At Work and Play - images of rural life in NSW 1880-1940

fonds

1880-1940

Graphic Materials, Photographs, Photographs

153691

Digitised

Photographs - 6916 copy negatives

In 1988, funded by the NSW Bicentennial Council, the State Library of NSW devised a project to collect images of rural NSW. Project co-ordinator Alan Davies and photographers Jenni Carter and Shayne Higson, toured regional NSW, visiting 24 towns. At each town members of the public were invited to bring in their photographs for inspection by the project team. Suitable images were copied, and the original returned to its owner. Selection criteria included a pre-1940 date and that the subject of the image could be identified. Alan Davies described the basic criterion as "Will this photograph be of interest to other Australians?" Generally portrait photographs were not copied. Data sheets were filled out to record any information the donor could recall about each image.
About 7000 images were selected, and put onto a videodisc, called "At work and play", in 1988/89. In January 1999 digital copies of the videodisc images were made available on the Internet.

Reference:
At work and play : our past in pictures / [compiled by] Alan Davies. Sydney : State Library of New South Wales, 1989.

Each image in this collection is individually catalogued and includes subject heading access.

Out of copyright

Microfilm copy of the master negatives available at MAV/FM4/10714-10727