A vintage group portrait photograph of a South Australian women's hockey team

Gawler: Marchant's Studio, 1924. Gawler, Marchant's Studio, [circa 1924]. An original gelatin silver photograph (visible image size approximately 238 × 288 mm), matted and behind glass in the original blackwood frame with gilt fillet and wood-veneer mat (external dimensions approximately 480 × 580 mm). The photograph is in fine condition; the frame is in excellent condition, albeit slightly scuffed and marked. A small Marchant's Studio paper label is mounted on the mat; a considerably larger label mounted on the verso states it has been 'Established Sixty Years'. Davis and Stanbury ('The Mechanical Eye in Australia') suggest this occurred in 1864. 'The game of hockey was brought to Australia by British Naval officers stationed around the country in the late 1800s. By 1900, according to Hockey Australia, the game was being played in private girls' schools. Being a non-contact team sport, it was considered ideal for women. The first women's hockey association was formed in New South Wales in 1908. Two years later, women's clubs from Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia were competing alongside clubs from New South Wales at an interstate tournament at Rushcutter's Bay, and from this tournament came the establishment of the Australian Women's Hockey Association in July 1910 - fifteen years before the Australian Hockey Association (AHA) was formed in 1925. State hockey associations for men had been formed in South Australia, 1903; Victoria and New South Wales, 1906; Western Australia, 1908; and Queensland, 1920s. This division in the administration of men's and women's hockey continued in subsequent years. The Australian Women's Hockey Association affiliated with the All England Women's Hockey Association, and joined the International Federation of Women's Hockey (IFWH) in 1927' (Australian Women's Archives Project, online). Accordingly, this item is tolerably early, as well as being a fine piece of portraiture.