On Our Selections

A special collection of cartes de visite photographs

Women Of Adelaide

 

The trade in views and portraiture rapidly became highly competitive and successful. The more successful photographic studios had a stream of 'society' clients who required images to send to relatives as well as to have as treasures to fill out home albums.

The photograph conveyed the message that the women had time, wealth and status. The style of portraiture was equal to that being produced back in England and America. They were symbols laden with meaning.  Those that viewed these images, as small as they remain to 21st century eyes, they knew what the CDV represented.

The city of Adelaide was settled by free people, as opposed to being a convict settlement as the other Australian colonies had been. The colony had welcomed religious refugees from Prussia in the 1840s and by around 1850 had rapidly increased in population to about 15,000.  The city had benefited from money from mining and other ventures and then around the 1870s and 1880s came a boom in wheat. 

With the rise in wealth and public amenity, Adelaide developed its own upper class. These were people who had arrived with connections to society back in England and also included those who had been financially successful in the businesses within the colonies.

It was a time when, as result of money being generated and that was being spent within the colony, the city had a flush of new public and private buildings. And where there was money, such as in the goldfields of the colonies of Victoria, New south Wales and Queensland and over in California, the photographers soon set up.

This series of CDVs represents that era in the 19th century whereby society women were seen as having rank within this far flung colony.

 

The Women of Adelaide in CDVs

Melbourne Photographic Company Rundle St Adelaide                 Charles Niesche 97 Rundle St, Adelaide         P. J. Marchant Waymouth Street, Adelaide                 The Temple of Light J R Dobson & Co, 22 Rundle St, Adelaide             Charles Niesche 97 Rundle St, Adelaide         Otto Von Hartitzsch 113 Rundle St, Adelaide                 Bond & Co 91 Rundle St Adelaide             Charles Niesche 97 Rundle St, Adelaide         Paris Photographic Company 164 Rundle St, Adelaide             Henry Jones King William Street, Adelaide             John Hood Glenelg, South Australia             S. Solomon School of Photography, 51 Rundle St, Adelaide   S. Solomon often used this couch as a key studio prop. The frill on the end has been torn and over several photographs falls apart and finally goes missing.  watch the frill in the next photos         S. Solomon School of Photography, 51 Rundle St, Adelaide                 S. Solomon School of Photography, 51 Rundle St, Adelaide             S. Solomon School of Photography, 51 Rundle St, Adelaide             S. Solomon School of Photography, 51 Rundle St, Adelaide         Edward Farndell 83 Hindley St, Adelaide             Otto Von Hartitzsch 113 Rundle St, Adelaide                 Edward Farndell 83 Hindley St, Adelaide           Melbourne Photographic Company 16 - 18 Rundle St, Adelaide   Geo (George) Freeman: 1842-1910.  The Melbourne Photographic. Company"Freeman has been overlooked in photohistories. He inherited the role of Adelaide's leading studio photographer in the 1870s and was an energetic showman and experimenter with all new processes and trends. A file of his press clippings is held by the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide." reference Gael Newton, Shades of Light Footnote 33         Otto Von Hartitzsch 127 Rundle Street, Adelaide             Otto Von Hartitzsch 127 Rundle Street, Adelaide             N J Caire 97 Hindley St, Adelaide             James R Dobson, Temple of Light 44 Rundle St, Adelaide                 James R Dobson, Temple of Light 44 Rundle St, Adelaide         Australian Photographic Company opposite Town Hall , Adelaide                 Melbourne Photographic Co, Geo Freeman 16 & 18 Rundle Street , Adelaide         Melbourne Photographic Co, Geo Freeman 16 & 18 Rundle Street , Adelaide             Melbourne Photographic Co, Geo Freeman 16 & 18 Rundle Street , Adelaide             Australian Photographic Company opposite Town Hall , Adelaide             Melbourne Photographic Co, Geo Freeman 16 & 18 Rundle Street , Adelaide             Henry Jones King William Srtreet , Adelaide             P J Marchant Waymouth Srtreet , Adelaide             E W Marchant South Australia             E W Marchant South Australia                 Nixon Adelaide             Charles Niesche 97 Rundle St, Adelaide         C A Owen 85 Rundle Street, Adelaide                 Stephen Nixon South Australia         Paris Photo Company (W J Lott Manager) 164 Rundle Street, Adelaide                 Paris Photo Company (W J Lott Manager) 164 Rundle Street, Adelaide         P. Schourup Port Adelaide                 S Solomon 15 Rundle Street, Adelaide             S Solomon 15 Rundle Street, Adelaide         R S Stacy North Adelaide             unknown photographer             James Uren Main Street, Kapunda             P.J.Marchant Waymouth Street , Adelaide             Duryea 150 Rundle Street, Adelaide   This photograph is by one of Townsend Duryea's descendants, possibly his son.         Adelaide Photographic Company S F Crawford, Manager   from the Hanson Family Albums                     Tasmanian CDV   J Bishop Osborne 76 Murray St, Hobart Town         E E Hibling - Johnstone O'Shannessy & Co 7 Collins St East, Melbourne   CDV from Victoria         R Dethridge Bay St, Sandridge   CDV from Victoria         an example of a studio that operated in country Victoria and had a studio on the South Australian border town of Mt Gambier.   THOs  J J Wyatt Warrnambool, Portland and Mt Gambier         Often found in local albums, were photographs taken elsewhere and sent out to the family, or those that were taken while visiting relatives which were then added to the family album on return.   W R Prestwich 155 City Rd London & High Road Tottenham           >> return to contents page >>  More On Our Collections