Vale Trevor John Hart

Service of Thanksgiving for the life of Trevor Jonh Hart 14 May 2014

Trevor Hart came to the University of Melbourne Archives (UMA) in January 2001 as its Business Archivist.
Trevor was well placed to hold this position due to his previous work with the ANZ Bank: both his familiarity with the business environment of banking and his experience as an archivist were important. His career in the banking industry dated from 1958 and his love of history led him to his eventual career in archiving: he became ANZ Group Archivist from 1983 and Manager of the ANZ Bank Museum and ANZ Art Collection in 1985.

At UMA, Trevor’s management of the business collections was a large undertaking in many senses. UMA commenced collecting business records in 1960, and by 2001 they occupied almost a half of the available shelving. Records from individual companies typically measured hundreds of metres whereas records acquired from the University or the labour movement were rarely this large. Trevor’s task was to arrange and describe these records and make them available to the public as well as to acquire more business records. Within a few weeks of arriving, he commenced negotiations with Colonial Mutual about their records and commenced a project to have listed the 27 metres of Defunct Company Records from the Registrar-General’s Department deposited at UMA by the Public Record Office of Victoria.

Making records available to the public by arranging and describing them was resource intensive and demanding for a lone Business Archivist, but Trevor was soon ably joined by others. Tony Miller, also previously of ANZ Archives, commenced at UMA and assisted Trevor with business collections amongst other duties. Project archivists worked with him on larger collections.

Trevor worked with Gil Ralph, former Western Mining Company Executive and Archives Advisory Board Chair, to establish a group of business volunteers. John Dew, John Reynolds, Allan Schurmann, and Don Fairweather assisted Trevor to make or improve inventories of large business collections. Trevor’s friend, Marten Syme, came on board to list the records of the Port Fairy Solicitor, J. W. Powling & Company.

Simultaneously, Trevor worked with Michael Piggott, Archivist Jane Ellen, and Professor David Merrett, to review the UMA business archives collecting policy. The resulting publication, ‘Making archival choices for business history‘,  was published in the Australian Economic History Review 2004 44:2 185.  Its purpose was to develop a strategy for future acquisitions and re-examine existing holdings and was based on a methodology that had been devised by the business archivists at the Minnesota Historical Society, US. The new collection policy became the script from which Trevor worked to acquire business records for the remaining years of his tenure in the position.

In 2007 Trevor ceased working for UMA and returned to part-time consulting as school archivist at Camberwell Grammar School, Ruyton Girl’s School and Eltham Secondary College. Yet everywhere we look at UMA we see evidence of his dedicated and energetic work in the inventories he created and the collections he acquired. His conviviality will be remembered by those who worked with him, especially his promotion of ‘archives talk’ and Sudoku at morning tea. Farewell Trevor.

Contributor: Sue Fairbanks

Iron Rations Amongst the Archives

As ANZAC day approaches, spare a thought for soldiers who depended on ‘iron rations’ when out in the field.  The ‘Iron Ration’ was first carried by British soldiers during WW1 for use in the event of their being cut off from regular food supplies. The ration pack was generally made up of items such as preserved meat in a can, meat extract, cheese, hard biscuit, tea, sugar and salt. Adopted by many nations, iron ration packs tend to reflect the foods of those nations.

The holdings of Sir Laurence Hartnett record his activities during the 1940s as Managing Director of General Motors and his war service. The collection includes the item pictured below.

'A Military Iron Ration' Prepared by MacRobertson Pty. Ltd. Fitzroy, Victoria, January 1942, Lawrence Hartnett, 1982.0106 Box 10, University of Melbourne Archives
‘A Military Iron Ration’ Prepared by MacRobertson Pty. Ltd. Fitzroy, Victoria, January 1942, Lawrence Hartnett, 1982.0106 Box 10, University of Melbourne Archives

These instructions are for preparing the fruit component of a ‘Military Iron Ration’ in 1945 by the MacRoberstons Company.

Another item in the collection of the Archives (object 5, UOM 280) reveals what Australian soldiers carried as iron rations in 1942.  Featuring a key to open the tin, it contains 3 complete meals, meal one containing

Carrot biscuits 3 oz pkt, Fruit & nut 3 oz block, Meat & vegetable stew 4 oz tin, Peanut butter 1 ½ oz tin, Barley sugar rolls (4) 1 oz, Caramel bar ½ oz, Skim milk powder ¼ oz pkt, Sugar 2 tablets, Tea 4 tablets and Salt 2 tablets

The reverse of the tin is printed with the following statement:  “This Ration is intended for use in circumstances where normal rations cannot be supplied. This tin contains three complete meals separately wrapped in waterproof cartons. When one meal has been consumed, the remaining two meals can be carried on the person and the Tin discarded.  The contents form a completely balanced ration with ample protective (Vitamin) cover. The complete ration in the tin will keep indefinitely, and can be submerged or buried.”  The one at UMA hasn’t been opened, so we can neither confirm or deny this claim.

Contributors: Melinda Barrie & Sophie Garrett

'A.M.F Operation Ration', UOM 280, University of Melbourne Archives
‘A.M.F Operation Ration’, UOM 280, University of Melbourne Archives

 

In Search of Frank Keating

"Prell's Building" on the corner of Queen St and Flinders Lance, owned and partly occupied by Gibbs, Bright and Co. Sears Studio, late 1880s, Gibbs, Bright and Co, 1980.0115 (BWP 3325)
“Prell’s Building” on the corner of Queen St and Flinders Lance, owned and partly occupied by Gibbs, Bright and Co. Sears Studio, late 1880s, Gibbs, Bright and Co, 1980.0115 (BWP 3325)

Economic Historian Bernard Attard recently discovered some key records in the Gibbs, Bright and Co collection concerning Frank Keating’s role in the pastoral rent battle between the Queensland Labour Government and business during the 1920s. Keating was a prominent businessman of that time -partner with the merchant firm Gibbs, Bright and Co and Chairman of the Australian Pastoral Company.

The discovery of a letter series of Keating correspondence between Keating and the Sydney, Melbourne Gibbs Bright & Co office c1910-1925 provided crucial insight into continued British influence on the Australian economy and connections to the mining industry. This was a major find and Attard highlights the value of our business archives and emphasised the importance of institutional collaboration for the success of his project– specifically citing Jane Beattie, Reading Room Officer as been the ‘real explorer’ here.

The image featured above is of one of the buildings built by property developer F.W Prell, Keating was married to one of his daughters. This grand building built in 1886 and located at 7-9 Queen Street, Melbourne is an example of the Chicagoesque architectural style and featured a distinctive crown cornice. Unfortunately this building has since been demolished and the land redeveloped.

Read more about Attard’s research in the latest edition of the UMA Bulletin

Collections used in this research include:

1980.0115 Gibbs Bright & Co

1975.0089 Sir Wilfred Russell Grimwade

Text, Drawing & Print: A Portrait of Joachim von Sandrart

Together with fellow artist historians Geogio Vasari and Karel van Mander, the works of Joachim von Sandrart I (1606–1688) helped lay the foundation for the art historical philosophies in the Western tradition. Unlike Vasari’s Le Vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori  (1550) and van Mander’s Het schilder-boeck (1604), Sandrart’s dictionary of art and compilation of artist biographies, the Teutsche Academie (1675-1679), differs from its predecessors in that it is sumptuously illustrated and of practical appeal.[1]

The scope of Sandrart’s publication exceeded all previous examples of art historiography, but also includes some curious interludes such as translations from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, a reference to the beer produced on his wife’s family estate in Stockau, Germany, and a lengthy autobiography.

 

The Ephesian Artemis
The Ephesian Artemis from the Teutsche Academie (image from BibliOdessey blog; Melbourne UL copy currently on exhibit).

 

The red chalk drawing of Sandrart in the Baillieu Library Print Collection, which had no previous artist attribution, was identified just last year by Sandrart expert, Assistant Professor Susanne Meurer (University of Western Australia), as a self-portrait.[2] Below the drawing is an inscription written in his hand, similar in appearance to those inscriptions which appear below printed portraits. Although he was widely travelled, as the inscription indicates, Sandrart identified himself as being from Stockau, which dates the drawing to after the time of his marriage in 1637.

 

Sandrart self portrait in red chalk.
Sandrart self portrait in red chalk.

 

This drawing parallels his painted self-portrait of 1641, which likewise depicts the same bust in the background.  A close match to the drawing appears in Dr Johann Jacob Volkmann’s ‘improved’ edition of the Teutsche Academie, which portrays Sandrart’s dignified mien, along with his inscription, in the full clarity of a print.[3]

Sandrart’s output of paintings and drawings is substantial, but while he oversaw the production of many prints, he produced few of his own. In the Baillieu’s impression of Sandrart’s Cupid pissing (1640), the wretch holding a urinal for Cupid has been described as both an old man and an old woman.

 

'Cupid Pissing' (1640); etching
‘Cupid Pissing’ (1640); etching

 

Often Cupid is depicted with Venus, his mythological mother, or another strong and beautiful woman. Sandrart’s intention seems to be ambiguous or subversive rather than erotic, although it may also have been an applied one, as the composition is reminiscent of models in an artist’s studio. The grid overlaid on the print suggests that it was copied and used as a primary source. The entry for the print in the Hollstein catalogue records three separate copies have been made after the print.[4]

These works of art provide insights into the discipline of art history and that of Sandrart’s working methods and his character. The Baillieu’s copy of the Teutsche Academie, its important chalk drawing and the overlaid print, all contribute to the construction of an intriguing portrait of Joachim von Sandrart.

Kerrianne Stone (Special Collections Curatorial Assistant (Prints))

 

[1] Baillieu Library Special Collections holds early editions of all three works: the 1550 first edition Vasari; a 1618 edition of van Mander; and the first edition of Sandrart’s Teutsche Academie (1675–79, four volumes bound in two)

[2] For more on Meurer’s prior research into Sandrart, see her article “‘In Verlegung de Autoris’: Joachim von Sandrart and the Seventeenth-Century Book Market” in The Library: The Transactions of the Bibliographical Society 7:4 (Dec. 2006): 419-449

[3] Special Collections does not hold a copy of the Volkmann edition of Sandrart’s Teutsche Academie. The printed portrait, however, is reproduced in Princeton University’s Marquand Library of Art and Archaeology blog post “The ‘German Vasari’?” (accessed 7 April 2014)

[4] F. W. H. Hollstein, German engravings, etchings, and woodcuts, ca. 1400-1700 (Amsterdam: M. Hertzberger, 1954-), 40:16

Fletcher Jones Archive

Fletcher Jones Factory, Pleasant Hill Warrnambool, photograph taken by Melinda Barrie May 2012.
Fletcher Jones Factory, Pleasant Hill Warrnambool, photograph taken by Melinda Barrie May 2012.

The Fletcher Jones collection held at the University of Melbourne Archives provides insight into the events, people and places that shaped the career of this charismatic business entrepreneur and philanthropist; from his early days as a hawker of goods in the Western District, until his retirement in the early 1970s as Managing Director of his successful clothing retail chain, Fletcher Jones & Staff. The company has a special significance to the Warrnambool community, where everybody knows somebody who had been connected to the business. Beyond Warrnambool the clothing brand Fletcher Jones is a household name.

The records documenting this innovative manufacturing business will be available for research access later in 2014. A news release about the Fletcher Jones collection was published in the Warrnambool Standard earlier this week.

Number of posts found: 412

Post type

Previous posts