Historical information

Daniel Rutter Long was born in England, after training as a pharmacist he, his wife and family emigrated to Port Phillip, Victoria in 1840. By 1843 he had his own chemist shop in Bourke Street, later erecting a well known pharmacy on the corner of Bourke and Exhibition streets. During the gold rush of the 1850s he purchased gold at the shop for shipment to a Quaker syndicate in London. Retiring from the business in 1857 Long took up painting, sometimes returning to his original profession. He painted hundreds of landscapes in other colonies as well as in Victoria. Long participated in local affairs and was one of the earliest members of the municipal council. Later he was elected mayor and instrumental in the in the erection of Prahran Town Hall. He was also a member of the Police Court Bench for many years. Daniel Long died at the age of eighty-three in 1886. (State Library of Victoria)

Significance

This photo forms part of a collection of photographs gathered by the Shire of Eltham for their centenary project book,"Pioneers and Painters: 100 years of the Shire of Eltham" by Alan Marshall (1971). The collection of over 500 images is held in partnership between Eltham District Historical Society and Yarra Plenty Regional Library (Eltham Library) and is now formally known as the 'The Shire of Eltham Pioneers Photograph Collection.'
It is significant in being the first community sourced collection representing the places and people of the Shire's first one hundred years.

Physical description

Digital image
35mm B&W negative