George Hasler in Melbourne to his daughter Muriel staying in Sydney, March 1880
Date1880
Object numberANMS0231[001]
NameLetter and envelope
MediumInk on paper
DimensionsOverall (Letter): 100 × 130 mm
Overall (Envelope): 55 × 70 mm
Overall (Envelope): 55 × 70 mm
ClassificationsEphemera
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Jerry Grover
DescriptionA handwritten letter from George Hasler to his seven-year-old daughter 'Moola' (Muriel). In the letter he tells Muriel that both the turtle and Bantam hens are missing her during her visit to Sydney with her mother Emily and sister Ethel.
Muriel would later grow up to become Muriel Binney, amateur painter, etcher, illustrator and inventor. Her mother Emily was photographer Emily O'Shannessy who had been a partner in the well regarded studio Johnstone, O’Shannessy & Co. of Melbourne. Her husband George Hasler took over the studio operations so Emily could look after the children. In 1885 the studio, which she had started, moved to larger, architecturally designed studios in Collins Street, it was considered the most luxuriously appointed studio in Melbourne (Lewis).HistoryMuriel Mary Sutherland Binney (1873-1949) was an amateur painter, etcher, illustrator and inventor. She lived at Warren Lodge, Elizabeth Bay, with her surgeon husband Edward who had a medical practice in Macquarie Street and their sons John and Richard.
From 1912 the family spent some time in England while the boys were at school. Back in Sydney they lived at Vaucluse. Edward, a specialist in children’s diseases, died in 1927 of longstanding multiple sclerosis. After this, as her granddaughter’s recollect, Muriel frequently travelled overseas, presumably in connection with her inventions. Edward reportedly had disapproved of his wife’s passion for inventing things, which did not find full expression until 1929 when she presented her inventions to the British Society of Inventors and showed some at the International Exhibition of Inventions.
Muriel Binney lived at Watsons Bay in the 1930s but continued to travel while her sons looked after her affairs. In 1934 she went to Russia. She became more eccentric in the 1940s, clothing herself in reportably bizarre outfits bought in Paris many years earlier and apparently developing a drinking problem. She was later committed to the Parramatta Mental Asylum where she died of heart disease and chronic bronchitis on 11 May 1949, aged 74. Her body was cremated at Rookwood Crematorium.SignificanceMuriel Binney, although known as an amateur artist and inventor, was diverse in her out out - ranged from painted works to inventions of prosthetic legs and traveling shoe stands. She exhibited at both art exhibitions and at the 1929 when she presented her inventions to the British Society of Inventors and showed some at the International Exhibition of Inventions where she awarded the silver medal.
1898-1912
