[MELBOURNE] Entrance to Park, St. Kilda (1861-2)

Stereoscopic albumen print photograph, each image approximately 73 x 73 mm, flat yellow mount 83 x 165 mm, verso with original printed label ’13. Entrance to Park, St. Kilda, Victoria. Ed. Haigh, Photo.’ and contemporary inscription in ink ‘Melbourne’; the right hand stereoscopic print has a few smal marks towards the top edge; otherwise both albumen prints and the mount are in very good condition.

A very early view of the St. Kilda Botanical Gardens, taken shortly after they were officially opened in 1861. The Gardens were created on the site of a former gravel pit and rubbish dump, and still occupy the area bounded by Blessington, Herbert, Tennyson and Dickens Streets.

The English photographer Edward Haigh, who had studied with the Crimean War photographer Roger Fenton, arrived in Melbourne in January 1861. He opened a studio in South Yarra and spent over a year in the colony. Haigh specialised in stereoscopic photography and his views of Victoria, England and France won a first-class award at the 1861 Melbourne Exhibition. He returned to London in 1862, where his stereoviews of Melbourne and Victoria won a medal at the London International Exhibition that year.