Names

Royal Adelaide Show photographic collection

IDs

DIR 2

Offline Only

Descriptions

This sub-collection of the South Australian Government Photographic Collection (c.1890-1957) comprises 176 images of the Royal Adelaide Show, spanning the period 1897 to 1945.

This collection includes images taken in the following years: 1897, 1906, 1922, 1924, 1925, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1932, 1935, 1936, 1938, 1939, and 1948. The images captured from 1897 to 1925 show the activities, displays, grounds and buildings of the Royal Adelaide Show when it was located on North Terrace. In 1925 the show moved to its current location at Wayville and photos from 1925 onwards document the grounds, events, displays and the agricultural and horticultural presence at the Royal Adelaide Show until 1948. These images document grandstands and exhibition halls, parades of horses and other animals, prize-winning sheep, cattle, vegetables and bacon, displays of agricultural, viticultural, horticultural and pastoral produce, farm machinery, motor vehicles, wood-chopping competitions, sideshows, schoolgirls giving a cooking demonstration, food and drink stalls and people of all ages enjoying a day at the show.

This collection documents the growth of the Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society of South Australia and the Royal Adelaide Show during the first half of the twentieth century, reflecting the importance of agriculture and horticulture to the state’s economy in this period. It is a visual record that includes the Show’s presence on North Terrace in the city and its subsequent move to Wayville in 1925. The collection offers glimpses of the architecture of the city of Adelaide that no longer exists including the Jubilee Exhibition Building on North Terrace and Centennial Hall at Wayville.

A History SA collection. Access to collection items is by appointment only.

The original glass plates are held by State Records of South Australia (GRG35/342). History SA holds the catalogue and digitised copy set of the collection.

Subjects

Adelaide; Agriculture; Exhibitions; Royal Adelaide Show; South Australia; South Australian history

Glass plate negatives

History SA, South Australia

Coverage Spatial

Adelaide, South Australia; Australia

Coverage Temporal

1897

1948

Related Collections

Dates

2012-05-30 23:43

2011-05-02 11:02