Summary

This photograph depicts a photograph, mounted on boards, in which a Chinese man and boy are posing outside a building constructed of rock walls and timber windows. Inscribed on the photograph is, "Teacher & Scholar in Blind School Started by Miss A. Oxley." This may refer to the Queensland Institute for the Blind, Deaf and Dumb, which was officially opened in 1893 in Brisbane. Alice Oxley was a member of the committee that founded the school. The man is seated on a bamboo chair next to a piece of equipment being operated by the boy, who is using what is perhaps a screwdriver in his hands while his bare feet operate two large wooden pedals. Pieces of timber and cloth are on a small table between the two and the man holds a pile of papers on his knee with one hand, and displays a single sheet of paper with the other. The boy wears a simple, light-coloured Chinese style shirt and trousers. The man also wears a Chinese style shirt and trousers of a dark-hued, lightweight fabric, perhaps silk, with socks and Chinese style shoes.

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.