1890s

Image: sculpture of standing man in nineteenth century costume

Matthew Flinders Memorial

A statue to honour Matthew Flinders, the first explorer to circumnavigate Australia, was a long time coming in Adelaide

Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1790s, 1800-1810, 1840s, 1900-1910, 1920s, 1930s

Black and white image of old museum display showing large wooden plinth with staircase on top.

Miniature Staircase- Newmarket Hotel

This scale model of the spiral staircase in the Newmarket Hotel is just 600 millimetres high, but represents months of careful craftwork. It was made by a young man named Walton Banks and exhibited at the Adelaide Jubilee International Exhibition in 1887.

Historical Thing | By Mandy Paul, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1880s, 1890s, 1900-1910

Image: a long, narrow tourist boat with a canvas roof is moored at a concrete dock with a metal railing.

Popeye

'Popeye the Sailor' was a popular cartoon at the cinema in the 1930s when Gordon Watts introduced a tourist pleasure craft on the River Torrens

Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | River Torrens | 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000-2010

Image: statue of standing queen in royal robes and crown

Queen Victoria Monument

Since 1894 Queen Victoria has looked imperiously over the bustle of Victoria Square

Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1870s, 1880s, 1890s, 1900-1910, 1950s, 1960s

Image: protesters on King William Street

Radicalism

Radicalism has been inherent in South Australian history from its founding as a free settlement. Based upon the English radical liberal thought of its founders, the State's reputation grew as a progressive colony and the first to entirely separate church from state.

Historical Subject | By Brendan Moran | 1830s, 1840s, 1850s, 1890s, 1900-1910, 1930s, 1940s, 1960s, 1970s

Robert Burns Memorial

One of many around the world, this statue of Scottish poet Robert Burns was unveiled in 1894

Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1880s, 1890s, 1930s, 1940s, 1990s

Bronze bust of Douglas Mawson by Adelaide sculptor John Dowie, 1981

Sir Douglas Mawson bust

The spirit of Antarctic explorer and professor of geology, Sir Douglas Mawson, is captured in the bust by John Dowie

Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1880s, 1900-1910, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1980s

Sir Lawrence Bragg bust

The bust of Sir Lawrence Bragg commemorates a South Australian Nobel Laureate

Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1890s, 1900-1910, 1910s, 1970s, 2000-2010, 2010s

Sir Mellis Napier bust

The bronze bust of Sir Mellis Napier, sculpted by eminent South Australian artist John Dowie, commemorates his distinguished community service, including to the law and legal profession in South Australia

Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1880s, 1890s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s

Sir Samuel Way Memorial Statue

A statue of Sir Samuel Way reflects his towering presence in legal, political and cultural circles in the last decades of the nineteenth century.

Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1850s, 1860s, 1870s, 1880s, 1890s, 1900-1910, 1910s

Bronze statue of Sir Thomas Elder by Alfred Drury, 1903 outside Elder Hall, University of Adelaide

Sir Thomas Elder statue

The sculpture of Elder is at the University of Adelaide, a major beneficiary of his philanthropy

Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | 1890s, 1900-1910

Image: crowd of people around large bronze statue of seated man

Sir Walter Watson Hughes statue

The bronze figure of Sir Walter Watson Hughes by Francis Williamson stands on a massive block of red granite.

Historical Thing | By Jude Elton and James Hunter, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1850s, 1860s, 1870s, 1880s, 1900-1910, 2000-2010

Blue background with yellow green and blue blow and dashed lines spiraling across the blue.

Slovaks in South Australia

The first known Slovak to arrive in Australia was Brother Jakub Longa, a Jesuit, who was sent to Australia in 1888 to help found an Aboriginal mission at Daly Waters in the Northern Territory

Historical Subject | By Migration Museum | 1880s, early twentieth century, early twenty–first century, late twentieth century, mid twentieth century

Image: The statue of a horse and rider mounting the crest of a hill

South African War Memorial

The mounted trooper reining in his horse commemorates South Australians who served in the South African War (1899-1902).

Historical Thing | By Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia | North Terrace | 1890s, 1900-1910, 1930s, 2000-2010

Suffrage 125

The History Trust of South Australia is coordinating a series of programs and events to mark the 125th anniversary of womens suffrage in South Autralia. In December 1894, after decades of activism, women in South Australia were awarded the right to vote and stand for parliament. In 2019 we will celebrate the victory of the early suffragists such as Mary Lee, Augusta Zadow, Catherine Helen Spence and those who joined the fight. The Suffrage 125 initiative will explore issues of gender equality over the past 125 years.

Historical Subject | By The History Trust of South Australia | 1890s

The hulk 'Fitzjames'

Between 1880 and 1891 the hulk Fitzjames, colloquially known as ‘Hell afloat’, served as a Reformatory for over 100 boys aged from 8 to 16 years of age.

Historical Thing | By Nikki Sullivan | 1880s, 1890s

The Second World War

This major international conflict officially began when Nazi Germany invaded Poland on 3 September 1939. It lasted for six years, gradually increasing in scope and intensity as it blazed through Europe into Africa and Asia and on into Pacific Asia and the Americas.

Historical Subject | By Carol Fort | 1930s, 1940s