Summary

Black & white photographic print from an original glass lantern slide looking east from the stadium towards the Eastern Annexe, depicting the maypole dance performed by students from State Schools on the Exhibition Oval on the northern side of the Exhibition Buildings, as part of the celebrations surrounding the arrival of the American Fleet in Melbourne in August 1908.

This is one of 959 photographs (or images) of the Exhibition Building collated by the Exhibition Trustees as a 10 volume pictorial history of the Exhibition Building spanning the years 1880 to 1985. The pictorial history was instigated by the centenary of the Exhibition Building in 1980 and forms part of a larger Royal Exhibition Building collection of documents, photographs, objects and research files.

Description of Content

View looking east across the Exhibition Oval from the stadium, showing five maypoles with children dancing around them, spectators lined along the Oval's fences, and in the immediate foreground several umbrellas.

Physical Description

A black & white silver gelatin print on a page of a photograph album. There is a printed caption below the photograph.

Significance

The Exhibition Trustees' album containing this photograph provides an invaluable visual record of past maintenance and restoration work undertaken on the Royal Exhibition Buildings prior to the building being recognised with a World Heritage Listing in 2004.

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