Summary

Sepia toned photograph of 'Auntie Elsie and Violet', probably taken in Melbourne where Violet grew up. Elsie is standing at left and Violet is on the bicycle.

This photoraph was donated by Jim McCoy, a former Kodak Australasia Pty Ltd employee who worked at Abbotsford and later the Collins Street store from about 1945 until 1957. Violet was Jim's mother and Elsie was Violet's aunt. Violet and Jim's father Bill, were also Kodak employees during the company's early period when founding Australian director Thomas Baker was alive. Jim's parents both held senior positions at Kodak. Three of his aunties also worked at Kodak. Aunt Elsie Paproth, nee Beezley, and then Aunty Olive Kirkham and Aunty Dorothy Beezley also both worked there during WWII. His uncle Fred McCoy also worked at Kodak in the Powder & Solution Department with Pearl Cleaver.

Violet Beezley, pictured in this photograph, was born in 1891. She married William (Bill) McCoy in 1923. The couple met when they both worked at the Kodak Australasia factory in Abbotsford. Violet started out in the Film Department making the first roll film and ultimately became the Senior Forelady who managed the girls in film and paper production. She was with Kodak for 19 years, from about 1905, when she was a young 14 year old girl, until 1923. Bill joined Kodak in 1902 when he returned from the Boer War, and was with the company for 42 years. He died in 1943.

Her father, Frederick Beezley, also did work for Kodak. He was a cartage contractor to Kodak, delivering products.

Description of Content

Woman in dark dress in backyard, against a timber fence, with a young girl in boots and white frock on an adult's bicycle.

Physical Description

Sepia toned photograph, landscape format, with white border

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