PICTURES FROM THE PAST
A picture really is worth a thousand words. Family snaps, hand-coloured prints and commercial photographs in the Miss Porter’s House collection paint a vivid portrait of Newcastle life in the early years of the twentieth century. The special display of PICTURES FROM THE PAST will include examples from family post cards and holiday snaps to street scenes and local landmarks. Visitors can also help identify several mystery photographs.

Where did Florence Porter hang the washing to dry? A pre 1919 photograph of her husband Herbert in their Newcastle West backyard helped volunteers at Miss Porter’s House to solve the mystery.
See this and other PICTURES FROM THE PAST in the museum’s monthly display. A picture really is worth a thousand words and the many family snaps, prints, commercial photographs and post cards in the Miss Porter’s House collection paint a vivid portrait of Newcastle life in the early years of the twentieth century. They tell the many stories of Florence and her daughters Ella and Hazel who lived in the house from 1910, when Florence was a new bride, until the death of Hazel Porter in 1997.

See Herbert celebrating an Eight Hour Day Procession on one of the Porter shop’s delivery carts, and enjoying watermelon with friends. Recall one of the many Cottage Creek floods; common in the early twentieth century and which still inundate Newcastle West today. Spot the Gas Works Office, all that remains in 2022 of the nineteenth century Steel Street Gas Works which dominated the view from Florene and Herbert’s bedroom window. Find Florence’s washing line and see Ella and Hazel Porter at Cooks Hill School and posing for one of their first studio photographs.

And the answer to the washing question? Look closely at the photograph and you’ll see a shadow cast by the washing line and it’s clothes prop.

Admission Adults $12 Concession $10 Family $34 Children under 5 and National Trust members Free
Ph 49270202