Historical information

Image 2D
Great Hall at Montsalvat built 1938-52
View of mud brick section of Main Hall
Designed by Justus Jorgensen


The Alistair Knox Collection
The Alistair Knox Collection is a series of mounted enlarged photos of mud brick houses and related subjects. The collection is understood to have been put together by Alistair Knox although it is the work of several unacknowledged photographers. For some years it was held by the Building Department of the former Eltham Shire Council and was then passed to our Society for safekeeping. Some of the photos have been used in Knox's books and from time to time some of them have been part of various historical displays. As far as we know there has not been a public display of the whole collection which numbers about forty photographs.

The collection has been copied on to slides for the purpose of this meeting and to be retained as part of the Society's pictorial collection.

Alistair Knox 1912 - 1986 is acknowledged as the founder of Eltham's mud brick building movement. Many of the buildings shown in the collection are of his design and he was also involved with the construction of several of them. Others are the work of his contemporaries and associates such as Peter Glass, Gordon Ford, and John Harcourt.
(EDHS Newsletter No. 145 July 2002)

Physical description

Black and white print mounted on card
35mm Colour positive transparency (copy of print)
Mount - Black and White

Inscriptions & markings

Handwritten notes in pencil re details of building, year of construction, owner, designer, builder, etc