VPRS 16773 Brunswick City Council 1939 Centenary Photograph Collection

The collection was brought together to celebrate the centenary of Brunswick in 1939. It consists of lantern slides, glass plate negatives and a photograph album.In 1936 a group of Brunswick residents and Councillors formed the Brunswick Historical Association, with the purpose of preparing for the centenary celebrations. Members of this group collected photographs from the Brunswick area, including images of its Councillors, prominent people and hotels, buildings and landmarks. Together, these records comprise a historical collection of various aspects of Brunswick from the 1830s to 1939.Members from the historical association took photographs of the original photographs and that is what resides in the collection. The original photographs were presumably returned to their owners.The purpose of collecting these records was to have a slide night, held on 27th August 1939. At the conclusion of the event the collection was donated to the Brunswick City Council, where it was formally accepted by the then Mayor, Ben Warr.Among the negatives, there is a ticket for the evening's event.THE LANTERN SLIDESThese were prepared for the slide night - the formal event honouring the centenary of the City of Brunswick.Many of the lantern slide images appear to be processed from copies of the glass plate negative collection, which made them into glass positives suitable for projection.The theme of the 1939 slide show was 'a History of Brunswick', with images of its Councillors, prominent people and hotels, buildings and landmarks.These slides do not represent the entire collection of glass plate negatives as only a selection of the glass negatives were copied as Lantern Slides.Researchers should note that there are limited viewing facilities available to access these items.GLASS PLATE NEGATIVESThe majority of the glass negatives are copes of original photos, pinned onto a board and photographed onto 4 x 3 plates. Some negatives are a larger format and a few of these appear to be originals.At the time of transfer (2011), particular slides were pointed out to PROV as being possible points of interest including an image of Steve Hart (slide Number 96), a member of the Ned Kelly gang and the first wave of Australian troops being farewelled in Brunswick prior to embarkation to the First World War.Only a selection of the glass plate negatives were reproduced for the slide presentation.There are limited viewing facilities available in the PROV Reading Rooms to access these items.PHOTO ALBUMThe photo album was complied by the Brunswick Historical Association and contains images of Brunswick from first settlement to city. It also contains images of key members of the community.