Summary

This photograph depicts a woman posing for a staged portrait. This photograph was taken in North Queensland but the exact location is unknown. She is seated in the corner of a verandah, where a timber-slat floor is just visible in foreground, with two large, thick rugs draped from the walls to the floor as a backdrop. On the left is a potted fern and on right is a potted plant, and the woman holds two roses in her lightly-clasped hands which rest atop an open book. Her hair is swept into a bun and she wears two small brooches and a small, heart-shaped locket or pendant on a chain. The dress she wears is of a plain fabric in a medium hue, decorated with piping, velvet and lace bodice insert, bodice pleats, embroidered decorative lapels, ruched sleeves trimmed with lace, velvet sash, and two bands of darker trim along the skirt hem. Creases in the dress suggest it has been ironed.

The photographs in this collection were taken by the Reverend Frederic Charles Hall (1878-1926) during the period 1902-1909 when he was the Anglican Curate appointed to Georgetown in North Queensland. Hall's foremost hobby was photography. He used both a half-plate camera with tripod made by J. Lancaster & Son, Birmingham and a quarter-plate Austral No. 3 made by the Australian company, Baker & Rouse. Glass negatives from Ilford and Austral were used; developing was done by the photographer himself and printing by exposure to sunlight.