Photograph album belonging to Tess van Sommers, 1947-ca 1979

PXA 2195
SLIDES 327

fonds

1947-ca 1979

Graphic Materials, Photographs, Ephemera

9585253

96 photographs - gelatin silver; colour
2 slides - Kodachrome - 35 mm
3 items of ephemera - paper

Tess van Sommers (1919-2011) was a journalist, feature writer, columnist and literary critic. In 1966 she became Executive Editor of Books for Reader's Digest, Australia. During 1967 she worked in New York for Readers' Digest. She also published a number of books including Sydney Sketchbook (1965), Religions in Australia (1966), Historic Parramatta (1978) and Sydney Harbour (1981). As a columnist she wrote a weekly humorous piece for The Sun (Sydney) called ‘Of All Things’. Other weekly columns were ‘Book Talk’ and ‘Point of View’. She married the journalist and yachtsman Lou d'Alpuget, father of the novelist and biographer Blanche d'Alpuget.

Source: Library correspondence file.

The donor is the creator's sister.

The photographs in this album cover the life of Tess van Sommers from the late 1940s until ca 1970s. They include photographs of her travelling in Europe, at work and with friends and family members. There are a number of photographs of her husband Lou d’Alpuget and their love of yachting is captured in a series depicting them sailing in his boat ‘Cherub’. Essentially this is a family album but also includes photographs of Australian cartoonist George Sprod and English writer Norman Douglas. Unlike many family albums all the photographs are captioned and the majority are also dated.

The album also contains membership cards and tickets and 2 slides of Tess van Sommers sitting at her work desk.

This material is held in cold storage and requires 3 working days notice to retrieve. Please submit your request through Ask a Librarian - Only applies to SLIDES 327

Out of copyright: Photographs created before 1955
Copyright status:: In copyright - photographs created after 1955
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

Majority of images are captioned.
Inside front cover inscribed: "Tess van Sommers".

Majority of images are dated.