ACT Heritage Library Manuscript Collection

HMSS 0138 Heide Smith Photographs “The Canberrans”

Scope and Content Notes

Call Number	HMSS 0138
Collection	Heide Smith Photographs “The Canberrans”
Date Range	1994 – 1997
Quantity	1.64 m (2 oversize boxes)
Access Condition	open
Copying Conditions	Research only. Copies available from the photographer.
Related collections

Heide Smith was born in Germany. She moved to England in 1963 with her husband, Brian Smith, and emigrated to Australia in 1971.

Heide initially worked in Sydney as a photojournalist, then in Melbourne as a technical supervisor in a leading professional colour laboratory.

In 1978 the family moved to Canberra, where Heide established her first studio. Heide and Brian retired to Narooma in 1996.

Heide published several books of photographs, mainly of Canberra, but was especially well-known for her portraiture. She has exhibited in Australia and throughout Europe and Asia from 1959. In 1994 A Vintage Selection of 40 photographs was exhibited in the ACT Assembly building; a second selection entitled The Canberrans – A Vintage Selection, was exhibited in the ACT Heritage Library in its Griffith premises in June 1997. The portraits represent a small cross section of people who have in some way contributed to Canberra, and emphasise the positive attitude to life expressed by the sitters. All sitters were asked to provide a personal comment on ageing, and the comments were displayed beneath each portrait.

In 1996 the ACT Heritage Library acquired the portraits and related display material, together with a collection of 35mm slides of many of the portraits and some biographical and descriptive material.

Heide Smith has also posted images on her website, including the exhibition portrait or another from the same sitting, and the descriptive articles written for the Canberra Times by her husband Brian.

The ACT Heritage Library images have been linked to Heide Smith's website. Please note that the ACT Heritage Library does not have prints for all portraits. There are transparencies for most, but not all, portraits.

Box List

Box 1. Portraits 1-24

Box 2. Portraits 25-47

ID No.	Name	Slide	Caption	Article	Biographical Notes	Anecdote on website
1	Helen Crisp		Y	Y	Y	Y
2	Heinz Arndt, Prof	Y	Y			Y
3	Robert Snow	Y	Y			Y
4	Joy Warren	Y	Y	Y
5	Franc Erpic	Y	Y
6	Bill and Pat Stephens	Y	Y
7	Jurgis Dehn	Y	Y	Y
8	Hans Kuhn, Prof	Y	Y
9	Primrose Niall	Y	Y
10	Ken Gardiner, Dr	Y	Y	Y		Y
11	Mark Oliphant, Sir	Y	Y
12	Eugene Veshner	Y	Y
13	Eva Hancock		Y
14	Bill Ginnane	Y	Y
15	Ludmilla Gapanovic	Y	Y
16	John Passmore, Prof	Y	Y
17	Ann Moyal	Y	Y
18	Ralph Elliott, Prof	Y	Y			Y
19	Betty Erskine	Y	Y
20	Reg Alder	Y	Y
21	Oskar Spate, Prof	Y	Y
22	Caterina and Antonio Schimizzi	Y	Y
23	Joan McNee	Y	Y		Y
24	Joe Moyal, Prof	Y	Y
25	John and Bettina Gorton, Rt Hon Sir, and Lady	Y	Y
26	Sylvia Parsons	Y	Y	Y	Y
27	Ray Noonan	Y	Y
28	Arthur Tange, Sir	Y	Y
29	Doug and Dawn Waterhouse	Y	Y		Y [Doug]
30	Ruth Arndt	Y	Y
31	Maeva Galloway and granddaughters		Y
32	Jack Lette	Y	Y
33	Manning and Dymphna Clark,					Y
34	Dymphna Clark	Y	Y			Y
35	Fred Emery, Prof
36	Marion Halligan
37	Helen Gammage
38	Wanda Hessler
39	Julian Owen
40	Bid Williams					Y
41	H C ‘Nugget’ Coombs, Dr	Y				Y
42	Netta Burns	Y	Y
43	Ralph Wilson	Y	Y	Y
44	Kurt Mahler, Prof					Y
45	Geoffrey Yeend, Sir	Y	Y
46	J and P Stewart		Y
47	Fred Daly	Y	Y	Y