Daniel Harvey Collection

The Daniel Harvey Collection contains over 450 photographs and glass negatives of the products, staff and premises of Daniel Harvey Pty Ltd Agricultural Implement Manufacturer, Box Hill, Victoria, as well as images relating to the life of Daniel Harvey and his family. The collection covers the company's entire history from its establishment in 1911 until 1963, when it was taken over by Horwood Bagshaw, and the Harvey family history from the 1900s to the 1960s. Museum Victoria also has a substantial collection of Daniel Harvey trade literature.

Daniel Harvey was born on 8th August 1876 to Malachi and Elizabeth Harvey. He was the fifth of eleven boys raised on their family farm in Mysia, Victoria. Daniel Harvey trained as a blacksmith in Korumburra and then returned to Melbourne and worked for Kurt Hillman at Doncaster, the major fruit growing centre for Victoria. On the death of Kurt Hillman, and the remarriage of Mrs Hillman, Harvey resigned and worked briefly at HV McKay Sunshine Harvester Works which had moved from Ballarat to Sunshine in 1906. During this time Harvey also started doing odd repairs for the local orchardists in Templestowe, where he was living. He also began making improvements to the ploughs and other agricultural implements he repaired.

In 1911 Daniel and his wife Maud (nee Adams) moved their business to Whitehorse Road, Box Hill. Harvey built a foundry and slowly expanded his business specialising in horticultural equipment. His orchard equipment was sold locally and throughout Australia. He had an inventive mind and regularly developed innovations for the fruit growing industry. He is best known for his 'Petty Disc Orchard Stripping Plow' patented in 1914. This was developed with the support of a local orchardist, Mr Petty, and was able to provide significant efficiencies for fruit growers by allowing the machine to cultivate under the branches and close to the base of trees. This was followed by many other patent applications relating to power lifts for tractor drawn implements, ploughs, fruit elevators, fruit grading and packaging apparatus.

Harvey developed a diverse range of equipment including: fruit graders and polishers, orchard and road ploughs, frames for drying fruit and tobacco, scrub cultivators, packing house equipment, dehydration equipment, three point linkage implements, scarifiers. As the business expanded, the site at Box Hill became too small, and in the early 1950s Harvey relocated the business to a larger site on Whitehorse Road, Nunawading. In 1962 Daniel Harvey Limited was taken over by Horwood Bagshaw Limited.

Daniel and Maud's only surviving son Hugh (born 1911) joined his father in the business, and it was in Hugh's trunk that a collection of photographs and negatives documenting the Daniel Harvey business were discovered and subsequently donated to Museum Victoria.

This collection documents the establishment and growth of Daniel Harvey Pty Ltd, the types of products produced by the company, their design and use, and changes and innovations to the products manufactured by the company. The photographs of the Harvey family record domestic life, recreational activities, travel and holidays in Victoria from the 1900s to the 1960s. This collection is complemented by a large number of publications based on the products manufactured by Harvey.