Douglas T. Kilburn
1847
Group of Koorie Men

Engraving, from a daguerreotype
Archive Farms
The Patrick Montgomery Collection, Object No. 2013.269
 
Publication: Illustrated London News, January 26, 1850

 
Geoffrey Batchen, Apparitions Photography and Dissemination, Power Publications, Sydney, 2018, fig 59
 
Notes: In 1847, the English-born photographer Douglas Kilburn (brother of London based daguerreotypist William Edward Kilburn) opened Melbourne's first commercial photographic studio. As a way of attracting attention to his business he took at least eight daguerreotypes of Aboriginal people from the area around Melbourne. These daguerreotypes were sent to England to be used as the basis of illustrations, of which this is one. Five of the daguerreotypes have survived and the National Gallery of Victoria owns three. They are the earliest surviving photographs of Australia's Indigenous people.
 
LL/112636