Papua and New Guinea Villager. (Editor’s scrapbook used in the production of “New series”, early 1950s).

[Unpublished]. [Port Moresby : Department of Education, early 1950s]. Disbound foolscap folio scrapbook (a repurposed Australian Diary for 1950), containing hundreds of pasted in photographs and cuttings accompanied by handwritten and typed notes, which indicate the archive was kept as a picture resource for  the Papuan Villager magazine; some light foxing and old glue staining, but generally very well preserved.

A unique document associated with the historically important monthly periodical Papua and New Guinea Villager – a publication that remains of great value to researchers today, every issue being filled with articles on the many different traditional Melanesian cultures of Papua New Guinea, including their material culture, languages and oral histories; what life is like in Australia and neighbouring Pacific countries; local agriculture, mining and trade; natural history; geography; health; and current affairs. The subject matter in the present archive, kept by one of the magazine’s editors, reflects the Villager‘s broad scope.

The last number of the first series of the Villager had been published in November, 1941 (Vol. 13, no. 11). The publication was revived several years after the end of the war, with a new series that commenced in February, 1950 (Vol. 1, no. 1). The final issue was for May/June 1960.