Item MM 98573 Photograph - Kodak Australasia Pty Ltd, 6th War Loan Bond Appeal with Tank and Kodak Staff, Abbotsford, WWI, April 1918

Summary

Kodak Australasia Limited employees assembled for a group portrait at a 6th War Loan Bonds Appeal Tank Week event at Kodak's factory in Abbotsford, Victoria, between 3-10 April 1918, during World War 1.

The photograph was taken outside the main Kodak office on Southampton Crescent in Abbotsford and shows Kodak staff with a mock model tank and cannon. Managing Director Thomas Baker appears to be one of the people looking out of the tank side window.

This image was reproduced in Punch magazine on Thursday 11th April 1918, noting that Kodak staff had subscribed to £2100 worth of war bonds. The 6th War Loan was initiated in February 1918, and a special marketing event called Tank Week was held April 3-10 1918, with mock model tanks travelling around Sydney and Melbourne to attract bond subscriptions. Kodak was a strong contributor to war-time charity eforts.

Senior Kodak staffer Bill McCoy is on top of tank, at left. Also pictured are other Kodak employees, Reeta Beezley, Jack and Bert Lewis.

The photograph was reportedly taken by senior Kodak staff member Jonathon Monteith. Jonathon's son Noel, who also worked at Kodak for many decades, remembered that his father had added in the plane in the top right corner while printing the photograph.

The Abbotsford factory was initially the site of the Austral Plate Company, created by Thomas Baker, a pharmaceutical chemist, in 1884. After Baker went into partnership with accountant, John Rouse, to develop the photographic manufacturing company, Baker and Rouse Pty Ltd, they proposed a merger with Eastman Kodak in 1907. In 1908, Australian Kodak Limited was formed and evolved to become what is known today as Kodak Australasia. The Abbotsford site remained the base for the operations of Kodak Australasia until the late 1950s.

Kodak manufactured and distributed a wide range of photographic products to Australasia, such as film, paper, chemicals, cameras and miscellaneous equipment. Its client base included amateur and professional photographers, as well as specialist medical and graphic art professionals who used photography, x-ray and other imaging techniques.

This photograph is part of the Kodak collection of products, promotional materials, photographs and working life artefacts collected from Kodak Australasia in 2005, when the Melbourne manufacturing plant at Coburg closed down.

Description of Content

A group photograph of male and female employeesas well as children and a dog, in front of the 'Kodak Australasia Limited' building. There is a tank at the centre of the image amidst the group with people standing on it and a couple of people inside it. To the right of the tank, there is a cannon with a British Union Jack flag placed above it, and a large boomerang shaped sign at the lefthand end. In the top right hand corner there is an aircraft flying low.

Physical Description

Black and white, silver gelatin photograph, printed on light weight paper, landscape format with a white border.