10 October 2013
Local Studies Librarian Meeting Newcastle Library 10 October 2013 10.30 - 4pm
Attending
Sue Ryan, Newcastle Geoff Potter, Gosford Sarah Thompson, Pittwater Donna Braye, Mosman John MacRitchie, Manly Angela Phippen, Ryde Ann Crump and Judy Messiter, Lake Macquarie City Michelle Goldsmith Tuggerah Thomas MacRae Auburn Eliot Ball North Sydney Kay Shirt Lithgow John Merriman, Blue Mountains Jeff Stonehouse, Port Macquarie-Hastings Karen Richardson Hornsby Judy Nicholson Maitland Helen McDonald Sutherland Michelle Goldsmith Wyong
Apologies
Ellen Forsyth, SLNSW Georgina Keep Randwick Jane Elias Stephen Coppins Holroyd Michelle Nichols Hawkesbury
10.30 – 11am Welcome/morning Tea – A big thanks to Sue Ryan and the staff at Newcastle Library for such lovely food!
11 – 11.40am Jan Ross, Tourism and Economic Development Officer for the City of Newcastle gives a presentation on City Evolutions project - http://cityevolutions.com/
City Evolutions is a yearlong project where old photographs and art are displayed on historical buildings. The program uses light projectors on building facades at night. Local Businesses and restaurants are participating in the events.
Objectives of Project
· To create an attraction referencing the history and stories of Watt Street (Watt Street is part of the old historical downtown area of Newcastle) · The project part of a revitalisation plan for the downtown area and stimulate local business growth – buildings were vacant, binge drinking problems, needed to draw people into the businesses of the area · The project demonstrated the use of technology and art · Goal to engage local community and tourists · Profile the unique heritage of the area
Background of Project
· Funding was from local businesses, the City of Newcastle and Commonwealth and State grants · The project itself went out to tender · The project is a joint project between two teams at the University of Newcastle and the City Council of Newcastle · In the beginning, working groups were established to consult with the community about the projects · There was an extensive approval process with tenants and owners · Stakeholders briefed – had to get the community on board with the idea that their street would be lit up every night for a year. · Through consultation established ‘Watt’s on Watts’ – a guide to loal events and businesses in the area
Content Gathering
· Gathered information from Newcastle historians, Sue Ryan at Newcastle Library, University of Newcastle, the Maritime Centre, The Tantrum Theatre, the United Services Clubs, Lock Up (youth centre), NBN, NFSA, ABC – all contributed to historical information and stories for the project · Community workshops held with residents and local business owners · Social Media – Facebook, project website, twitter, Flickr – all used to generate community engagement · Interviews conducted with community to tell the stories about the area · The history of the bad times and good times shared · History before and after colonisation · The purpose was not just to project images on buildings but to share past stories
Outcomes
· The program is currently running and will run for 12 months · Partnerships have been formed for long term change and ongoing events such as ‘Watt’s on Watt?’, Christmas in the City, The Asia Pacific Special Olympics · There is free WiFi in the area – project runs remotely through wifi · Careful not to project into people’s window · Feedback from community has been great · Challenge is to keep momentum up for the whole 12 month period · Lots of ideas of what to do next
Examples
· On ST Phillips Church words and images appear in the Awabakal language, an indigenous language of the Newcastle area · There is a pop up disco which appears in the laneways off Watts – the disco is powered by a solar powered garbage bin · The Beach Hotel features images from circus performers who lived in the hotel after ww2
11.45am -12.30pm Geoff Potter, Gosford Local Studies presented an informative talk on postcards and postcard collecting in Australia entitled “Picture postcards In Australia: a very brief history”
Background Geoff always loved postcards – started collecting them before he became involved in libraries Most of the postcards shown were from his collection Postcards are becoming harder to get and more expensive
General History Postcards are a wonderful insight into the social history of the Edwardian and Victorian era 1st postcard was in the USA in 1861 The first postcards were blank on 1 side and the other side had room for a stamp and the address Cards were used for quick and cheap communication – postcards had a cheaper postage rate In 1889 a vignette of the Eiffel Tower was printed on a postcard for the Paris exhibition – people could post the card from the Eiffel Tower – this was a huge success Germany printed cards with ‘Gruss Aus’ meaning ‘Greetings From’ with an image of different towns People start to collect postcards NSW postcards in 1890s had no pictures on them – sometimes there was a pretty floral emblem or pre-printed stamp When pictures did appear they took up the whole front of the card – people wrote messages around the photo 1905 – postcard with a picture on the front and a split back appears – 1 side for the address and 1 side for the message Postcards were a fast way to send messages – there were three postal services a day in major Australian cities – you could write a message in the morning and it would be delivered in the afternoon – also cheaper postage Postcards often used for mundane everyday messages Cheap and convenient souvenirs
Postcard Trends and Quality Chromolithography – a way to add graded colour There were cards for everything – birthdays, weddings, federation, invitations Christmas The world was opening up – postcards featured movie stars – young girls could copy their clothes and styles There were pre WW1 glamour cards – very innocent feel about them Illustrators and well-known painters were used Humour cards Empire cards Propaganda cards – for WW1 Nationalism cards – cottages, timber, working on the land, agriculture Engineering cards – trains, stations, trams – these are a part of the nationalism theme and get high prices Advertisers used cards Tourist cards Disaster cards – ship wrecks, train wrecks, car accidents Specialised postcards – family portraits – with Kodak you could buy postcard sized prints – print them onto a postcard sized and marked photographic paper and send them out. Sometimes used for short runs of highly localised cards e.g. A parade image that may sell 20-30 copies but then demand is over There are silk postcards with hand and later machine embroidery from WWI There are fold out postcards sold in little booklet cases, very popular in the 40s-60s period.
Collection and Identification Book about Picture postcards in Australia 1898-1920 by David Cook Look for postcards at fairs and markets Look in the ‘unknown sections’ of postcard collections. Your specialist knowledge can help you to find images unidentified by sellers. Judy from Maitland mentioned that that Kodak postcards have identification codes on them – similar to a hallmark – look for a square with different symbols. See http://www.notesonphotographs.org/images/e/ec/Ania_Michas_Report_small_for_web.pdf for useful information on dating Kodak and other picture postcards NSW postcard collectors society organises fairs 4 times a year in Sydney and Auctions for members http://postcardnsw.com/ Postcard fairs are a great place to get an idea about prices The State Library of NSW has a lot of postcards Older postcards are becoming harder to find and are more expensive Look at ebay Make friends with postcard collectors
Famous postcard studios/ photographers Frank Hurley was a very prolific photographer - his postcard images often have the initials F.H. or an anchor on them Numbered postcard series issued – some are consecutive and some are not Kerry and company postcards – Kerry got started in Sydney in the 1890s and travelled around – he did aboriginal and bush scenes, when the postcard craze started he already a lot of images Giovanardi and Co. – Sydney publisher of NSW views. Many high quality. The Rose Series – The Rose Stenograph Company – they produced 17000 to 20000 postcards – they were specially fitted out with a bus with a darkroom Murray Views – postcard company Broadhurst postcard company – another prolific company – many of the images were poorly fixed and badly coloured. Faded images may be corrected using Photoshop Elements etc. Many good quality Broadhurst postcards are held by the NSW State Library, available to browse online through Picman.
Postcards as a Local Studies and History Resource Postcards can show old landmarks, land use changes and views no longer available to be seen. Many small and obscure places, local industries etc. were only recorded because a postcard photographer went by. Great for heritage building restoration, archaeological projects, etc. Can show social aspects of an area Collect new postcards – they show the changes in a community and are a great resource for the future even if they can’t be published now NSW collectors society and other conservation resource suppliers have postcard albums
1:00 – 1:30 pm Lunch
1:30 - 2/2.30 pm Tour of Newcastle Local Studies Collection and ‘Wish You were here’ postcard exhibition hosted by Sue Ryan
Tour of the Building The library building was built in 1957 Originally the building housed the art gallery and the conservatorium of music There is now space of a large local studies room and two exhibition spaces – one exhibition space is used for local studies and the other is used for photographic exhibitions or other art/community exhibitions There are several storage rooms for LS on site and there is offsite storage as well
‘Wish You Were Here’ postcard exhibition Features of the exhibition were local landmarks and organisations including the Stockton Brass Band, the George Hotel, the R.C. Cathedral, and the Civic Building For the exhibition many of the postcards were enlarged to better display the artwork and messages on the backs Sue said the exhibition was fiddly to put together because of so many small objects
Local Studies Collection The collection covers Newcastle and the Hunter Collection strengths include: ships, the harbour, planning, industrial and BHP The LS collection is self service Collection is popular and widely used There is a family history section The environmental section has now put their documents in LS The youth drop in centre is closing so they are getting that collection in LS – including zines, photos and music recordings Huge GIS geographical society collection of archives and maps Lots of real estate and architectural plans 30, 000 plans and maps 315,000 original photos – companies often took photos of everyone on their staff, the library has a lot of these The ‘168 collection’ has a history of the boats and trains in Newcastle There is a rare book room which is climate controlled – this sub-collection includes a complete collection of Gould’s books Upstairs there is an archival maps and art room which is closed to the public In the basement of the building there is more closed stack storage which houses: original documents, big books, council archives, part of the state records regional repository, water board, high school, industrial information, shop records, brewery records, hotel files, school of arts files, the Merewether Estate, archives registers, and the local TV station’s files which include footage and scripts
2.30 – 3.30 pm General meeting
Round table discussion of WW1 projects and what different organisations are doing. Topics include: Jeff from Port Macquarie - working off the list from their local war memorial – they have 300 names and are researching the servicemen – they are looking at the main war memorial now but may include regional war memorials in the project in the future – they are also interested in what happened to the soldiers once they came home – setting the parameters of the project has been a challenge – feedback from the group was that setting the parameters has been a challenge for a lot of libraries – where to start and how far do we take the projects? Angela from Ryde – they have formed an ANZAC committee – the historical society has done biographical research – the committee is looking at a website and touch screen format to house and display this information for the public – Ryde is also looking into houses built by the Voluntary Workers Association – many of these houses were named by returning soldiers after battlefields Geoff from Gosford – they are looking at the war histories of the war dead from the district – Gosford Times is a source for all the letters home – they are not sure what form the project will take – ideas include using EMU and ‘My Tours’ for history walks – could have a war memorial APP and use APP for walks Michelle from Wyong – they are using the National Archives and other sources to focus on soldiers who lived in the Wyong area - not sure of the format for the project yet – would possibly look like a blog – there are also very interesting sources about the anti-conscription movement in Wyong Jeff from Port Macquarie – also discussed returned war brides – mainly from England – Geoff from Gosford discussed issues surrounding sensitive materials that are uncovered during research – what do we release and what do we not release in our projects? John from Manly discussed the newspapers written by the soldiers on the front – these were papers by the soldiers for the soldiers Jeff from Lake Macquarie discussed the autography book in their collection – soldiers made entries into the book before they left – this book has been digitised General discussion about sustaining the WW1 projects over 4 years – Donna from Mosman discussed how they were building on their project slowly by releasing more information over time and how to maintaining interest after a project launch
Round table discussion of History Week and events and discussion on donations
· Sarah from Pittwater – did an exhibition of unknown photographs and invited people to help identify the photos – Donna from Mosman said she has done similar exhibitions · Kay from Lithgow – said they have brought out donated materials for exhibitions or viewing and this has encourages further donations · Geoff from Gosford discussed how to scan realia using a flatbed scanner – he has used this to scan donated drink bottles and a Chinese ginger jar from Erina creek
Local Studies Collection Audits
· Donna from Mosman discussed the questionnaire the State Library of NSW is putting out to all local studies collections · The purpose of the questionaries is to get an idea of what local studies collections hold and what the needs and issues of the collections are – what do LS collections want and need from the State Library and how can the State Library help LS? · The questionnaire should help identify training needs · Questionnaire should be sent out in November · It should take about 2 hours to complete the questionnaire · Please give as much info about collections as possible – each LS collection unique and it is important that the diversity of the collections is reflected
Next Meeting
· Will be at the State Library · Late March 2014 · Sally Hone is a possible speaker – she will discuss oral history of floods · Possible information about digitisation also discussed