1862 - 1941

At the turn of the 20th century, Sydney experienced rapid social and technological changes, including powered flight, the rise of the motorcar and a new federated Australia. Fascinated by those changes, Arthur Wigram Allen – a talented amateur photographer and successful lawyer – captured the transition of a city through his lens during Australia’s Edwardian era.

Arthur Wigram Allen was born on February 4, 1862, into a large family of wealthy Sydney solicitors. He attended Sydney Grammar School before moving to Melbourne in 1880 to study law at Trinity College at the University of Melbourne. In 1822, Arthur’s grandfather, George Allen, had established the oldest law firm in Sydney. In the early 1840s, Arthur’s father, Sir George Wigram Allen, moved into the practice and later formed a partnership with his brother and cousin. In 1885, after the sudden death of his father and uncle, a young Arthur was thrust into the role of heading up the family law firm aged just 23. His forte was his people skills and he brought work to the firm through his extensive social connections and affable nature. He married Ethel Lamb in 1891 and they went on to have four children.

Fascinated by the new inventions of the era, Allen took interest in photography, purchasing the latest cameras. He was a member of the Photographic Society of New South Wales and his work occasionally appeared in the Australian Photographic Journal. He used a variety of cameras of varying formats over three decades, including ‘box cameras’ that used glass plates instead of modern film. While most of his pictures featured his immediate family and friends, Allen tried to photograph everything he saw, such as domestic life and fashion, processions and pageants, the first mixed bathing on Sydney beaches, theatrical celebrities and sporting events.

Among his photos were beach scenes from Bondi, Bronte and Coogee, as well as an intriguing image of the long-vanished amusement park, Wonderland City, at Tamarama in 1906, with 26,000 people in attendance. His candid photographs offers unique insights into Bondi at the turn of the century including use of the Bondi Baths, swim costumes and the popularity of early Bondi.

Allen died on October 2, 1941, aged 79 in Waterloo, Sydney. In 1966, Allen’s son, Arthur Denis Wigram Allen, donated 51 albums of photographs taken by his father to the State Library of New South Wales. More than 10,000 black-and-white family snapshots were numbered and meticulously captioned, providing an extraordinary insight into Sydney’s society and culture between 1890 and 1934. In 2011, a book by English author Alan Davies, An Edwardian Summer: Sydney & Beyond Through the Lens of Arthur Wigram Allen, was published, featuring Allen’s photographic collection that captures Sydney at one of the most rapidly changing times in Australia’s history.

Images courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.