Historical information
The Victorian Amateur Cinema Society created this scrapbook for Mrs Olive Hamilton in 1954. Mrs Hamilton was an Emerald local who was an official photographer for the 1954 Royal Visit by Queen Elizabeth II. Mrs Hamilton (with the help of Mr Hamilton as film producer) created the ‘Vivat Regina’ film to document the 1954 Royal Visit. The film was shown by the couple around Australia for those to enjoy who could not experience the visit first-hand. After this film tour, the scrapbook was then gifted to Mrs Hamilton as a memento of the official events, dignitaries and audiences associated with the tour. On Mrs Hamilton’s death, this scrapbook, along with other associated material, was donated to the Emerald Museum.. Although scrapbooks are commonly found in museum collections, this is a rare example for its type, containing newspaper and magazine clippings of the 1954 Royal Visit that are not found in other collections. Together with other Olive Hamilton material in the collection, the scrapbook has a high interpretive capacity, by contributing to the Museum’s purpose of presenting the stories of important individuals from the Emerald community throughout its history.
Scrap book contains a working record of the Hamilton's documentary making. The contents document the various screening venues, endorsements and accolades given to Olive (mostly) and William Hamilton. It should be noted that signatures of important persons are within this album.
Significance
The scrapbook is of historic, artistic and social significance. It contains a record of Olive Hamilton’s working life as an official photographer of Queen Elizabeth II’s 1954 Royal Visit, an important historical event given Elizabeth II was the first reigning monarch to ever visit Australia. The scrapbook holds social significance as a record of the Royal Family’s importance to the Australian public at the time. This is demonstrated through the large number and types of places the scrapbook toured, as well as the diversity of people who contributed to the book. The scrapbook holds artistic significance by celebrating photography as an art form, in particular some of the many photographs taken by Olive Hamilton during the 1954 Royal Visit and on other occasions. It is also socially significant to the Emerald community as a record of the contribution to Australian history made by an Emerald resident.
Physical description
This hard cover scrapbook is bound in deep red velvet. It has 165 pages, several of which are bookmarked by yellow, red and pink ribbon. Its first page reads ‘in appreciation this book was presented to Mrs Olive Hamilton of Emerald by the Victorian Amateur Cine Society at the screening of Vivat Regina in appreciation of her services on behalf of the society, signed President, Secretary, 1954’.
The scrapbook pages contain a mixture of ‘visitor book’ style accolades written in pen, along with newspaper clippings, invites and other cut outs that have been stuck on the pages using glue or tape.
Inscriptions & markings
Front page: Victorian Amateur Cine. Society in appreciation. This book was presented to Mrs. Olive Hamilton of Emerald by the Victorian Amateur Cine. Society of the screening of 'Vivat Regina' in appreciation of her services on behalf of the society signed by the President, Secretary 1954.
