Historical information
The Wodonga Historical Society Haeusler Collection provides invaluable insight into life in late nineteenth and early twentieth century north east Victoria. The collection comprises manuscripts, personal artefacts used by the Haeusler family on their farm in Wodonga, and a set of glass negatives which offer a unique visual snapshot of the domestic and social lives of the Haeusler family and local Wodonga community.
The Haeusler family migrated from Prussia (Germany) to South Australia in the 1840s and 1850s, before purchasing 100 acres of Crown Land made available under the Victorian Lands Act 1862 (also known as ‘Duffy’s Land Act’) in 1866 in what is now Wodonga West. The Haeusler family were one of several German families to migrate from South Australia to Wodonga in the 1860s.
Louis Alfred Haeusler was the 6h child of Johann Heinrich Ferdinand Haeusler and Ernestina Wilhelmine nee Rogasch. He married Ilma Margaret Ernestine Tasker in the Presbyterian Church in Tallangatta on 19th February 1919. Ilma was born in Tallangatta, Victoria in 1900 to Michael John Tasker and Louisa Ida nee Schultz. Ilma died in childbirth in 1928 giving birth to a stillborn child. She was survived by her husband, Louis Alfred Haeusler and one surviving son, John Alfred Lyell who was born in 1922.
Significance
This item is unique and has well documented provenance and a known owner. It forms part of a significant and representative historical collection which reflects the local history of Wodonga. It contributes to our understanding of domestic and family life in early twentieth century Wodonga, as well as providing interpretative capacity for themes including local history and social history.
Physical description
Digital image created from the Haeusler Glass negative collection. A portrait of Louis Haeusler and Ilma Tasker taken on their Wedding Day on 19 February 1919.
Subjects
References
- Dry Plate Photography Dry plate, in photography, glass plate coated with a gelatin emulsion of silver bromide. It can be stored until exposure, and after exposure it can be brought back to a darkroom for development at leisure. These qualities were great advantages over the wet collodion process, in which the plate had to be prepared just before exposure and developed immediately after. The dry plate, which could be factory produced, was introduced in 1871 by R.L. Maddox. It was superseded by celluloid film early in the 20th century.
