broken

Students of Victorian photo art history might find this of interest - this looks suspiciously like a tourist set up studio style photo - they were becoming very popular in the late Victorian era. Clues are: the unruffled hats and tidy bows, neatly turned out fashionable day wear dresses, with lace, women in stays and perhaps even corsets, and not sports clothing. The group shows no signs of exertion, or cold weather sporting. Very similar to other tourist photos using false scene backdrops in studios - EX: families sitting in boats with tropical ocean scene behind them. British Queen Alexandra & daughters made one of that style in late 1880s - Also suspect is the difference in perspective and resolution from the men and buildings in the background in respect to the subjects in the foreground. Wonder if anyone else noticed - Pam Eisenberg, photo archivist - OC Register, Santa Ana, CA

Dominus, your observation sounds right on target. And it makes the photograph even more interesting. No wonder some of them look so grim - this photo op doesn't seem to be much fun for some.

DominusVobiscum - You are probably right. Posed. Some other images in this collection were also used in contemprary postcards. This looks like it would make a good postcard to me.

The names I have put in the tags are identified in the book Charles Kerry's Federation Australia by David P. Millar, First published 1981 by David Ell Press Pty. Ltd.

This photograph appears as plate No. 48 in the book; Ladies' toboggan race.

The concealed male behind Amy Pattinson, however, is not mentioned in the book's caption.

I have some doubts that it is a studio shot as there is definitely snow built up on the toboggan. Take into account that this is an Australian shot - unlike the US or Canada for example, there are only a few places in Australia where it really snows, so you couldn't just go grab a wheelbarrow of snow and take it into your studio. For there to be snow on the toboggan they must have been up on the ski fields. I guess they could have been in a studio up at the snows...

I do agree that they are probably tourists and probably not actually going to be doing any tobogganing anytime soon!

really nice !!

This is fantastic!

proper photography..it is true though that today's snap shots will be tomorrows history..a strange concept that history can be tomorrow but true. The older something gets and the more intangible the time from whence it came becomes the more important, historically and artistically it gets.

Turbina famously crashed the party at the 1897 naval review demonstrating the speed possible with turbine engines. See www.btinternet.com/~philipr/Parsons.htm

Shows what a remarkable vessel she was- not many boats that sustained that much damage at that time in history would have been repaired.

Thank you for sharing this wonderfull old picture TWAM.

That's a lot of repairing to do. Thanks for sharing!

This is great! Thanks for sharing... :) (add me as a contact if you want :)