This series consists of 25 black and white photographic prints of Prime Minister John Curtin, mainly in the period 1938 to early 1945. The photos are primarily of Curtin with other political figures or at official functions. These include Curtin’s visit to London for the Prime Ministers’ Conference and to Washington and Canada in the months April to June 1944. In England, Curtin and the Prime Minister of New Zealand (Peter Fraser) were conferred as Honorary Doctors of Law at Cambridge University. In Canada, Curtin addressed a combined session of the Houses of Parliament in Ottawa. One photograph relates to a Parliamentary dinner given in honour of General Douglas MacArthur in 1942. The latest photograph includes HRH the Duke of Gloucester, shortly after taking up his appointment as Governor-General of Australia in January 1945. The series also includes some photographs of Curtin before he became Prime Minister. One of these appears to date as early as 1920.

Mrs Elsie McLeod (Curtin’s daughter) donated the original photographs to the National Library of Australia. They were copied for National Archives in early 1976. This particular set, initially controlled as accession PP975/1, was converted to series M1422 in July 1997. Other copies of several of the prints also occur in series M1218. The reason for some discrepancies between the sets has not been firmly established.

This series description was revised as part of the Prime Minister’s Papers Project (September 2003).

Source:

NAA registry files 1972/53, A1974/356