Australian Exhibition of Women's Work

Last updated

Australian Exhibition of Women's Work
Souvenir categlogue of the Women's Work Exhibition, Melbourne 1907.jpg
Souvenir catalogue of the Women’s Work Exhibition
Date23 October – 30 November 1907 (1907-10-23 1907-11-30)
Venue Royal Exhibition Building
Location Melbourne
Patron(s) Queen Alexandra
Organized by Alice, Lady Northcote

The first Australian Exhibition of Women's Work was held for five weeks in 1907 in Melbourne. It featured the decorative arts and those associated with women. Contributors included Susanne Vilhelmine Gether and The Society of Arts and Crafts of NSW, solo violinist Gertrude Healy, painter and potter Flora Annie Landells, designer Eirene Mort, Tasmanian wood carver Ellen Nora Payne, composer and conductor Georgette Augusta Christina Peterson, kindergarten expert Emmeline Pye, and painter and interior designer Daisy Rossi. The exhibition opened on 23 October and closed on 30 November at the Royal Exhibition Building. [1]

Contents

Origins

The exhibition was created by committees of women across Australia, and around the British Empire e.g. in London, Madras and Bloemfontein, South Africa. [2] It was considered a catalyst for further change, as contributors saw what others had made, when they came to see their own work. [3]

Poster

The exhibition's poster was chosen in open competition and designed by H.L. Atkinson from Bendigo, Victoria. It showed six craftswomen being welcomed at Melbourne's Royal Exhibition Building. [2]

Content of the exhibition

The exhibition featured the decorative arts and those associated with women. However women were receiving education and training in several areas, and the exhibition was seen as the harvest of original and applied novel work. Women had always created art but the exhibition hoped to show how these skills could be turned into a business as designers or trained draughtswomen. Needlework art had over 1,000 entries. [4]

Australian Exhibition of Women's Work certificate (1907) by Eirene Mort Australian Exhibition of Women's Work certificate 1907 by Eirene Mort.jpg
Australian Exhibition of Women's Work certificate (1907) by Eirene Mort

Eirene Mort who had already completed work for Liberty's was one of the exhibitions supporters. She designed the certificates given to class winners. [3] She had hundreds of entries herself in a variety of classes. Her designs were noted for her use of Australian flora and fauna as subject matter. [4]

Music was one of the arts - Georgette Augusta Christina Peterson's music featured in a book by Ida Sherbourne Outhwaite and her sister [5] and Peterson conducted a choir of 1,300 women. [6] Florence Maud Ewart served as co-conductor for the exhibition, and she won first prize for her composition "God Guide Australia," [7]

Prizes and medals were given for exhibits and for essays. The medals were bronze, and they included the motto "The Cross of Christ is My Light". [8]

The exhibition has been credited with being "the most complete expression of the state of decorative arts at the start of the century". [4]

Notable contributors

Impact

The exhibition's impact was very high. The national parliament, and all the state parliaments, had a day off in honour of the exhibition's opening. The driving force for the exhibition had been Alice, Lady Northcote, wife of the UK Conservative politician and Denmark's Queen Alexandra was the patron. [2] It was opened by Alice, Lady Northcote and Pattie Deakin who were the wives of Australia's Governor General and its Prime Minister. Fifteen thousand people attended on the first day for the opening ceremony, and over the five weeks there were 250,000 visitors. [8]

The exhibition was intended to celebrate women's work and to educate. [8] However, in 1907 the women of Melbourne were not yet allowed to vote in state elections. [2] Deakin organised a creche, [8] and there were demonstrations of kindergarten teaching by Emmeline Pye from Melbourne Teachers' College. [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ida Rentoul Outhwaite</span> Australian artist (1888–1960)

Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, also known as Ida Sherbourne Rentoul and Ida Sherbourne Outhwaite, was an Australian illustrator of children's books. Her work mostly depicted magical creatures, such as elves and fairies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adela Pankhurst</span> British-Australian suffragette and political activist (1885–1961)

Adela Constantia Mary Walsh was a British born suffragette who worked as a political organiser for the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in Scotland. In 1914 she moved to Australia where she continued her activism and was co-founder of both the Communist Party of Australia and the Australia First Movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mac.Robertson Girls' High School</span> School in Australia

The Mac.Robertson Girls' High School is a government-funded single-sex academically selective secondary day school, located in South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Entry for Mac.Rob, which is operated by the Victorian Department of Education, is by competitive academic examination. It is unique in its status as a statewide provider for girls in Year Nine to Year Twelve. The equivalent for boys is its brother school, Melbourne High School. Each year, over 3,000 candidates sit the entrance examination for a total of approximately 960 places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Meldrum</span> Australian painter

Duncan Max Meldrum was a Scottish-born Australian artist and art teacher, best known as the founder of Australian tonalism, a representational painting style that became popular in Melbourne during the interwar period. He also won fame for his portrait work, winning the prestigious Archibald Prize for portraiture in 1939 and 1940.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Methodist Ladies' College, Perth</span> School in Perth, Western Australia

The Methodist Ladies' College, Perth, is an independent, Uniting Church, day and boarding school for girls, located in Claremont, a western suburb of Perth, Western Australia.

The National Gallery of Victoria Art School, associated with the National Gallery of Victoria, was a private fine arts college founded in 1867 and was Australia's leading art school of 50 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Violet Teague</span> Australian artist (1872–1951)

Violet Helen Evangeline Teague was an Australian artist, noted for her painting and printmaking.

The Society of Arts and Crafts of NSW is a guild of artists in New South Wales, Australia established in 1906. It could be the oldest Australian craft organisation. The society continues as Craft NSW.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chronological list of Australian classical composers</span>

This is a list of Australian musical composers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melbourne Teachers' College</span>

The Melbourne Teachers College was built in 1889-92 as the principal teacher training institution for the State of Victoria, Australia. It is located on Grattan Street, Carlton, on the grounds of the University of Melbourne. After various additional facilities and name changes in the following century, in 1989 it was amalgamated with the University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ada May Plante</span> New Zealand born Australian painter

Ada May Plante was a New Zealand-born post-impressionist artist who was one of the founding exhibitors in the Post-Impressionist Melbourne Contemporary Group. She was a member of the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portia Geach</span> Australian artist, feminist (1873–1959)

Portia Swanston Geach was an Australian artist and feminist. She was a founder and a president of the New South Wales Housewives' Association, as well as a president of the Federal Association of Australian Housewives. The Portia Geach Memorial Award, established by a legacy from Geach's sister, is Australia's most significant prize for Australian female portrait artists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eirene Mort</span> Australian artist, writer (1871–1977)

Eirene Mort (1879–1977) was an Australian artist, art teacher, printmaker, cartoonist, fashion designer and one of several founders of the Society of Arts and Crafts of New South Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Annie Rattray Rentoul</span> Australian lyricist and childrens writer (1882–1978)

Annie Rattray Rentoul was an Australian lyricist and children's poet and story writer, best known for books illustrated by her younger sister, Ida Rentoul Outhwaite.

Alice Christina Irvine was an Australian domestic science teacher and author of the Central Cookery Book.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susanne Gether</span>

Susanne Vilhelmine Gether (1857–1943) was a Danish–New Zealand woodcarver associated with The Society of Arts and Crafts of NSW and the role of women. She left Denmark with Kate Busck and arrived in New Zealand in 1890 and founded a studio for woodcarving in Dunedin. She became a citizen and then left for Sydney where she taught carving and weaving and helped found the society. She left in 1911 with May Barron and died back in Denmark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muriel Binney</span> Australian painter

Muriel Mary Sutherland Binney born Muriel Hasler was an Australian painter and inventor. She won a silver award for a 19 metre long painting at an international exhibition in 1908 and a silver medal for her inventions in 1929 at the International Exhibition of Inventions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emmeline Pye</span> Australian teacher and lecturer (1861–1949)

Emmeline Pye was an Australian educationalist, teacher and lecturer. She was one of the first trained in kindergarten ideas and she opened the first one run by the state of Victoria in 1907 in Brunswick.

Flora Annie Margaret Landells born Flora Annie Margaret Le Cornu was an Australian painter and potter. She is credited with inspiring interest in pottery in Perth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellen Nora Payne</span> Australian woodcarver (1865–1962)

Ellen Nora Payne was an Australian woodcarver.

References

  1. "First Australian Exhibition of Women's Work, 1907 : Second Class Diploma awarded to Miss A.M.E.... - Catalogue | National Library of Australia". catalogue.nla.gov.au. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Britishness Abroad: Transnational Movements and Imperial Cultures. Academic Monographs. 1 January 2007. p. 163. ISBN   978-0-522-85392-6.
  3. 1 2 3 "Diploma - Second Class, First Australian Exhibition of Women's Work, 1907". Museums Victoria Collections. Retrieved 18 February 2024.
  4. 1 2 3 Sayers, Andrew (2001). Australian Art. Oxford University Press. p. 113. ISBN   978-0-19-284214-5.
  5. Langmore, Diane, "Ida Sherbourne Outhwaite (1888–1960)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 20 February 2024
  6. Patton, Faye E., "Georgette Augusta Christina Peterson (1863–1947)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 20 February 2024
  7. Sadie, Julie Anne; Samuel, Rhian (1994). The Norton/Grove dictionary of women composers. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN   9780393034875 . Retrieved 4 October 2010.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "WOMEN'S WORK EXHIBITION, MELBOURNE 1907". 4 April 2023. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
  9. Hunt, Jane E., "Susanne Vilhelmine Gether (1857–1911)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 3 October 2023
  10. Lynch, Peter, "Gertrude Healy (1894–1984)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 18 February 2024
  11. Erickson, Dorothy, "Flora Annie Landells (1888–1981)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 18 February 2024
  12. Dufour, Mary, "Ellen Nora Payne (1865–1962)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 19 February 2024
  13. Erickson, Dorothy (2005). "Rossi, Daisy Mary (1879–1974)". Australian Dictionary of Biography . National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISSN   1833-7538 . Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  14. Factor, J., "Emmeline Pye (1861–1949)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 17 February 2024

37°48′17″S144°58′17″E / 37.80472°S 144.97139°E / -37.80472; 144.97139