The CALHN Health Museum has a number of photo albums in its collection. Many are personal photo albums of those that lived and worked at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
Some of these albums are just as notable for the beauty of the album as the photographs that they hold.
This Japanese themed album belonged to Mrs Grace Lockier, who was in charge of the nurses home dining room. It features a lacquered front cover, with ivory inserts. The pages are all hand painted and feature the professionally posed photographs of nurses from the late 1800s and early 1900s.
With the greater access to cameras that came about in the 20th century, the later albums in our collection have more personal connections to their owners. Often showing the more casual, day-to-day aspect of their lives. When viewed as a whole they serve as a visual diary of the lives of the owners.
Photo Album belonging to Kathleen (Kate) Brown. Kate trained at the RAH from 1947 to 1950. More photos from this album can be found here.
The most recent addition to the museum’s album collection belonged to Mrs Hilda Correll (nee Murray). She trained at what was then known as the Adelaide Hospital. She graduated around 1919, and then went into home or private nursing. The album covers these years of training and then follows her later career, travels and personal life.
The personal photographs held in these albums often capture the interesting little details not seen in the more official and staged photographs of the hospital setting.
These photo albums provide evocative insights into the lives of those who worked and trained in the health setting 60 to 100 years ago.
Written by Jonathan Hull, CALHN Health Museum