Through a glass darkly

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Through a glass darkly

A star-gazing schoolmaster, a mourning widow, an immigrant farmer, a practical chemist, a defiant bushranger, an unidentified child and a trio of genteel young girls: they all feature in the earliest portrait photographs from the Sydney Living Museum’s collections. Dated from 1855 to 1867, these pictures were created using the daguerreotype and ambrotype processes, two of the earliest photographic formats invented. They are usually preserved under glass, gilt-framed in plush velvet-lined cases. They are fascinating but mysterious. The correct lighting and angle of view are required to clearly see a positive image on the mirror-like surface of the daguerreotype or to see through the reflective layers of the ambrotype. Without provenance it is often impossible to date the image or identify the sitter. Those who cherished the ‘likeness’ had no surface on which to inscribe.

A Mickey Burke mystery Ben Hall 1837-1865 Eleanor Wingate 1813-1898 Emma Rouse 1843-1928 Hannah Terry Rouse 1819-1907 Kenneth McKenzie c1835-1922 Lizzie Rouse 1845-1931 Mother and Daughter Mrs Jane Kennerley 1809-1877 Phoebe Rouse 1847-1931

Mrs Jane Kennerley 1809-1877

Jane Kennerley, nee Rouse, was the second daughter of Richard Rouse (1774-1852), early Hawkesbury settler and colonial government employee, and his wife Elizabeth Adams (1772-1849). Her earliest years were spent at Parramatta where her father was an auctioneer and Superintendent of Government Works but she grew up at Rouse Hill, a house her father began building in 1813. This house became the centre of the Rouse family estates. In February 1834 Jane married Alfred Kennerley, a recently-arrived English settler who had bought a property called ‘The Retreat Farm’ at Bringelly, near Camden. Kennerley owned The Retreat Farm (later called Kelvin) for more than twenty years but he and Jane spent some of that time in England and when they returned to Australia in 1857 they settled in Hobart, Tasmania. Kennerley became a magistrate, was elected to the city council and served as Mayor of Hobart. He was elected to the Tasmanian Legislative Council in 1865 and served as Premier from 1873 to 1876. Jane maintained frequent contact with her family at Rouse Hill and members of the extended Rouse family sometimes holidayed in Hobart. Jane Kennerley died in Hobart in May 1877.

R90/81

Rouse Hill House & Farm

Photograph: Jenni Carter, 2007

Richard Rouse Terry 1838-1898 Robert Hunt 1830-1892 Roderick McGregor c1842-1919 Siblings Thomas McKenzie c1794-1892