Taken in the year 1900, this glass slide captures an image of St. Joseph's Church, a Roman Catholic Church that is still present today at 9 Church Street, Beechworth. This was one of many churches that was established in Beechworth during the second half of the nineteenth-century. This trend began with a focus on Anglican faith; however, in the early 1850s, Father Patrick Smyth, a priest from Maynooth, Ireland, advocated for the establishment of a Roman Catholic Church in the town. Roman Catholicism quickly grew to be the second largest religious group in the area; this was primarily due to the work of Father William Tierney, a priest from Dublin who arrived in Beechworth in 1859. Tierney personally fostered the growth of many Catholic schools and churches in Beechworth, as he viewed it to be a significant area for the prosperity of the religion. St. Josephs Church was officially established in 1866, with the Bishop of Melbourne, Dr Goold, laying the foundational stone of the building. The estimated cost of the building in its entirety was approximately twenty-thousand pounds. Further additions to the building - including a second aisle, tower and spire - were proposed for the church, but were ultimately never built. Lantern slides, sometimes called 'magic lantern' slides, are glass plates on which an image has been secured for the purpose of projection. Glass slides were etched or hand-painted for this purpose from the Eighteenth Century but the process became more popular and accessible to the public with the development of photographic-emulsion slides used with a 'Magic Lantern' device in the mid-Nineteenth Century. Photographic lantern slides comprise a double-negative emulsion layer (forming a positive image) between thin glass plates that are bound together. A number of processes existed to form and bind the emulsion layer to the base plate, including the albumen, wet plate collodion, gelatine dry plate and woodburytype techniques. Lantern slides and magic lantern technologies are seen as foundational precursors to the development of modern photography and film-making techniques.This glass slide captures social and historical significance as it represents the development of Beechworth as a prosperous and thriving town; a development that occurred during the second half of the nineteenth-century. It also shows the development of religious institutions in the area, specifically the growth of Catholicism. Thin translucent sheet of glass with a circular image printed on the front and framed in a black backing. It is held together by metal strips to secure the edges of the slide.burke museum, beechworth, lantern slide, slide, glass slide, plate, burke museum collection, photograph, monochrome, churches beechworth, st. joseph's church, catholicism beechworth, roman catholic churches beechworth, father patrick smyth, father william tierney

Until 1892 the first Catholic School in Wodonga, a simple wooden skillion which was erected behind the sanctuary of St. Francis’ Chapel, was overseen by Dean William Tierney of Beechworth, Father Michael O’Connor P.P. of Chiltern and his successor Father Charles Van Der Hayden. The lay teachers, Miss Fagan and Miss O’Leary. In 1892 four Sisters of Mercy from Albury were invited to make a foundation at Wodonga. On the 6th February 1892, Mother M. Aloysius Tierney (1864-1948), Sr. M. Gabriel Comins (1868-1945), Sr. M. Celestine Coyle (1871-1857) and a postulant Miss Mary Jane Conlan (1874-1939) (Sr. Mary Joseph) travelled by horse drawn cab from the Albury convent to a rented house in Hume Street. The parishioners of Wodonga were anxious for the nuns to have their own residence, and on the 19th March 1893, the foundation stone for St. Joseph’s Convent was laid and consecrated by Bishop Stephen Reville on behalf of Bishop Crane of Sandhurst. The convent was designed by architects Gordon and Gordon and built by Fraser and Wilson of Melbourne at a cost of £1000. Construction was expected to take three months. The Wodonga and Towong Sentinel of Friday 24 March 1893 included the following description of the Convent. “In the front is a handsome verandah, with an oratory on the right and a community room on the left. Entering the door, the reception and music rooms are met with on opposite sides, and there are five cells in succession at the back of the reception room, whilst on the other side of the passage the reverend mother's cell, the refectory, pantry, and kitchen are found. At the extreme rear of the building there is a linen room, a bathroom, and a servant's room, There is also a verandah on either side of the convent. The height of the walls is to be 12 feet and 13 feet”. The Convent was officially opened on Sunday 13 August 1893 St Joseph’s Convent became part of St Augustine’s school in 2001.These images are significant because they capture the history of an important religious building in Wodonga, Victoria.Three black and white photographs of St Joseph's Convent in Wodonga in the early 1900s.sisters of mercy wodonga, st joseph's convent wodonga, st augustine's church wodonga