The historical photographs used in the SA History Week program are from the South Australian Glass Negatives Collection.

To view all of the image used in the 2008 SA History Week program as a slideshow click here.

This Collection has a very interesting history. Between 1890 and 1960 the Department of Lands was responsible for the official photographic record of South Australia. Initially, a government photographic unit, using equipment already owned by the Department of Lands’ Survey Department, began to record government achievements, state celebrations and, for a fee, took photographs for annual reports for other government departments and for parliamentary records.  Over the years, this growing collection also became a repository for photographs specially commissioned by the South Australian Government, including those taken by Frank Hurley in 1935 for the State’s Centenary Committee to record the State after 100 years of European settlement (1836-1936).  

By the 1970s the large glass plates used by the unit were little known and seldom required.  The Department of Lands decided to send them to the South Australian Archives (now State Records).  In the mid 1980s the then Constitutional Museum, a museum of the newly established History Trust of South Australia, undertook the mammoth task of re-photographing the glass negatives onto 35mm conventional film negatives and cataloguing the 14 000 images, using workers employed under the Hawke Labor Government’s Commonwealth Employment Program (CEP). 

Since 1985, the images and catalogue have been available at the History Trust of South Australia for research and use in publications. Extra information and corrections were added to the catalogue by volunteer George Brooks who spent many years at the History Trust as well as at State Records identifying the images that were a mystery to the 1980s cataloguers. The actual glass negatives remain with State Records. The History Trust holds the only catalogue and copy set of the Collection.

Recorded within the Collection are ceremonial events of all kinds, the day-to-day progress of major public works and the growth of townships, ports, industry and trade. The Collection shows South Australians at work and at play. In short, the collection covers everything that interested governments either directly or indirectly.

In late 2005 work commenced on a digitisation project for this significant Collection.  Once completed, by June 2008, it will give researchers a much quicker and more efficient means of tapping into this wonderful photographic record. 

If you wish to either browse or obtain images from this unique Collection, please contact Lynn Drew, Information Resources Manager, History Trust of South Australia on 8203 9873, or email ldrew@history.sa.gov.au.

To view all Glass Negative images used in the 2007 program click here.

To view all Glass Negative images used in the 2006 program click here.