[Repatriation]

'After'. The Digger Carries On. Department of Repatriation, Commonwealth of Australia [cover title on a presentation album of photographs]

Melbourne, Department of Repatriation, 10 September 1919.

Oblong octavo (205 x 310 mm), [23] thick card album leaves with the printed presentation text mounted on the first leaf (verso blank) and 43 original gelatin silver photographs (each 150 x 200 mm) mounted one per page with a printed caption on the remainder of the album.

Cord-bound padded black morocco with an ornate gilt title within a gilt border on the front cover, with inner dentelles gilt, spine and front bottom edge a trifle scuffed; essentially a fine copy.

The printed presentation is 'To Senator the Hon. Edward Davis Millen, Originating, and First Minister for Repatriation.... Melbourne, 10th September 1919'. The album depicts the activities of the Department in its first year. The series of photographs depict narratively the work of repatriation (disembarkation of a troop transport, demobilisation, registration for employment, medical examination, and the Anzac Hostel), but the numerous photographs detailing specific vocational training almost certainly offer more to a viewer now than they did then. These 34 full-plate photographs show training in progress in the diverse range of trades and occupations offered to returned soldiers (and, in one image, war widows), and form a significant pictorial record of contemporary trades and conditions. Disabled veterans, on crutches or lacking an arm, are very much part and parcel of this landscape. Trove records two copies, one in the National Library of Australia, the other in the State Library of South Australia; both claim to be 'Autographed by E.D. Miller [sic], Minister for Repatriation, for presentation to W.M. Hughes'. There can be no dispute however that these albums was produced for presentation at the highest level, and copies must be exceedingly rare.