Plague Sydney 1900

A Photographic Introduction to a Hidden Sydney, 1900

by Max Kelly

Doak Press, 1981, [First Edition], ISBN 0959670238, black and white photographs throughout, landscape hardcover, dustjacket

Very Good Condition, a little edge and shelf wear, a little rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, previous owners gift inscription on front end paper, dustjacket shows a little edge and shelf wear with a little rubbing to edges and corners (see photographs)

“Plague Sydney 1900 is a photographic documentary.  Here, it is the photographs that tell the story.  The written words merely provide a background, and adjunct to the photographs themselves.  The book attempts, principally by the presentation of the photographs seen as interesting and telling social documents, to introduce a Sydney that was in the first few years of this century, fairly unknown.  The dozens of flamboyant speeches made by aldermen and other civic worthies to usher in the new century and to welcome Federation made no reference to this hidden Sydney.  With some flair and not a little fervour these men spoke of the achievements, the wealth, the monuments, the egalitarian society, the grand architecture, the remarkable life and the beauty that Sydney had to offer.  Much of it was true.  But it wasn’t the whole story.  Those who read these pictures will realize why.
Most of the people pictured here are dead.  Nearly all of the houses have been demolished and a number of the streets no longer exist.  The book tries to resurrect an aspect of Sydney’s life which, even in its time, was largely forgotten.  Yet for tens of thousands of citizens and their children living in inner Sydney in 1900, this was home.”