Ward family collection

MLMSS 6927/Boxes 1-2, 5, 7-14, 16-33
MLMSS 6927/Boxes 3X-4X, 6X, 15X

fonds

1831 - 1983

Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Clippings, Photographs, Drawings, Moving Images, Paintings

403748

5.43 metres of textual material (29 boxes, 4 outsize boxes) includes photographs
Textual Records
Textual Records - (typescript)
Textual Records - (typescript, photocopy)
Textual Records - (typescript, carbon)
Textual Records - (typescript, processed)
Clippings
Textual Records - (printed)
Drawings
Moving Images - motion pictures
Paintings

American-born Hugh J. Ward (1871-1941) was a comic actor at the time he toured Australia in 1899, accompanied by his wife, the soprano Mary Grace Miller. He retired from the stage in 1911 and took up a position behind the scenes as Managing Director of J. C. Williamson Ltd. The Wards were enthusiastic fund-raisers for a number of charity and patriotic causes. During his theatrical career Hugh J. Ward had acquired a collection of playscripts formerly belonging to his colleague, Frank Hawthorne, and the papers of scenic artist and theatre manager, W. J. Wilson.

Melbourne (Mel) Ward (1903-1966), naturalist, was the younger son of Hugh J. and Mary Grace Ward. Educated in Sydney and in New York, he left school for a stint on the stage where he shone at acrobatic dancing and in pantomime roles. His expertise in marine biology, a hobby from his youth, and natural history was honed over a number of field and research trips to the Great Barrier Reef, Northern Australia and New Guinea, the Pacific and the United States. He was appointed an Honorary Zoologist of the Australian Museum in Sydney in 1929, and made a Life Member of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales in 1947.

Mel Ward was an avid collector of Australiana and anthropological material from the Pacific. A Blue Mountains identity, Mel brought his passions and knowledge to the public through his Gallery of Natural History and Native Art at Medlow Bath, which ran from the 1940s to the mid-1960s, and its branch the Pyala Museum at Echo Point, Katoomba. He married Halley Kate Foster in 1931.

I. Papers, 1831-1983, including those of Hugh J. Ward, Mary Grace Ward and Melbourne (Mel) Ward
II. Pictorial material, ca. 1884-1967, including family albums & photographs; portraits (chiefly of entertainers); a selection of photographs belonging to Mel Ward; portrait of the late Melbourne Ward

This collection comprises 12 record series. You may navigate to a more detailed description of each series from this collection record.