Magnificent Memento

close up of framed written address dated Narrbari, March 7th 1903, it has a floral illustration at the top and the writing is script in green and red.

On a Saturday evening on the 7 March 1903, a banquet was held to say thank you to a loved and valued member of Narrabri. During the evening, Narrabri’s Mayor, Mr. H. V Mumford, presented Eugene Vincent Coleman (1863-1922) with this hand-painted address, still contained in its original wooden frame. Coleman was born in Boggabri, […]

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Literacy is Power

The laptop of its day, this portable writing desk allowed the writer freedom to move around. Perfect for use next to an open fire or beneath a shady tree in one’s garden, its lower compartments tidily held ink, paper and pens. This late nineteenth-century example belonged to Alexander (1837-1915) and Ann Hanlon (nee Boyd) (1839-1929). […]

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Sign of Respect

From a prominent place on a public drinking fountain in central West Maitland, this plaque saw many a carthorse approach to lap at the cool water in the trough below and townspeople stop to drink from its bubbling spout. The fountain was installed in 1889 in memory of Dr Robert James Pierce, and the plaque […]

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Love of the Soil

In 1886 John Stewart of the farm Mananga, Broughton Creek,  carefully arranged and pressed buttercups, lilacs, daisies, grasses and ferns  in these bound books to create a herbarium. Then he dipped his pen in an inkwell and inscribed his name inside the front covers and recorded the botanical names of the specimens on each page. […]

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