Description of Content

A girl and a boy standing alongside the Bristol Hand Laundry delivery van. The girl is washing the van and the boy is leaning on the vehicle near the driver's door. The van bears the firm's name and address: 'E. Millman, 415 Glenhuntly Road, South Caulfield'. Elsie Maude Ada Millman was the holder of the boiler's licence, and according to the family was the first woman in Victoria to hold such a licence. The Austin Seven car was purchased brand new by Elsie Millman in about the late 1920s. It ran on a gas producer or coke. The laundry business started in 1934 in Malvern, at the back of a house rented by the Millman family. They moved to a shop in Malvern. During World War II Mr Millman 'joined up the business' with Mr Masters because there was a labour shortage due to the war. Betsy Millman, the eldest daughter left school at age 13 to work in the laundry due to the lack of labour. The laundry stopped operating in the early -mid 1950s after Elsie and William Millman died. Electric washing machines such as the Baby Hoover meant that customers were increasingly doing their own laundry at home without starching and pressing their laundry. William Millman owned a laundry business in partnership with another man, Mr Masters, in Bank Street in South Melbourne, which was a large factory behind his home. After this Mr Millman operated a laundry by himself in Chapel Street in St Kilda and then moved to Caulfield.

Physical Description

Digital copy from the donor's original photograph.

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