Studio portrait of Miss Lily Dampier as Imogen in “Cymbeline”. Sydney, 1887.

Albumen print photograph, cabinet card format, 165 x 109 mm (mount); recto with printed caption ‘Miss Lily Dampier’ and imprint of ‘Falk / 496 George Street, Sydney’, along with a pencilled annotation ‘Imogene’ (sic); verso with a fuller inscription in ink ‘Lily as “Imogene” in Cymbeline September 4th 1887’; the print with some light foxing, more pronounced on the mount.

Provenance: from a group of theatre-related photographs originally collected by the Sydney actor, stage manager and playwright Alfred Dampier.

Australian stage and silent screen actress Lily Dampier (Katherine Annabel Lily Dampier, 1867-1915) was the daughter of Alfred Dampier and Katherine Russell. Although her best known stage roles were Shakespearean, she was also a success as Sylvia in her father’s adaptation of Marcus Clarke’s novel For the Term of His Natural Life, and as Kate in Robbery Under Arms. She later starred in several early Australian silent films, including three released in 1911: The Life of Rufus Dawes, which was based on her father’s stage adaptation of For the Term of His Natural Life; Captain Midnight, the Bush King; and Captain Starlight, or Gentleman of the Road.