Something for a wet day… or for bored restorers.
On February 11 this year I found out that a photo I had long had amongst my mother’s effects was of my great grandfather and his five daughters. It needed restoring. I then discovered that my laptop, now three years old, had a dodgy copy of Photoshop Elements (version 6). So I scanned the photo and started learning the program, beginning my first restore on February 12.
Of course now I’m addicted. I have to have a daily fix.
The original photo and one of my many attempts at a restore are posted below.
While working on the photo I looked for clues to the date, the occasion and the place.
James died in August 1910. The girl seated on the extreme right of the photo was called Zillah - because her older siblings were named alphabetically and the mother died giving birth to Zillah (May 21, 1899). (Oh, and Zillah was the thirteenth child - key Twilight Zone theme!)
Despite looking like a sultry teenager, Zillah must have been much younger. James died when Zillah was only 11 years old. And you can see from her size, and her bow and pigtails - as opposed to her sisters’ pompadours - that Zillah was only a kid. I’d estimate - from her size and from comparing her looks to photos of one of my own granddaughters at a similar age - that Zillah was only about 7 or 8 in the photo, thus dating it to around 1906/7.
Are there any other clues to in the photo? What was the occasion? I have details of births, deaths and marriages of her family members and none occurred during the likely time of the photo. But they had many cousins where they lived (Patrick’s Plain - now Singleton - in New South Wales) all from large families, so it could have been a cousin’s baptism, marriage or funeral.
And what about the things James and Zillah are holding? Is it a church sheet of some sort in James’s hand? A title deed? No, too small for that. I can make out “8 8” I think on what looks like the back of the card (?). And in Zillah’s hand, is it a school writing book - but didn’t they use slates in those days? To my eyes it also looks like an old autograph book - but that doesn’t really make much sense - or does it? What would be the occasion for those items, for everyone being all dressed up and the photo being about the father and the girls? After all, James also had 7 surviving sons in the 1900s.
I was going to pose the allocation of a date as a question for Rootschatters, but a few days ago, after dismissing family events (BDMs) for a likely date, I started googling around with the idea that perhaps they were having their picture taken before heading off to some show or other - an opera or a play perhaps.
I thought, was it possible to find out what shows were put on in Singleton in the late 1900s. Were shows put on in Singleton? Indeed, was it possible to find out when and where and what shows would have been on in Australia in the late 1900s?
Amongst other things, I came up with a play called “The Squatter’s Daughter”, which had debuted in Melbourne in February 1907 before going to Sydney, then touring Australia over the next three years.
How appropriate, I thought. Could “The Squatter’s Daughter” give the answer to a photo of a farmer and his daughters? Could that play have been performed in Singleton? Hardly likely… although Singleton perhaps loomed a little larger back then than it does these days. Or maybe the family had travelled to Newcastle - not that far away - to see a show.
I took to Trove (the Australian newspaper archive) and had a “You-bloody-little-beauty!” moment when I found an article in the Singleton Argus for Saturday 16 November 1907. This is how it starts:
“ ‘The Squatters’ Daughter.’
“To-night, at the hall of the Mechanics’ Institute, a realistic drama, with the above title, will be produced by William Anderson’s famous dramatic organisation…”
In 1907 “The Squatter’s Daughter” was the most successful Australian play to date. Co-written by Bert Bailey under a pseudonym, it was later made into two movies. (Of course Bert Bailey himself went on to even bigger things, being best known as Dad Rudd, star of the many “On Our Selection”/“Dad and Dave” plays and movies.)
So it is quite possible the photo was taken in Singleton on 16 November 1907 before the Beattie family went on to the Mechanics’ Institute to see this renowned play. The items in James’s and Zillah’s hands, perhaps a program/playbill and an autograph book, may have been theirs or they may have been the photographer’s props, but they certainly provided clues.
An Invitation to Play:
Below is the original photo and below that one of my many restore attempts.
There is nothing on the back and the only thing I can make out on the front is an “A” and a possible “T” or “F” in the bottom right corner. But, thanks again to Trove, I found there was a photographer named A F Saunders of John St, Singleton, who operated there from July 1900 and into the 1920s. Saunders advertised almost daily in the local news section of the Singleton Argus, often right under stories or advertisements for shows being presented at the Mechanics’ Institute.
Ain’t it wonderful how they come alive again when you find out more about them!
Please feel free to have a play with either image if you wish. James was brown haired and blue eyed. I don’t know the girls’ colouring.
Cheers, Peter.
