Travelling to Tomorrow: Australian women of 1920s America

12/10/24 • 49 min

Join us as we journey into the profound stories of Australian women who ventured to the United States during the 1920s and 1930s, leaving their mark on the art world, sport, politics, and society. With historian Dr. Yves Rees as our guide, we uncover research into pioneering artist Mary Cecil Allen, Judge May Lahey, surfer and teacher Isabel Letham and social economist Persia Campbell, whose remarkable achievements built bridges across the Pacific before the second world war tied the knot. A lecture by Dr Rees following the publication of their book Travelling To Tomorrow.

This podcast is produced by Public Record Office Victoria the archive of the state government of Victoria. To view the podcast homepage and all episodes, and to view records related to this episode go to https://prov.vic.gov.au/look-history-eye-podcast

Previous Episode

The Brookside girls

The Brookside Reformatory for Girls was in Cape Clear, ten miles from Scarsdale Victoria. Award-winning education journalist Erica Cervini delves into its cruel and unusual treatment of girls, their multiple escapes, and what we can learn from its ultimate failure. The Brookside girls is episode 14 of Look history in the eye. Erica recently wrote an article for Public Record Office Victoria's Provenance Journal
Presented by Tara Oldfield and Public Record Office Victoria.
The featured song, A bird in a gilded cage, is performed by Tara Oldfield (vocals) and Sarah Harris (piano). Additional voice acting is done by Natasha Cantwell, Asa Letourneau and Sebastian Gurciullo.
Please note that this episode contains details of child abuse in institutional care and may be upsetting for some listeners.Visit the episode page to see original records related to the Brookside girls, and for a link to Erica's Provenance article: https://prov.vic.gov.au/podcast-episode-14-brookside-girls

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Look History in the Eye, Melbourne - Travelling to Tomorrow: Australian women of 1920s America

Transcript

Speaker Names

Dr Yves Rees Guest

00:00

She comes back to Australia to visit family but also spread the word about modern life and art in Melbourne, and so this is an example of this trajectory of Australian women kind of bringing back modern ideas from the US. She comes back in 1935 and has an exhibition of her latest work, which is the scandal of the year.

Kate Follington Host

00:27

That's historian Dr Yves Rees talking ab