Surf live saving team in uniform

Photographer Harry Brisbane Williams (1869 - 1959)

Date1890s - 1920s

Object number00017040

NamePhotograph

MediumSilver gelatin print on paper

DimensionsOverall: 110 x 155 mm

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Piers Jones

Terms

DescriptionThis group photograph captures 15 male life savers in uniform, four of which are kneeling alongside a rope reel. A young woman in a neck-to-knee bathing costume stands watching at the edge of the surf.HistoryHarry (Henry) Brisbane Williams was born in 1869 in Brisbane, Queensland, and later lived in Balmain and Point Piper - both on Sydney Harbour. Williams was an enthusiastic amateur boater, and took his motor launch SABLE on numerous excursions around Sydney Harbour and the Lane Cove River. He was the photographer for the Water Board of New South Wales, and was a keen amateur artist - becoming friends with a number of prominent Sydney artists including Alfred Coffey. Williams' photographs held in the museum's collection date from the 1890s into the 1950s. His images depict a range of vessels, from passenger ships, cargo ships, Royal Australian Navy vessels, United States Navy battle cruisers, yachts, motor launches, sailing ships, tugboats, ferries, row boats and even paddle steamers on the Darling and Murray Rivers. Williams captures a range of social activities, including Fleet Week celebrations, rowing sculls, surf life saving, picnics, pleasure cruising and swimming. He also photographed a range of ship building activities, dry docks, slip ways and waterfront construction.SignificanceThe Harry Brisbane Williams photographic collection provides an interesting record of a range of activities on Sydney Harbour from the 1890s into the 1920s. An enthusiastic amateur boater and photographer, Williams’ photographs capture a range of subjects – pleasure cruising on his motor launch on the Lane Cove River, yachting on Sydney Harbour, foreshore social activities, surf lifesaving, cargo ships, battle cruisers of the United States fleet, model yachting and the shipbuilding industry. In particular, they are a wonderful personal record of the new phenomenon of leisure motor boating in the early twentieth century.