Summary

Black & white photograph looking along the western nave towards the Grand Organ in the Great Hall, Exhibition Buildings, with a small dais set up in front of the Organ in preparation for the events surrounding the Royal Visit by Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandra to Australia in 1959.

The young, twenty-two year old Princess visited Australia from 14 August to 20 September, primarily to attend the Queensland Centenary Celebrations. She returned again in 1967, and in 1980 was in Melbourne to commemorate the centenary of the Exhibition Building, officially bestowing it with the new title, the Royal Exhibition Building.

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 west towards the Grand Organ, partly obscurred by a draped curtain partion, with a small stage set up in front and decorated with floral arrangements on either side.

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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