Basics on the Houison Collection

About 1980 SAG acquired 8,000 glass magic lantern slides and plates collected by the Houison family. Most were positive slides, measuring 3¼" x 3¼". The plates were mostly negatives, ranging through whole, half and quarter plates, i.e. 6½" x 8½" down to 3¼" x 4¼".

Many of the images were of horticultural specimens, bushland scenes, museum artefacts, etc, having little family history value and were culled and donated to other organisations such as the Botanic Gardens Trust and museums. The 3,500 remaining were retained, as likely to be of research value to SAG members and other historians wishing to illustrate a publication.

Because of the Houison family's connection with Parramatta, the collection is strong in its coverage of Parramatta residents and architecture. The rest of Sydney is strongly represented and there is a thinner but wide coverage of the rest of NSW - from Bong Bong to Yeranderie. The coverage of other States and Territories is somewhat limited.

The collection is well catalogued in SAG's 'The Houison Collection', available from our bookshop. The photos are all described, with indexes by name, occupational group and/or locality.