Glamour on Glass : Memories of the Newcastle Sun

Join us for the launch of Glamour on Glass : Memories from the Newcastle Sun. The exhibition features images from The Newcastle Sun glass plate collection (1918-1936) held by the Library.  The collection covers the early period of the newspaper’s operations, from its inception at the closing stages of World War I, through to the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The Newcastle Sun (1918 – 1980) was an afternoon paper that reported news events in Newcastle and its surrounds for most of the twentieth century. It was one of the city’s largest newspaper operations. The collection of glass plate negatives represented here spans the years from the paper’s inception at the closing stages of World War I, through the 1920s boom and the Great Depression of the 1930s until 1936 when the newspaper was acquired by the Newcastle Morning Herald (1876 – present). It provides a visual record of the region's social development, its growth, and Novocastrian’s changing lifestyles. It is worth noting that the collection’s images only depict prevailing social norms, which begs the question – who or what has been excluded from the frame? 

This exhibition showcases 1930s women’s fashion as seen through the lens of The Newcastle Sun‘s camera. The photographs depict the maturation of women’s style from the boyish flapper of the 1920s to the more feminine and practical styles of the 1930s. Women’s developing role in the workforce, an emphasis on outdoor recreation and department stores’ shift to driving the fashion market influenced these changes. The impact of the Great Depression is also evidenced in the resourcefulness implied by the knitting, sewing and crochet patterns and articles The Newcastle Sun published. 

The photographs owe their superb quality to their medium – the glass plate negative – which was commonly used in photography in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Glass plate negatives produce high resolution, detailed images but fell out of favour because they are fragile, heavy, and expensive to use.