eNewsletter
Newsletter 24 May 2022
News
Bernadette Bean SA Records Management Service Excellence Award
Established in honour of the late Bernadette Bean, the award recognises and celebrates service excellence by eligible SA nominees.
Further information on the award website.
Flyer available here.
Algie's Romance, a 'lost' film
The State Library of South Australia is calling for help from history buffs with knowledge of the Mitcham Hills area. Four photos in the Library's digital collection are believed to be 'stills' from the comedy film Algie's Romance, filmed in South Australia during 1917 and 1918. Unfortunately the photographs have no background information with them, so if you or your family have any knowledge of the area or the film, the library would love to hear from you.
Further information via SLSA website.
Lectures, exhibitions, and events
Book Talk and launch: Too Much Cabbage and Jesus Christ: Australia's 'Mission Girl' Annie Lock
Talk: Riverton Library, Oxford Terrace, Riverton SA. 2pm, 2 June 2022.
Launch: Wakefield Press, 16 Rose Street, Mile End. 3.30pm to 5pm, 4 June 2022.
Annie Lock was born in Rhynie to a large farming family. But she would become famous (and infamous) as a lone female missionary working among Aboriginal people across Australia.
Part girls’ own adventure story, part traumatic colonial tale of child removal and massacres, Too Much Cabbage and Jesus Christ tells the remarkable life of an ordinary girl who did extraordinary, if not always admirable, things.
Come and hear award-winning historian Catherine Bishop delve into Australia’s recent past and reveal some of the highlights (and lowlights) of this difficult woman.
Dr Catherine Bishop is a historian living in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Macquarie University. Too Much Cabbage and Jesus Christ is her fourth book and first biography.
Please RSVP for the Wakefield Press book launch by 30 May.
See the flyer for the Riverton Library event here
See the invite for the Wakefield Press event here
Historical Society of South Australia June Meeting
SHAME, SHOCK AND AWFUL STRIFE IN THE HOLY VILLAGE: Two sojourners who grabbed headlines across the country and kept the good (and not-so-good) folk of Adelaide vastly entertained in the early 1900s. Presented by Isabel Story.
M C ‘Thistle’ Anderson was the daughter of the Deputy Master of the Melbourne Mint. She emigrated from Scotland as a child, spent her formative years in Melbourne and left her convent school behind to join the chorus of JC Williamson’s theatre. She became a writer, enjoyed several high-profile relationships and then married Adelaide stockbroker, Herbert Fisher in London. Eventually they came to live in our fair city. Here she penned a little book, and then another, which made her notorious, or fabulous, depending on your perspective. Adelaide society took great offense at her shameless no-holds-barred opinions and history but they didn’t know the half of it.
At around the same time as Thistle was observing and enduring our ‘holy village’, another Scot visited South Australia, this time to save souls and enlarge his coffers. The Reverend John Alexander Dowie was a former South Australian preacher who had migrated to America and made a fortune as a faith healer and founder of Zion City in Illinois. As Elijah the Restorer, his fire and brimstone evangelism brought strife wherever he went. In 1904 he caused a riot at the Adelaide Town Hall. Windows were broken and Dowie had to flee for his life as police tried to hold back the screaming crowd. His visit here thus proved a little shorter than expected.
Friday June 3 at 7.30pm at Burnside City Uniting Church, 384 Portrush Road Tusmore (Visitors $5)
Overland Telegraph Sesquicentennial Symposium
Featuring a round of speakers presenting newly researched information about the Overland Telegraph Line. 21 July 9.30am - 1pm. Allan Scott Auditorium, University of South Australia, City West Campus.
Further information and registration via Eventbrite
The OT-150 website is publishing a host of information in original short articles called "telegrams" to longer papers called "monographs". There are also resources for researchers such as reproductions of documents and lists of diaries and workers. These are all available on their website's library.
Visit the OT-150 website
Wilson History Oration: Out of the Blue: collaborative and community-based history in Australia
Presented by Associate Professor Tanya Evans. 2 June 2022, 5.30pm - 6.30pm. Online.
Further information via Professional Historians Australia
Watandar my Countryman
When Afghan-Hazara refugee, photographer, and human rights activist Muzafar Ali discovers that Afghans have been in Australia for 160 years it inspires a photographic journey to meet their descendants, his Watandar. This exhibition is a multimedia exploration of identity which presents the lives of a largely hidden community, the Afghan Cameleer Descendants. May 2 - June 3, Kerry Packer Civic Gallery, Hawke Building level 3, UniSA City West Campus.
Further information on the UniSA website.
Building SA: Journey to Uncertainty
Many of the histories of the early days of South Australia tell of the affluent and influential early SA settlers, but what of the equally important stories of everyday families? The Pioneers Association of SA brings to you the fascinating stories of men, women and children who courageously journeyed halfway around the world in pursuit of a dream; a better life for themselves and the generations to follow. They farewelled family, friends and familiar places for an uncertain future.
Open Weekdays 10 - 27 May, 10am - 3pm, Level 3, Stafford House, 25 Leigh Street, Adelaide. Bookings required for talks.
Further information on the Pioneers SA website.
'Please respect all life anew - the Muses in an Australian context'
An exhibition by South Australian artist Kathleen Patitsas, attempting to understand the ancient Greek's conception of visual art, and depicting the muses in the context of the Australian environment. Open now until June 2, dates and times vary.
Further information here.
Australian Heritage Festival
With the new theme 'Curiosity', the 2022 National Trust Heritage Festival is packed with events to bring heritage to life. Many events are free, online, or held in Adelaide so there is something for everyone. The festival is on until 31 May 2022.
View the events calendar on their website.
Flinders History Research Seminars: Semester 1
The schedule for this semester's Flinders History Research Seminars is now available. They will be held on Fridays from 11:15am - 12:30pm in room 149, Social Sciences South (Bedford Park) and via Microsoft Teams.
The next seminar features History Honours students from Flinders University on 27 May.
View the students and their topics here.
ANU Centre for Environmental History: Environmental Exchanges
A new seminar series dedicated to showcasing and discussing the new research that engages with key themes in environmental history. Seminars will be held approximately once a month on Thursdays, with all in 2022 being held via Zoom as well as in-person at the ANU's Acton campus.
Further information on the ANU School of history website here.
The first series is on the topic of Oceans, with the next seminar on 16 June 2022: Dr Alessandro Antonello (Flinders University), 'Antarctic Krill and the Temporalities of Oceanic Abundance'.
Registration and further information here.
Lust for Lifestyle: Modern Adelaide Homes 1950-1965
A new exhibition in the State Library Gallery on the architecture of the post-World War II boom. Open until 5 June 2022.
Further information on the State library website.
Book releases
Dancing Before Storms: Five Revolutions that Made Today's World by Robert T. Harris
America 1776. France 1789. Europe 1848. Russia 1917. These five revolutions shaped the power structures of our modern world. Dancing Before Storms is about times of anger and upheaval, the connections between them, and the personal stories of men and women who had power and influence but were overtaken by events.
Further information on the Wakefield Press website
Matthew Flinders: The Man Behind the Map by Gillian Dooley
In Matthew Flinders: The Man behind the Map Gillian Dooley looks to the primary sources to discover Flinders as a friend; a son, a brother, a father and a husband; as a writer, a researcher, a reader, and a musician - and above all as a romantic scientist. Published by Wakefield Press.
The book will be launched by Keith Conlon at the SA Maritime Museum on Thursday 26 May as part of the SA History Festival. Bookings essential.
Further information and booking via the SA Maritime Museum.
Murder in the Colony, by Paul Tucker
An anthology of all 391 reported murders in South Australia from 1836 to 1886, from stabbings to shootings, to shipwreck massacres and the case of Elizabeth Woolcock - the only woman executed for murder in South Australia.
Further information and ordering through Wakefield Press
South Australia 1919-1939: Essays from the PHA
This collection of essays from the Professional Historians Association (SA) gives new perspectives of a little-researched period of the history of South Australia. Topics include the flu and polio outbreaks, built heritage, aviation history, women in pubs, and the attempt to erase Germans from the map.
A book launch will be held Monday 30 May, 5.00-6.30pm at the Hetzel Lecture Theatre, State Library of SA, North Terrace. Bookings required by phone or email.
Peter Donovan
0413 910 234
[email protected]
Further information on the SA History Festival website.
Opportunities
Casual History Convenors, School of Humanities and Languages, UNSW
Casual teaching opportunities available in term 3, 2022. Two courses (ARTSS2271 Inventing Modern Australia, 1900 to Now, and ARTS2272 The European World, 1500-1800) have casual convenor vacancies. Applications due 12 August 2022.
Please contact the UNSW History convenor Dr. Zora Simic for more information: [email protected].
Trove trial
Thanks to Commonwealth government funding, Trove is offering a free trial to Australian galleries, archives, museums, and historical societies that would like to reach a vast audience and see their collection in a national context. The trial period ends 30 June 2022.
Further information here.
Calls for papers
Australasian Mining History Conference 2022 held in Burra, South Australia September 18 - 25.
Further information and abstract template on the AMHA website.
Information circular no.1 available here.
