Eve and June Langley pictorial material, ca.1860-ca.1979

PXA 1612
PXD 1268
PXE 1333
MIN 492
ON 492

fonds

ca.1860-ca.1979

Graphic Materials, Photographs, Watercolours, Drawings, Textual Records

913784

approx. 684 photographs - ambrotype, cabinet card, silver gelatin & colour photoprints and 35 mm. and 6 x 9 cm. negatives
1 album (28 postcards) - hand-coloured postcards in mother-of-pearl inlay lacquered boards - 12 x 18 cm.
approx. 175 drawings - ink, watercolour and pencil - 50 x 40 cm. or smaller
2 leaves of manuscript material - typescript carbon copy

Most photographs are apparently taken by Eve Langley, but were received from June Langley together with June's papers in February 1981 (MLMSS 3898).

PXA 1612

49 loose and mounted photographs. Include studio portraits of June Langley with husband?; studio portrait inscribed on verso “To Myra with best wishes from Jessie & Will”; views of 12 Hobson St, Waihi, dated 1962-1963; caravan “Kil-dare”, 1970; view of storefront, “Junior Langley” painted in sign writing on front window; 7 Hindman St, Katoomba, June Langley in back garden; enlargement, inscribed on verso: “Blue Langley, hop picking, Panlooks, Eurobin. Please return. Junior Langley, Campbells Bay, North Shore, Auckland NZ”.

1 album (56 photographs). b&w family snapshots and views on a rural property.

5 sketchbooks

PXD 1268

approx. 175 drawings, ca.1921-1970: ink, watercolour and pencil on paper and card. 1 portrait photograph, undated.

Drawings include watercolours of imaginary scenes (some window mounted), signed Junior Langley (i.e. June Langley?), 1920s-1950s; pencil still life, figure and perspective studies, signed Junior Langley, 1946; watercolour on cereal box cardboard, signed Eve Langley, dated 1960s-1970, including handwritten text; one carbon typescript poem, "Australia Remembered Me", signed in typescript "Chelsea, June 1941, Eve Langley", with date "Friday 1/1/1971" added in biro above, affixed to cereal box cardboard with watercolour view entitled "The Headland, East Africa, August 22 1965" overleaf. Works on cardboard include titles and dates, e.g. "Grass fire near Bullers, Yarrawonga Road, 1970"; "My hut at Rostrevor, Eurobin (ca.1965-7?)".

Some mounts carry label "W. E. Wood (Whangarei) Ltd. Picture Framers", and additional inscriptions. Detached mounts with inscriptions, e.g. "Requiem", "From the Bark Hut 1926, 1927, + Greenwoods Hut 1928", kept with the collection. 2 detached mounts, with "W. E. Wood" label but no additional information, discarded January 2013.

PXE 1333

approx. 463 photographs : colour, silver gelatin, cabinet card. Manuscript carbon copy "List of photos NZ and Australia, 1968 to 1970" found with PXE 1333/Folder 12 (2pp.). 1 album (28 postcards)

PXE 1333/Folders 1-16
Mostly views around the land surrounding the house, with observations of trees, gates, water tanks; photos of books and manuscripts, dolls, cats, and Remington typewriter on the grass outside the house. Includes “The scenes around my place”, Sept 1970 (Folder 11); photos of “The Teddy” (boat?), Laingholm, Bali Hai, NZ, 1968 (Folder 7); 1 b&w photoprint of house and driveway, captioned on reverse “Before / July 1962”; views of Colombo, Beirut, Cairo and coastal views of east Africa, 1965 (Folder 12); and (approx. 293 photographs)

PXE 1333/Folder 17
Approx. 170 colour, b&w and cabinet card photographs, including photographs of Eve and June Langley; others unidentified. Includes 1 view of Iona Lympus; Steve [Eve] at Blue’s [June’s] place, 1965, “before I left for the Piraeus, […?], Greece”; snapshots of “Bert”, 1970, 1971; “The track into the bush from the derricks where I sat on the old chair and where the rubbish tip full of ancient treasure lies. Steve”; Steve & Blue, Paekakariki N.Z.; “Taken at hop picking, Eurobin[?] 1928 … Blue, 12th April”; Miss Wallaby of Pea pickers [snapshot of woman on farm]; the Manuscript cupboard, Sept 1970; “Me, a photograph taken in the Niagara chemists shop, Sept or August 28, 1970”; “Steve & Blue Pearts”; “Blue at Thompsons, Borahmen near Wangaratta, rabbiting”; “Far off in the ranges, the tree I sit under & eat fruit under right down in the rocky canyon, with the harsh voiced[?] creek down below. Love, Steve”; “[Elam?] 1947. From March to May or three months of a five year scholarship. I could endure no more! “Blue” of “Not Yet the Moon”.”

1 postcard album with lacquered covers with mother of pearl inlays, inscribed inside covers “Myra Langley / Photos and scenery of China & Japan”. 28 hand-coloured postcards.

MIN 492
One ambrotype studio portrait of an infant girl wearing a dress, seated on an upholstered chair; unidentified, ca.1860?

ON 492/Folders 1-12
Approx. 320 35mm. and 6 x 9 cm. negatives. Prints at PXE 1333/Folders 1-10 were found together with negatives in corresponding folders at ON 492/Folders 1-10, but all are not matching prints. ON 492/Folders 11-12 originally contained negatives only.

This pictorial material is part of the June Lilian Langley papers, 1901-ca. 1979, at MLMSS 3898 and P3/160.

Negatives and prints found in together in original envelopes have been separated to corresponding folder numbers PXE 1333/Folders 1-10 and ON 492/Folders 1-10. As originally found, negatives and prints found together did not necessarily match, but the original sets have been preserved in the folder numbering. For ON 492/Folders 11-12, the original packet contained negatives only, and for PXE 1333/Folders 11-16, the original packets contained prints only.¶¶PXE 1333/Folder 12 contained a folded carbon copy of a handwritten "List of photos NZ and Australia, 1968 to 1970". Page has been flattened and housed in box PXE 1333.

Access via appointment - Applies to ON 492 and MIN 492

Out of copyright: Applies to photographs created before 1955
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
Copyright status:: In copyright - Applies to artistic works - Life of creator plus 70 years

Francis Glover was an elderly gentleman identified in some of the photographs by the nursing sister at June Langley's nursing home when the photographs were collected by the ML Field Librarian. He was a neighbour at Katoomba and helped Miss Langley by doing her shopping, etc. 'Mia' is Mira Langley, nee Davidson, mother of June and Eve. June and Eve Langley used nicknames for each other throughout their lives; June is identified as 'Blue' in some photographs. According to the ML Field Librarian's notes, June was also known as Blue Peter, and as Junior. Eve was known as Steve; Blue and Steve are characters in Eve Langley's novel The Pea Pickers.

MIN 492 undated; estimated ca.1860, Curator of Photographs, November 2012

Possible signs of mould on some mounts. - PXD 1268

SLNSW label with PXD 1268 reads "Fumigated 27/10/81. Requis. no. 1499".