Series 01: Alan Anderson further papers, ca. 1942-1945, together with papers of Neil McDonald, ca. 1997-2006

MLMSS 7838

series

ca. 1942-17 July 2006

Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Photographs

837046

textual material and 4 photographs (1 box)

FOLDER 1
11 letters from Damien Parer to Alan Anderson, dated 17 June 1942 – 13 June 1943 (letters dated 20 May 1943 and 25 May 1943 are addressed to Anderson but open with salutations to "Alan (Anderson) & George (Silk)" and to "George & Alan", Parer asking Anderson to send these letters to Silk)(54 pp. in total); 8 envelopes addressed to Anderson from Parer (postmarks mostly indistinct or removed); letter from Frank Bagnall (Australian war photographer) to Anderson, dated 22 Jan 1943 (1 p., torn); letter from Anderson to “Cap” (probably Frank Hurley, head of the Dept. of Information photographic unit in the Middle East), dated 22 Aug. 1943 (4.5 pp.)

FOLDER 2
5 war notebooks of Alan Anderson, containing brief notes of film shot, names and addresses, brief travel notes, clothing lists and notes on signals, map reading, electricity, magnetism and the telephone, and 1 black & white baby photograph; circuit diagram hand-drawn in pencil on 1 sheet; 1 printed Signal Register (Army Form B 2504), partly completed in pencil; printed information sheet for Kodachrome film (Regular) K135; Kodaslide leaflet; Civilian Registration (British Subjects) identity card issued to Alan Anderson, war photographer, Dept. of Information, issued at G.D.D. Sydney (undated)

FOLDER 3
A folder concerning Anderson’s dispute with the Department of Information – typescript notes, carbon copies of 2 typescript letters sent to the Minister of Information in 1943 (8 pp. in total); one ms. letter from Anderson to family, dated 10 June 1945 (7 pp. fragile condition); 1 received telegram from Alan Anderson to Mrs? Alan F. Anderson, informing of arrival in Australia on leave, date stamped 13 March 1942

FOLDER 4
A letter from Shirley Hines (in England) to Neil McDonald in 2006 (4 pp.), describing her recollections of Damien Parer, with enclosures: photocopies of 1 photograph of Parer and 3 of Parer with Hines? (probably those described in Hines' letter, taken in her grandmother's garden in Melbourne on one of Parer's visits); photocopy of 1 photograph of Hines' brother? (probably that described in Hines' letter as taken by Parer in the Mediterranean while on HMAS Perth); photocopy of a ms. letter from Parer (in New Guinea) to Shirley dated 2 Mar. 1943 (3 pp., incomplete); photocopy of typescript letter from George Silk to Parer which Parer then sent to Shirley (2 pp.); photocopy of an inscription written by Parer in the front of Will Dyson’s book Australia at War.
1 colour photo of Olive Cotton and Elizabeth Parer; 2 colour photos of Neil McDonald talking to Gough Whitlam.

This correspondence between Parer and Anderson overlaps and continues the sequence of letters at MLMSS 7402

Neil McDonald papers conjecturally dated from colour photographs of McDonald in conversation with Gough Whitlam, possibly at the `Whitlam on Parer' evening at the State Library in 1997 (see McDonald, N., Damien Parer's War. Rev. ed. South Melbourne, Vic. : Lothian, 2004, p. xv), to date of letter from Shirley Hines