Ritchie Brothers, Auburn, N.S.W. (manufacturers of railway carriages, goods and coal wagons and agricultural implements) : pictorial material, 1870-1955

PXA 697/vols. 1-4
R 881

fonds

1870-1955

Graphic Materials, Drawings, Photographs, Objects, Textual Records

132752

3 albums (308 photoprints)
4 drawings, col.
193 photographs
1 date stamp (metal with wooden handle) - 18.2 x 9 x 4.6 cm.
1 item of textual material - letter (typescript)

The company began in 1857 as a single blacksmith's forge at Parramatta operated by R.A. Richie (see photograph of the shop taken in 1870 at PXA 697 v.4/194). His son, Robert Fergus Ritchie was his successor and he started the business at Auburn in c. 1890. By 1893 it was managed by the Ritchie Brothers and prospered until the late 1950's as a manufacturer of railway rolling stock and agricultural implements. -- ML 427/83
For biographical information about Robert Adam Ritchie (1836-1891) see the Australian Dictionary of Biography vol. 6

PXD 679
Volume 1.
Auburn Works, 1901-1938 (1 album, 190 photographs, chiefly railway rolling stock, trolleybuses and trailers including a series of photographs showing men working in the machine shop, machining high explosive shell cases in 1916)

Volume 2.
Auburn Works, 1910-1920 (1 album, 45 photographs, chiefly farming machinery & implements including ploughs, harrows, wool and hide presses. Also army hospital wagons)

Volume 3.
Railway rolling stock, 1889+ (1 album, 73 photographs, chiefly loader wagons for railway and coal mining companies)


Volume 4.
N.S.W. Railway photographs including carriages, engines, wagons, vans and trucks. Also US Army stationary boilers; Sub-contractors' gathering for the 25 pounder gun project dinner at General Motors-Holden's Ltd, Pagewood, 1942; Model of Major Segraves racing car; Staff photographs; Company emblems (drawings); R.A. Ritchie blacksmith shop at Parramatta, 1870 (193 photographs + 4 drawings)

R 881
Ritchie Bros. Auburn, N.S.W. [company date stamp] / made in Germany
("16 X" -- on base)

Access via appointment - Applies to R 881

Contents list (compiled by Library volunteers in 1996) available in the Mitchell Library Reading Room -

No. 194 (Vol.4) Ritchie blacksmith shop at Parramatta taken in 1870 by the American & Australasian Photographic Company, 11 Barrack St., Sydney (dated from The mechanical eye in Australia : photography 1841-1900 / Alan Davies & Peter Stanbury. Melbourne : Oxford University Press, 1985 (pp. 122 & 199)

For information about the agricultural machinery and implements manufactured by the company between 1875 and 1913 see [Collection of catalogues of agricultural implements manufactured by Ritchie Brothers]. Auburn, N.S.W. : The Firm, 1875-1913. (Q631.3029494/1 Mitchell Library)