VPRS 19081 Photographic Prints, Sea and Shipping Vessels

Full description

This series consists of printed photographs of shipping and sea vessels. Each photo generally depicts just one ship, usually in black and white, however some are in colour.

It appears as though the majority, if not all, of this series formed the private collection of a Malcolm Dippy, who lived in Adelaide, South Australia. He was a member of the World Ship Society, which in part could have been a source of some of the material which makes up the collection. It is unclear how the collection came into the possession of the Melbourne Port Corporation (VA 4028) after 2006. 

Many, but not all, of the photos have hand-written on the back of the print the name of the vessel depicted. On the back they often also feature the name of the photographer as well as the name of the person or organisation from whom the negative was originally obtained, and sometimes a date. The meaning of the date references appears to vary between when the original photo was taken (present on both originals and copies) and the year of the vessel’s construction.

The location/date of where and when the vessels were photographed are not always clear, however as the primary photographer was based in Adelaide, many photos appear to have been taken off the coast of South Australia, primarily Port Adelaide. Other photos may have been taken by other photographers around the world, and the negatives were sent to Malcolm Dippy, who then produced the prints. Other photographer/collectors names include P.C. Hunt, J.Y. Freeman and N.J. Kirby. The majority of the photos measure 6” x 4” (15 cm x 10 cm), but some are smaller or larger. Many of the photos have been reproduced into postcards or mounted onto card.