Aboriginal woman in European dress. Far North of South Australia, circa 1875.

Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format, 102 x 61 mm (mount); verso with imprint of ‘H. R. Perry, Photographer‘; a good print, the upper right edge a little roughened, the mount free of foxing.

In 1875-76 the travelling photographer Harry Perry made a circular trip through the interior of South Australia from Port Pirie, north to the Flinders Ranges and back via Port Augusta, documenting the landscapes and people of the region. (See Julie Robinson’s short essay on Perry’s photographs of outback South Australia in A century in focus : South Australian photography 1840s-1940s, edited by Julie Robinson and Maria Zagala. Adelaide : Art Gallery of South Australia, 2007, p. 88). The high hairstyle of the woman in this portrait places it firmly in the mid 1870s period. The interior setting suggests perhaps an improvised studio – probably in either Port Pirie or Port Augusta.