Collection 1: Holtermann Collection : photographs of goldfield towns in N.S.W. and Victoria; Sydney and Melbourne streets and buildings, 1871-1876

sub-fonds

between 1871 and 1876

Graphic Materials, Photographs

61874

Digitised

3477 negatives - glass

A meeting between gold miner Bernard Otto Holtermann and photographer Beaufoy Merlin in Hill End in 1872 resulted in one of the most astonishing photographic documentations ever undertaken.
Holtermann had been associated with the recent discovery of the world’s largest specimen of reef gold, weighing 145 kilograms, extracted from the Star of Hope mine at nearby Tambaroora. Merlin, an itinerant photographer, had just opened a temporary studio in Hill End. In January 1873, the two announced their plans for Holtermann’s great International Travelling Exposition, which would publicise the potential of their adopted country to the world through photography.
Merlin and his assistant Charles Bayliss had already photographed some of the gold producing towns of the colony and Holtermann’s patronage enabled them to continue the undertaking, using a larger camera.
Merlin had begun his photographic career in Victoria in 1866 and within a few years had developed a unique style of outdoor photography. Charles Bayliss joined American & Australasian Photographic Company in Melbourne and the pair headed north into New South Wales, photographing towns along the way.
When Beaufoy Merlin and Charles Bayliss arrived in Sydney in September 1870, they had already completed an extraordinary documentation of “ almost every house in Melbourne, and the other towns in Victoria.” They were aware that their venture was unusual and contemporary advertising by the American & Australasian Photographic Company reflects a considered understanding of the photographic medium and an intellectual approach to their work.
“The chief characteristic and distinguishing feature of the Company’s style of work, is the introduction of figures into the photograph – the most complete and life-like portraits of individuals who happen, or may choose to stand outside, being incorporated in the picture.
The A&A Photographic Company desire further to remind the public that these negatives are not taken for the mere immediate object of sale, but that being registered, copies can at all times be had by or of those parties residing in any part of the colonies wherever the Company’s operations have extended, thus forming a novel means of social and commercial intercourse.”
Nevertheless, it is not surprising that Merlin and Bayliss headed west in 1872 with the new gold rushes. The cry “Rush-O!” meant money for businesses, including photographers. A studio for the A&A Photographic Company was built on land owned by Holtermann in Hill End and excursions were made to surrounding areas by horse drawn caravan.
The photographic process of the day required the photographer coat each plate just before use and develop it immediately before it lost sensitivity. For the itinerant photographer, this meant taking a portable darkroom wherever he went. Despite the difficulty of the wet plate process, the comprehensive goldfields photography of Merlin and Bayliss has provided a unique documentation of frontier life.
Merlin fell ill and died from pneumonia in 1873, leaving his assistant the task of documenting towns for Holtermann’s Exposition. Consequently, Bayliss toured Victoria the following year, but returned to Sydney in 1875 and began making giant panoramas of the city from Holtermann’s house in North Sydney. The venture was to cost Holtermann over ₤4000, but resulted in the production of the world’s largest wet-plate negatives and several panoramas. One, measuring 10 metres long, astonished audiences overseas and received the Bronze award at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876 and a Silver Medal at the Paris Exposition Universelle Internationale in 1878.
Only a small percentage of the A&A Photographic Company’s output has survived, but 3,500 small format wet plates negatives (including extensive coverage of the towns of Hill End and Gulgong) and the world’s largest wet plate negatives, measuring a massive 1 x 1.5 metres, are held by the Library.

In 1951, Keast Burke, editor of Australasian Photo Review, wrote to Mitchell Librarian Phyllis Mander Jones, enquiring about Bernhardt Holtermann, a name associated with several nineteenth century panoramas he’d seen in the Library. She replied that his daughter-in-law, Mary Holtermann, lived in Chatswood and might have his photographic plates. The negatives were donated to the Mitchell Library in 1952 by Bernhardt Holtermann's grandson, Bernhard, and became known as the Holtermann Collection.

The Holtermann Collection is the name given to a collection of over 3,500 glass-plate negatives and albumen prints, many of which depict life in New South Wales goldfield towns. It also includes numerous photographs of Australian rural towns and the cities of Sydney and Melbourne taken between 1871 and 1876.

This collection is arranged by size of negative, from quarter plate to whole plate, then imperial, mammoth and finally 3 of the world’s largest wet plate negatives. The original negative numbers have been retained. Each negative has been catalogued individually.

BOX 1-5
Views of Gulgong
Includes some views of Hartley and Hill End

BOX 6-13
Views of Hill End

BOX 14-31
Studio portraits taken in Hill End

BOX 32-37
Stereographic views of Melbourne, Sydney and country towns

BOX 38
Portrait of Sophia and Esther Holtermann ; Machinery of Pullen's battery, Hill End

BOX 39
Transparencies of clipper ship Aviemore and corvette Atalante; Views of Woollahra and Watsons Bay; The Moon, taken with the Great Melbourne Telescope

BOX 40
Views of Wellington

BOX 41
Views of Orange

BOX 42-43
Views of Hartley, Turon Valley, Gulgong, Hill End including Tambaroora Cemetery

BOX 44
Miscellaneous
Includes studio portraits and outdoor images of Holtermann’s child on horse with Aboriginal groomsman Fred Grunway and man on horse

BOX 45
Studio portraits, including group portraits

BOX 46
Studio portraits and group portraits
Includes a view of Beechworth, Victoria

BOX 47
Studio portraits and group portraits
Includes interior views of Weir & Embleton's cordial factory, Hill End

BOX 48
Studio portraits and group portraits
Includes portrait of Holtermann’s daughter

BOX 49
Views of Hill End including gold mines and batteries

BOX 50-54
Views of Rockley, Trunkey, Montefiores, Carcoar, Blayney, Wellington, Orange, Bathurst and Dubbo

BOX 55-61
Views of Sydney and suburbs

BOX 62-66
Views of Melbourne and suburbs

BOX 67
Views of Bendigo (Sandhurst)
Includes panorama taken from St. Paul’s tower, quartz crushing machinery, gold mines and batteries

BOX 68
Views of Ballarat, Heathcote and panorama of Beechworth
Includes image of a group camping beside a river

BOX 69
Panorama of Beechworth, views of Bright, Wagga Wagga, Goulburn, Young, Ironbarks, Dubbo and panorama of Yass district
Includes State School No. 1560, Victoria and Melbourne Lodging House

BOX 70
Panorama of Melbourne taken from Government House tower

BOX 71
Hill End views and panorama including gold mines and batteries.
Portraits of B.O. Holtermann with the Holtermann nugget

BOX 72
Views of Geelong
Miscellaneous - includes images from panoramas of Melbourne and Sydney; Warship Atalante in dock, Sydney; Presbyterian Church, Hill End; Servant bells and gas making machine at Holtermann’s residence, Sydney; Streetscape Trunkey; The Moon, taken with the Great Melbourne Telescope; Mount Erin Convent, Wagga Wagga; Sketches of Nepean Towers, Douglas Park

BOX 73
Nine miniature portraits of an unidentified Freemason; View looking east towards Circular Quay from Princes Street, The Rocks

BOX 74
Holtermann’s residence, North Sydney; Views in Goulburn district; Photographic cart at Heathcote and Orange; Sydney streetscapes; Mansions, Elizabeth Bay; Panorama of Bathurst

BOX 75
Victorian scenery

BOX 76
Panorama of Ballarat taken from the Town Hall tower

BOX 77
B.O. Holtermann at the Middle Head fortifications, Sydney
Panorama of Sydney taken from tower of Holtermann residence, North Sydney
Interior and exterior views of Exhibition hall, Prince Alfred Park, Sydney

BOX 78
Melbourne - Bank of Australasia, Bank of Victoria, Scots Church, Government House.
Sydney - Funeral cortege of James Goodenough, North Sydney; Holtermann's residence, North Sydney; Holtermann family and their Post Office Hotel, York Street, Sydney
Sandhurst (Bendigo) - Pall Mall

BOX 79
Panorama of Melbourne taken from Government House tower
Views of Geelong and [Stawell ?]

BOX 80-83
Panoramic views of Sydney
Includes image of gold mines and Holtermann shooting party camp in the bush

XR 45a
XR 45b
XR 46
Three photographs of Sydney Harbour from the Holtermann residence

This collection is arranged following the order the negatives were found in. The negatives were grouped in 83 boxes, with a number, understood to be contemporaneous and inscribed by the photographer, present on each negative. These numbers are retained in the call numbers of each item.

Out of copyright:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

Content lists for Holtermann Collection: content-lists.sl.nsw.gov.au/tabular-list/holtermann-collection-index-parts

For an account of `Holtermann's Exposition' by the photographer, Beaufoy Merlin, see 'Town and Country Journal', 27 September 1873

A guide compiled by Library Society Volunteers, 1980-1985, is available at PXD 533 and MAV/FM6/854
This guide was used to catalogue the Holtermann collection and includes maps

Guide to the Holtermann Collection / compiled by Mr Len Reid and Mr Otto Neumann, Library Society Volunteers, 1980-1985.

Holtermann photographic collection

Reference 35mm positive microfilm copies (3 reels) are located at CY 817 (BOX 1-9), CY 818 (BOX 10-14, 38, 40-60) and CY 819 (BOX 61-74). Copy negatives are at ONCY 25.
Master copy prints are filed at PXA 4998

Negatives cleaned, rehoused and rescanned 2011-2012 for digitisation project and exhibition "The greatest wonder of the world"

The Greatest Wonder of the World - State Library of New South Wales (23 February - 12 May, 2013)