Allan Family Collection

The Allan family’s collection holds about 1900 items (mostly postcards). The majority of the items belong to the first decades of the 20th century which provides us with a wealth of personal correspondences from Taree in regional Australia between members of a family for a substantial time. Belonging to the “Golden Age of Postcards”, the collection also delivers a significant understanding of regional people’s image-based experiences within the national and international context of early 20th century. For further information about the project check the Hunter Living Histories Blog.

The two main builders of this collection were Nellie and Oswald Allan - Nellie being Oswald's aunt. Nellie left behind a lovely collection of postcards and her personal scrapbooks, where Oswald inherited the collection and added his own postcards to it, along with material from his time serving in Europe during the First World War - including a set of rare embroidered silk postcards.

Both died childless, and the collection passed to Oswald's nephew Dalton Thomas Neville, who added a small selection of photos relating to his own service in the Second World War, most notably images from the Bombing of Darwin. His daughter Judith Whatley inherited it, then was kind enough to donate the material to our archive.