Burke Collection
Key items in the collection
Highlights from this collection demonstrate its historical significance and variety.
The Keast Burke Collection includes a rich variety of books, journals, exhibition catalogues, scenic views, and other printed items. Burke collected these because they focused on the history of photography or contained interesting illustrations—whether historical, technical, or artistic. The collection features both Australian and international publications. Some notable examples are:
- Australian men of mark (2 vols, 1889)
- Edward M Estabrooke, The ferrotype and how to make it (1872)
- Antoine Fauchery, Lettres d’un mineur en Australie (1857)
- Harry Furniss, Australian sketches made on tour [1899]
- Hereford B George, The Oberland and its glaciers, explored and illustrated with ice-axe and camera (1866)
- GC Hermann Halleur, The art of photography (1854)
- T Frederick Hardwich, A manual of photographic chemistry, theoretical and practical (1864)
- Thomas Cradock Hepworth, The book of the lantern (1888)
- James Hingston, The Australian abroad: branches from the main routes round the world (1879)
- Frank Hurley, Gems of Jenolan [192–]
- Monte Luke, Under sunny skies: a magnificent pictorial (1931)
- George Mason, Pictures in black and white [189–]
- Men of mark: a gallery of contemporary portraits of man ... (1877)
- FC Tilney, The principles of photographic pictorialism (1930)
- JE Matthew Vincent, The Australian irrigation colonies on the river Murray in Victoria and South Australia [1888]
- Garnet Walch, Victoria in 1880 [1880]
- Charles Waldack, Treatise on photography (1865)
- Frederick John Wilson, Typographic printing machines and machine printing [1879].
- Among the many photographic journals in the collection are:
- Australasian professional photographer (Sydney, 1916–21)
- Australian journal of photography (Sydney, 1933)
- Australian photographic journal (Sydney, 1886)
- Interpress—foto (Halle, 1960)
- Photograms of the year (London, 1895–1957)
Burke’s photographic collection spans about a century—from 1850 to 1950—and includes many types of photographs such as:
- daguerreotypes
- ambrotypes
- cartes de visite
- bromides
- lantern slides
- and more.
The works come from Europe, Asia, North America, and Australia. Notably, there are many New Zealand and Pacific Island photos taken by Burke’s father, Walter Burke. Other photographers represented include:
- Frank Hurley
- Lionel Lindsay
- Monte Luke
- Herbert Ponting
- Julian Smith.
The collection also contains albums featuring views of places like:
- Sydney
- Geelong
- Hobart
- Italy
- the Middle East.
Keast Burke’s personal papers give insight into his work and interests. They include letters (some exchanged with photographer Jack Cato), newspaper clippings about photography, drafts of articles, notes, exhibition catalogues, and more. The letters with Cato, dating from 1948 to 1955, reveal the research behind Cato’s important book The story of the camera in Australia (1955).
About Eric Burke
Eric Keast Burke (1896–1974) was born in Christchurch, New Zealand. His family moved to Sydney in 1904. He was educated at Sydney Church of England Grammar School and the University of Sydney. During World War I, he served in the Signal Corps and later enlisted in the Australian Imperial Forces in 1917. He served in Mesopotamia, Persia, and on the Kurdistan frontier. Later, he wrote a history of his unit called With horse and morse in Mesopotamia (1927).
Career in photography and publishing
In 1920, Burke joined his father, Walter Burke, as associate editor of the Australasian photo-review,, published by Kodak (Australasia) Ltd. He became editor in 1946 and held the position until the journal ended in 1956. After retiring from Kodak in 1960, he edited Australian popular photography from 1961 to 1969.
An accomplished photographer himself, Burke’s work was exhibited in Australia, Britain, Europe, and North America. In 1938, he was made an associate of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain.
He also helped publicise early Australian photographers such as WS Jevons, JW Lindt, and CH Kerry, as well as many of his contemporaries. In 1953, he discovered the Otto Holtermann collection of photographs of the Hill End and Gulgong goldfields. He featured some of these images in articles and later in his book Gold and silver (1973).
Collector and Library consultant
Burke was passionate about collecting historical photographs, books, journals, catalogues, and works illustrated with fine photographs or engravings. From 1956 to 1974, he worked closely with the National Library of Australia, writing hundreds of letters suggesting acquisitions.
In 1964, he was appointed the Library’s Consultant on Photographic Collections, a role he held until his death. He purchased items at auctions for the Library and encouraged collection owners to offer their materials.
Thanks to his efforts, the Library acquired important photographic collections, including:
- Photographs of the Strzelecki Ranges by John B Eaton
- Ship photographs by EM Humphery and Edward Searle
- Bromide and bromoil landscapes by HD Dirks
- The stereoscopic collection of HA Tregellas
- Photographs by Charles Harper Bennett, Monte Luke, and Norman Deck
Background to the collection
The Keast Burke Collection was purchased in 1963. Burke continued to donate material until 1972. Further photographs and magazines were donated by his widow Iris Burke in 1975. In 2001, their daughter Sandra Piggott presented the correspondence between Keast Burke and Jack Cato.
Most of the printed material in the Keast Burke Collection has been catalogued individually and integrated in the Australian and general collections. The photographs, together with a small quantity of printed ephemera, are held in the Pictures Collection at various locations. They have been catalogued at the collection level, but only a few items have been individually catalogued. The manuscripts and personal papers are held in the Manuscripts Collection. Use the finding aid.
This guide was prepared using these references:
- Helen Ennis, Integral to the vision: a national photographic collection, in Remarkable occurrences: the National Library of Australia’s first hundred years 1901–2001, National Library of Australia, Canberra, 2001, pp. 199–211.
- Gold & Silver, Australian photography, vol. 24 (7), July 1973, pp. 32–7.
- Obituary of Keast Burke, Australian photography, vol. 25 (5), May 1974, p. 20.
- Kimberley Webber, Eric Keast Burke, Australian dictionary of biography online