Lecture to reveal 'the gold mine under the bed'

September 25, 2007

Old family photos are "an historical gold mine". That's the message of a free public lecture to be presented tomorrow (Wednesday 26 September) as part of the Regional Conference of the Australian Historical Association (AHA) now under way at the University of New England.

Historians from throughout Australia are meeting at UNE for three days (September 24-26) to discuss the sources, uses, and presentation of history, as well as the stories themselves. Professor Alistair Thomson has travelled from Monash University in Melbourne to show some of the old photos he's been working on, and to discuss the historical information that they reveal. His talk, at 9 am tomorrow, titled "Family snapshots as historical evidence: life stories, family photographs and postwar Australian domestic life", will be presented as this year's AHA Anniversary Lecture.

Alistair Thomson (pictured here) is the co-author (with Jim Hammerton) of Ten Pound Poms: Australia's Invisible Migrants, published by Manchester University Press in 2005. Four women involved in that study – British migrants to Australia in the '50s and '60s – have given him collections of photos, letters and journals that, he says, "give detailed and intimate evidence about events and experiences, and changing relationships, attitudes and feelings, as they negotiated their way through migration and the dramatically shifting roles and expectations for women in each country".

During his talk, Professor Thomson will be showing about 30 of these photos and discussing what they do – and don't – reveal about home buying and building, the acquisition of new domestic technologies, housework, childcare and the division of labour within the home, the significance of the family car, and the role of the backyard.

"I hope that these four case studies will address more general questions about the type of evidence that is provided by family photographs and how we can best use photographs – alongside other sources – to understand the past and its changing meanings and significance in family lives," he said.

The AHA Anniversary Lecture is delivered each year by a distinguished historian on a subject considered to be of general interest to the local community as well as professional historians. Everyone is welcome to come to Professor Thomson's lecture, and to reflect on what he calls the "gold mine" of family photos still waiting to be brought out "from under the bed".

Tomorrow's free public lecture will be at Duval College, UNE.

THE PHOTOGRAPH of Professor Alistair Thomson displayed here expands to include the UNE historian Dr David Andrew Roberts - one of the organisers of this week's conference. It was taken during the conference.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at September 25, 2007 03:04 PM