Alongside my painting practice for the past twelve months I have been working closely with my wonderful Uncle to write his memoirs and record our family history. Part of that process has been to reminisce with my uncle by visiting the old sites. On one of those trips we went to Maitland where my parents had once managed a hotel, we couldn’t find the hotel so we visited the local historical society. We found out the old hotel, ‘the Dock-an-Doris’ had been bought and demolished by the council so it could widen the road. The original hotel although it had changed its name a few times it started trading in 1836 and pulled its last beer in 1984. I was disappointed not to see the old girl but was delighted when I spotted this old book in the local historic society hub, it had been a donation but because there were no entries recorded it was of no value to their research and collection…. so I made an offer they couldn’t refuse.
The book would be well over 100 years old, the first few pages have silver fish damage and there is a few spots and stains here and there, but the paper is think and chemical free. So ideal as a support for some sustained research project. The question is what will that be ?