This slate comes from the Glasgow Estate (Ellen Isabel Glasgow died in Warrnambool in 1971). It is presumed it was used by members of the Glasgow family. Slates such as this were used by all school children in Victoria (and presumably elsewhere) in the infant and younger age classes from the early days of the State until the early 1940s. It had the advantage of the work being able to be easily erased so that other work could be written. A slate pencil was used to write on this board.This is significant firstly as an example of past educational tools used by small children and so has important social significance as every school child of past generations would have used a slate. It is also important as it belonged to the Glasgow family. John Glasgow (c.1847-1925), at his property, Blackwood Hill, Wangoom, was a prominent cheese maker in the late 19th century and was one of the first shareholders and a member of the first Board of Directors of the Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory at Allansford. The dairying industry is of key importance in Warrnambool economic history.A slate made from quarry slate with permanent lines for handwriting with a wooden frame. The surface is much marked and scratched. Scratch marksschool slates, educational tools of the past

Alick Gipps (1928-2014) was the son of Richard Brook Woodthorpe Gipps (1872-1946) and Mary Alys Kirkland (1889-1981), and the older brother of Christopher David Gipps (1930-52) and Rosemary Alison Gipps (1930-2013). While many scrapbooks of the period were created by, and or added to by their child owners, it is believed that "scrapbooks were considered by later Victorian parents to be an educational tool to teach children how to organise and classify information and to develop their ‘artistic’ senses" (Margaret Simpson, MAAS, 2008), and that the scrapbooks may have been compiled by the parent, rather than the child.The scrapbook is part of a large and significant collection of items donated by Rosemary Vaughan-Smith, past member and office-bearer of the Kew Historical Society. between 2005-12. The collection includes costumes, scrapbooks, autograph books, artworks and objects.Hard cover, 50-page album covered in red cloth and red leather corners and spine, the latter embossed with the words 'SCRAP BOOK' in gilt lettering. On the inside front cover, top left is an oval green label with retailer information - "WEDDING CHRISTENING / R. E. PENN. / Bible Warehouse / 213 REGENT St / BIRTHDAY PRESENTS". The paper used for the pages are in alternating blue, cream and green-coloured sections. The front pages of the scrapbook include the signature of the owner as Alick Kirkland [Goulburn] Gipps (1928-2014). Items pasted into the scrapbook include black and white and coloured illustrations, photographs, and extracts from books. Items selected for the scrapbook fill a single page or are arranged in groups. The oldest items in the scrapbook appear to date from 1859 and include a colour cover of the Illustrated London Almanack and pictorial handbills of electoral results for the seat of Holmesdale and Filmer in Kent, England. While other items in the book are of later periods, most can be classified as sentimental Victorian-era illustrations. The biblical scenes in the scrapbook reflect one aspect of the values of the Gipps family. The focus in the album on material about or published in Great Britain also suggests a preoccupation with, and a valuing of, traditional British culture. This is confirmed by the memberships of Alick and his sister Rosemary (Gipps) Vaughan-Smith in the English-Speaking Union Club, for which they welcomed guests at an 'Elizabethan party and barbecue' during the Coronation festivities of June 1953. (The Age, 3 June 1953, page 5). The album entered the collection of the Kew Historical Society as part of the Raymond and Rosemary (Gipps) Vaughan-Smith donation.manuscripts - kew historical society, rosemary vaughan-smith, vaughan-smith collection, alick kirkland goulburn gipps, scrapbooks - 20th century