Colonial Life In New South Wales: Fifty Years of Photography 1855-1905

HISTORY SPRINGS TO LIFE in this remarkable collection of photographs which shows people as they were during the vigorous colonial expansion of New South Wales from 1855 to 1905. Every picture tells an intriguing story, and the whole series adds up to an unconventional social history of the State in its formative years. The panorama of the past becomes vividly real in photographs which show people at work and play, in the solemnity of official splendour, going about their daily Occupations, or using some remarkable new invention such as the motor car. all unconscious that they would ever become "history". Because history is about people, and what they did, and why. Such photographs as these help us to understand that the people of the past were just like ourselves. They were proud of new fashions, apprehensive about international crises, admiring of the march of science, and gaily prepared to accept such new fads as cycling and roller skating. Yet the vast sweep of time brought constant change, and, as this book shows, each generation could feel a new pride in new developments and new worries about old problems. As a social and historical document, the book provides a lively background to sober fact. As a book simply to be enjoyed, it can be dipped into again and again... always with a blend of amusement, wonder, and interest. The author's captions give concise and useful explanations of each photograph, and his brief history and description of photography shows how the camera began to record history as it was made in New South Wales.