'Lost' portraits join Vice-Chancellor display

The Hon Sir Herbert Angas Parsons, Vice-Chancellor 1942-1945. The image was sourced from The Advertiser
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Wednesday, 25 June 2008

The University of Adelaide's early Vice-Chancellors will for the first time have their portraits displayed along with the more contemporary Vice-Chancellors in the University's heritage-listed Mitchell Building.

A lucky find of original historic photographs of four Vice-Chancellors from the 1800s behind a Barr Smith Library compactus has enabled them to take their place on the Mitchell Building walls. Reproduced images of the last two missing Vice-Chancellors, sourced from the The Advertiser and University Archives have completed the line-up.

Since the 1950s, Vice-Chancellor portraits have been exhibited in the central stairway of the Mitchell Building. Before then, only those Vice-Chancellors that went on to become Chancellors had their portraits commissioned, and displayed in Bonython Hall.

"For many years the University's early Vice-Chancellors were unrepresented among this visual history," says Mirna Heruc, Manager of the University's Art and Heritage Collections.

"This exhibition and associated research will add significantly to our understanding of the University's early years."

The new permanent display will be unveiled at a special celebration at the University this afternoon at 4pm in the Mitchell Building.

The new portraits are of: The Reverend Professor William Roby Fletcher, Vice-Chancellor from 1883-1887 (the third Vice-Chancellor); The Venerable George Henry Farr 1887-1893; John Anderson Hartley 1893-1896; Dr William Barlow 1896-1915; The Honourable Sir Herbert Angas Parsons 1942-1945; and Professor John McKellar Stewart 1945-1948.

The University of Adelaide's first two Vice-Chancellors, The Right Reverend Augustus Short 1874-1876 and The Right Honourable Sir Samuel James Way 1876-1883, went on to become Chancellors and are represented in Bonython Hall with other Chancellors.

What: Cultural Celebration - Reintroducing the first Vice-Chancellors
When: 4pm-6pm, Wednesday 25 June
Where: Edgeloe Room, upstairs in the Mitchell Building, University of Adelaide
Cost: Free, all welcome

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