorised trucks in NSW.
I also spoke to my cousin[6] who also remembers being told by his motherI(my aunt) that he was a carrier for gas products, for he thought British Industrial Gases and had the first registered motor lorry in NSW. He also remembers being told it had solid tyres, which can be verified in the Object Photo.(Figure 1) Prior to that he used horse drays, which is also verified by the Newspaper article.(Figure 3)
When I started looking for information about British Industrial Gases, my search led me to the company BOC(British Oxygen Company) who took over the company CIG(Commonwealth Industrial Gases) in 1935, who also took over Comox (Commonwealth Oxygen Ltd), which was founded in 1911.[7]
My Object Photo also has the words Comox, clearly printed on the side of the three truck engines.(Figure 1) So this indicates that my Grandfather worked for Comox, so I have uncovered another link of research for information about my Grandfather.
My Object is starting to weave a story for me. As I have very little information about my Grandparents except where they lived and died, this Object holds great significance for me. It is a link to how my Grandfather worked and provided for his family.
I would like to find out more information about my Object and hope that one day it will lead me to other unanswered questions.
I know that my Grandfather died in 1939 at his home in Collaroy. But a newspaper article on 24 December 1937, shows the Bankstown Council in the NSW Supreme Court having my Grandfather’s home being put up for auction in February 1938, to pay for non payment of his mortgage to the Bank. [8]
What happened between the time of his rise to prosperity and proud owner of Motorised vehicles in 1922 and his death in 1939?
Did the Great Depression claim another victim? If he was still living in his house at the time of his death, did he somehow raise the funds to pay his debts and keep his house?
My Object raises many feelings of sadness at my lack of curiosity of my Ancestors until it was too late. I wish that I had taken time to talk to my Mum more about the past while she was around.
My search has led me to various sites which I have sent emails, with varied responses.
I have contacted the Powerhouse museum in regards to a book which shows photos of Milton C Kent.9 As yet unanswered.
I have also emailed the State Library of NSW in regard to researching Milton C Kent and Business Trade Directories of the 1920s.10 Unfortunately they were unable to give me anymore information that I had not already accessed.
I also emailed the Transport Workers’ Union [11] asking about their archive records for members in 1920s. Although they don't have archival records going back that far, they have been very helpful in offering to send me two books free of charge in regards to History of The Transport Workers and their Union. You never know I may find Samuel listed in these!
In conclusion although I haven't uncovered a lot of my Grandfather’s story, I know there is still more of the story to be found. If it hadn't been for my Object Photo, I would not have started the search down this path.
I plan now to display this photo, for others to see. Not hidden away, un- protected and forgotten in a box. It deserves more respect than what it has been getting for the last 90 years. After all it is another link to My Ancestor!
1 Trove. Kent, Milton (1921). Eight Australian Six cars leaving factory, Sydney, to be shipped to New Zealand. Retrieved July 25, 2016, from http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/189953821.
2 Trove. Kent, Milton (1921). Eight Australian Six cars leaving factory, Sydney, to be shipped to New Zealand. Retrieved July 25, 2016 from http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/189953821.
3 Trove. Advertising (1922, July 11). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) p. 4. Retrieved August 6, 2016, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article 16012373
4 Google. Adapted from the list of terms and definitions on the website of the Department of Photography and Film, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin, which was compiled from various sources by David Coleman. Published here with permission. Retrieved August 1, 20126, from http://www.photoeye.com/GALLERY/Definitions.cfm
5 Janyce Boyd. Email message to author. August 1, 2016
6 Ralph Dunn. Email message to author. August 2, 2016.
7 Google. Encyclopaedia of Australian Science 2015. Retrieved August 5, 2016 from http://www.eoas.info/biogs/A000964b.htm
8 Trove. The Council of the Municipality of Bankstown v. Briggs. (1937, December 31). Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (Sydney, NSW : 1901 - 2001), , p. 5187. Retrieved August 6, 2016, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225130868
9 Powerhouse Museum. Email message to support staff for information. Sent July 19, 2016 from http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/imageservices/photo-library
10 State Library off NSW. Email message to support staff for information. Sent July 20, 2016 from http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/research-and-collections/ask-librarian
11 Transport Workers’ Union. Email message to author August 8, 2016
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ancestry:
Sands Directories: Sydney and New South Wales, 1858-1933 www.ancestry.com.au
Google:
Ancestry:
Sands Directories: Sydney and New South Wales, 1858-1933 www.ancestry.com.au
Google:
- Australian Academy of Technical Sciences and Engineering www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au
- The BOC Group, www.en.m.wikipedia.org
- Encyclopaedia of Australian Science, www.ecas.infoPhooey,http://www.photoeye.com/GALLERY/Definitions.cfm
- Thornycroft Gallery, www.thornycroft.org.uk
- The Transport Workers’ Union NSW, www.twunsw.org.au
Powerhouse Museum: Photo Library,
State Library of NSW: Research and Collections, http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/research-and-collections/ask-librarian
Trove: Digitised Newspapers, Advertisements, Family Notices, Photo Collections, http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/189953821
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