Collingwood Historical Society on Flickr

Did you know that Collingwood Historical Society has been posting photos on the Flickr photo-sharing site in the cloud for over a year?   Members Pat Miller and Anne Holmes have been managing this. The Society has over 280 photographs on the site. Flickr is an image and video hosting website and online community that was created in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo in 2005. It hosts billions of photos. Anyone can freely go to the site to view the photos but you need to set up a free (or paid Pro) account if you wish to post comments or images. You can read more about Flickr in this Wikipedia article.

The majority of the Collingwood Historical photos relate to the Flickr Friday Photos challenge which we participated in for 2012 and are doing again for 2013.  In this group, we are challenged to take three photos each week on a theme that is released on Saturday and then to post them on Flickr each Friday. The themes so far for 2013 have been Socks, News, Water, Faces and Buttons.   So you can well imagine that we have to think out of left field a bit.

But we have also documented events, such as the 2012 Annual History Walk, and all the photos are available to be viewed in sets, such as Streets, Events, Transport, Commercial buildings, Domestic Buildings, Church Buildings.

The other great thing about Flickr is that it provides a very easy facility for loading our photos onto Trove, the National Library of Australia portal which took over from PictureAustralia.  All we need to do is add our photos to the Trove group on Flickr and they are automatically harvested to Trove!  How easy is that!

So how do you get to see our photos on Flickr?  Well, the easiest way is just to go to the link on the top of this blog where our most recent photos on Flickr are displayed. If you are not a member of Flickr, you can view the photos but you can't comment on them.  However, it is very easy to set up a free account that allows you to comment.  Please note that you need to have a Yahoo id and email address to do this.

 If you are a member of Flickr, please use this link and add Collingwood Historical Society as one of your contacts.  Then our new images will come up in your Recent from Contacts folder. And you will be able to comment on our photos and participate in discussions.  An example of this was a recent discussion we had about the history of Clifton Hill railway station. If you already use Flickr and make Collingwood Historical Society a contact, you can also look at the photos on the Flickr iphone app or some of the other third party Flickr apps.  I particularly like the Flickstackr one as it lets me upload photos from my ipad on holidays!

#blog12daysxmas Day 12 Men's & boys' hosiery 52/1/3

Men's & boys' hosiery 52/1/3, a photo by Collingwood Historical Society on Flickr.

Again from the 1923 catalogue, these illustrations show socks for boys, youths and men. Of interest are the Double-clip and Rubber grip suspenders which ensured that men's socks stayed in the correct position all day. 
 
This photograph was submitted by the Collingwood Historical Society as part of the Flickr Friday Photo Challenge under the theme of "Socks".

#blog12daysxmas Day 11 Ladies' & children's hosiery 52/1/2

Ladies' & children's hosiery 52/1/2, a photo by Collingwood Historical Society on Flickr.

Like the preceding illustration this photograph is also taken from the 1923 Foy & Gibson catalogue. This page shows some of the range of children's socks manufactured and sold by Foy & Gibson.

This photograph was submitted by the Collingwood Historical Society as part of the Flickr Friday Photo Challenge under the theme of "Socks".  

#blog12daysxmas Day 10 1923 Gibsonia hosiery factory 52/1/1

1923 Gibsonia hosiery factory 52/1/1, a photo by Collingwood Historical Society on Flickr.

This illustration is taken from the 1923 Foy & Gibson catalogue and shows the interior of the Gibsonia hosiery mill in Oxford Street Collingwood. Foy & Gibson, celebrated for its "2  miles of mills" dominated the Collingwood landscape and Collingwood life for decades.  Its buildings, now mainly converted to residential use, still dominate the Collingwood skyline. Over the decades many, many socks for girls, boys, and men would have been produced here as well as hosiery for ladies' wear.

The factories provided goods for Foy & Gibson department stores and produced men's clothing and shirts, ladies' underclothing, millinery, furniture, hardware and bedding. Warehouses stored imported goods, and the complex was a major hub for home delivery, firstly with horse-drawn vehicles and later with motorized trucks. A major source of local employment, the Foy and Gibson factory complex employed around 2000 people in all stages of the production process, from spinning to despatch and delivery.

For more information about Foy and Gibson check the website here. 

This photo was taken by the Collingwood Historical Society for the Flickr Friday Photo Challenge under the weekly theme of "Socks". 

#blog12daysxmas Day 9 School bell 52/53/2

School bell 52/53/2, a photo by Collingwood Historical Society on Flickr.

 Are school bells like this still used?  Maybe the nearby residents of Gold Street Primary in Clifton Hill can tell us. Gold Street Primary, properly known as Clifton Hill Primary No. 1360, was opened in 1874. Heritage Victoria has registered Primary School No.1360 as of architectural and historical significance to the State of Victoria and placed an historical plaque on it in 2006. 

You can read more about the school on the website here.

#blog12daysxmas Day 8 Former Village Belle Hotel 53/52/1

Former Village Belle Hotel 53/52/1, a photo by Collingwood Historical Society on Flickr.

The former Village Belle hotel in in Abbotsford Street Abbotsford on the south west corner of Hunter Street operated from 1868 to 1918. It is now a private residence.  You can read more about it in the Hotels section of the website.

This photograph was submitted by the Collingwood Historical Society for the Flickr Friday Photos 2012 challenge under the theme of "Bells".

#blog12daysxmas Day 7 End of life 52/52/2

End of life 52/52/2, a photo by Collingwood Historical Society on Flickr.

The residents of this part of Gold Street are taking the holiday break as an opportunity to prepare for a hard rubbish collection with these items which have reached the end of their life.

This photo was submitted by the Collingwood Historical Society for the Flickr Friday Photo 2012 Challenge under the theme of "Endings".

#blog12daysxmas Day 6 Dead end 52/52/1

Dead end 52/52/1, a photo by Collingwood Historical Society on Flickr.

Page Street used to run between Gold Street and Wellington Street in Clifton Hill. But traffic management in recent decades has meant that both parts of the street are now dead ends.  This shot was taken looking west from Gold Street.

This photo is part of the Collingwood Historical Society's contribution to the Flickr Friday Photo 2012 Challenge.