Flemington House, Travancore

 

Essendon Historical Society's new publication,  Flemington House, Travancore is to be released in May.

When completed in 1856, this mansion and gardens equalled, if not surpassed, any similar private residence at the time in Victoria. The book’s author, Alex Bragiola, explores the mansion and lives of the Glass and Madden families and has included many photographs never before published.

The book can be ordered for mid-May delivery on the EHS Website Online Shop or by emailing EHS@esshissoc.org.au. Initial price is $35 with free delivery for Moonee Valley and Kensington.

Under The Rainbow: The Life And Times Of E.W. Cole

  

A new book lately added to the Bibliography of Local and Family History Resources for Essendon, Flemington and Keilor is the above biography of E W Cole, by Richard Broinowski.  Published by Melbourne University Press, the book is to be launched on 4 September 2020.   The Age carried an article about Cole today, "The Man Who Rewrote Retail", pages 4-5 of The Spectrum 29 August 2020.

Other than his fame as the founder of Cole's Picture Book Arcade, Cole was best know locally for residing at the former Coiler McCracken house in Leslie Road, Earlesbrae Hall, which by chance featured in yesterday's blog post about the Essendon Golf Club

An album of photographs of Cole's Book Arcade features a photo of the boss about to travel in style to his place of business.  Compiled by Henry Williams in 1923, the album is now in the collection of the State Library of Victoria: Papers of Edward William Cole, MS 10111.

Check out the stylishly dressed coachman!

Mr Solomon's Maribyrnong

I have just purchased the new book Keilor to Footscray: Mr Solomon's Maribyrnong by Rick Keam, and have added it to my Bibliography of  Local and Family History Resources for Essendon, Flemington and Keilor.

Rick Keam is someone who has walked and fished the Maribyrnong for many years, and in this excellent small study examines just where Solomon's Ford was, and likewise, who Mr Solomon was.  He has carefully footnoted his sources, and introduced some rarely seen map extracts and images to illustrate the whole. Some of the photographs he took himself.

It is a very nicely produced small book, published by Australian Scholarly Publishing in conjunction with the Footscray Historical Society, and edited by well-known historian John Lack.

I am very much enjoying reading the book.  The only thing I complain about is that there is no index!

Bibliography update

I have just taken a few moments to trawl through the catalogues of the State Library of Victoria and the Sam Merrifield Library, looking for any recent publications which I hadn't yet included in my bibliography of Local and Family History Resources for Essendon,  Flemington and Keilor.  

I last updated the bibliography in 2017.  Among the books of local interest I saw the above Remarkable: the Good Guys Story, and also "Whose Little Cottage is This?" 33 Vida St, Essendon: a history, 1945-2014 by Grant and Steven Barlow.   

Some of the books I added have been recently published, others are a little older.  The additions are all highlighted in red.

The Good Guys story started in 1952, when Ian Muir withdraw all his savings to open a small shop in Essendon. Ian Muir had a vision of the future in the electrical appliances industry, and he showed that he could make his vision good.

Steele Creek and the Lady of the Lake

  Steele Creek and the Lady of the Lake was first published in 2013, and has been out of print since 2014.  Owing to popular demand, Christine Laskowski has agreed to get a limited reprint, with revisions.  If you want to have a copy of the book, you will need to reserve one to ensure you don't miss out.

You can download a copy of the form from the Time Travellers website.

The Flemington Institute

This new publication, These Walls Speak Volumes:  a history of Mechanics' Institutes in Victoria, by Pam Baragwanath and Ken James is a comprehensive inventory of Institutes throughout Victoria.  It was a monumental undertaking and is the culmination of many years' work.  I was interested to compare my findings with theirs on the local Mechanics' Institutes, and I found that they had identified an early Institute which I had failed to locate, but of which I had some hints. This was the Flemington Institute, which initially met in the first Flemington National School at the southern end of Mt Alexander Rd, though the location of the library is less clear.  Once I had the time frame spelt out in These Walls Speak Volumes, references to the Flemington Institute were readily located in Trove.  I have now been able to prepare an update for my article on the Early Libraries of Essendon and Flemington. Follow the link for the new section - scroll down a little to find it.  This earlier library predated the next attempt by twenty years.