Zina Oliver personal papers, ca. 1908-1998

MLMSS 9239

fonds

ca. 1908-1998

Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Photographs

876983

0.15 metres of textual material (1 box). Some files contain photographs.

Zina Oliver, nee Zinaida Varguless was born in Russia and during the Revolution her family moved to China. There she married Frank Oliver and through him she attained British nationality. Her husband Frank wrote books and trained Zina to record pictures of their travels. She became a professional photographer and donated her photos to the British War Archives. When the Japanese invaded China, she moved to Hong Kong and became a war correspondent. She was evacuated to Australia in 1942. After the war she worked on various early Australian movies as a stills photographer. Her photographs of cast members Peter Finch, Chips Rafferty and Gordon Jackson were donated to the Australian Film and Sound Archives. In 1988 a video was made of her life by Phillip Roope.

Reference:
Library correspondence file

1. Photographs relating to ZO’s childhood, 1908-1915; modelling in China, 1927-1929; marriage to Frank Oliver; working in Melbourne; arrival in Australia

2. Records including acknowledgement letters for donation of ZO’s photographs, 1989-1996; job appointments and character references, ca. 1940s

3. ZO production photographs of ‘Eureka Stockade’ movie, 1947-1948

4. ZO personal photographs, ca. 1970s-1990s

5. ZO personal records, correspondence, newspaper cuttings, ca. 1990s

6. ZO passport, 1992; 2 address books [undated]

7. Records relating to death of ZO including eulogy written by Valerie Lhuede, ca. 1998

8. Records relating to estate of ZO, chiefly correspondence between Valerie Zheude and Makinson & D’Apice solicitors, ca. 2000

9. Russian-English, English-Russian pocket dictionary. Signed and dated by ZO, 1942

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