Letter from Joshua Thomas Bell to his daghter Margot Margaret Maxwell Bell on the occassion of her first birthday, 9 Mar 1909.

Letter to Uncle Alick (John Alexander Bell, c1829-1901), from Joshua Thomas Bell, 21 Feb 1880

Typescript letter on Department of Public Lands letterhead, from Joshua T Bell to Collie [Colin Basil Peter Bell] regarding horses and land at Juandah, 25 Jan 1907

Handmade photograph album with gold embossed title on cover The tour of His Excellency the Governor through Northern & Western Queensland, 1908. Cover has the top left-hand cover torn away thus first words of the inscription on the inside cover is missing: [To Colin] Bell from Ralph Verney in remembrance of a very pleasant tour. Ralph Verney was aide-de-camp to the Governor. The Governor, Frederick John Napier Thesiger, (Lord Chelmsford) accompanied by the Minister for Lands, Joshua Thomas Bell, left Brisbane on June 13 on a tour in Northern and North-western Queensland. Photographs:

1. A change of horses
2. Constable Dick
3. Irvinebank
4. Inspector Malone
5. The native cooks at Forest Home
6. Forest Home
7. An Aboriginal
8. Forest Home
9. His Excellency’s Goat Escort at Georgetown
10. His Excellency’s Goat escort at Georgetown
11. Main St, Georgetown
12. The luggage, Mr Mooney and Mr Smith
13. Floraville Post Office
14. Warandingo
15. The start from Inverleigh Station
16. Our hotel at Burketown
17. Burketown water supply
18. Burketown bore
19. Gregory Downs Hotel
20. Rocklands
21. A Bore at Rocklands
22. Gate in Boundary fence between Queensland and Northern Territory
23. Boundary fence between Queensland and Northern Territory
24. Colin Bell on the left, His Excellency, and Inspector McGrath on the right
25. A midday meal
26. Our Camp
27. The Australian Gum Trees
28. Roughing it
29. A midday halt
30. Colin Bell (1867-1934) on the trip with the Governor, and his brother Joshua Thomas Bell who was Minister for Lands and The Speaker
31. Packing up in the morning
32. On the road [in horse drawn carriage]
33. Coming out of the Leichhardt river [in horse drawn carriage]
34. The Leichhardt River
35. The bath at Rocklands
36. Harnessing up
37. On the road
38. The luggage buggy on the road
39. Starting for the days journey
40. Putting in the horses
41. Native Trackers
42. Native Trackers
43. Colin Bell and Fogarty bringing the horses out

A 19th century carte de visite photo album. Brass clasp is missing. Initial page, with inscription is torn with only 'To' and 'wit[h]' still remaining. The album has 42 pages with 84 spaces for carte de visites to be displayed. Each page is specially made to allow insertion of carte de visties through slots in the bottom of two stiff sheets of cardbord and visible through cut portrait openings. There are four missing photographs and one photograph in the back of the book. It may have been compiled by Catherine Bell. Captions are provided where available, supplied titles, some by Sue Bell, are in square brackets:

1. J.P. Bell
2. Margaret M. Bell (Lady)
3. J.T. Bell
4. William Bell
5. C.B.P. Bell
6. Ossie Bell
7. J.T. Bell 1880s
8. [Woman, possibly Jinny Maxwell?]
9. Thomas Bell
10. Maida Isabella Sarah Bell.
11. Maida Bell, taken 1880
12. Thomas Bell, 1872
13. J.P. Bell,
14. [Photo missing]
15. [Gerald and Thomas de Lacy Moffatt?]
16. Colin Bell
17. Maida Bell
18. [J.T. and William Bell]
19. [Gerald Kellet Moffatt, son of Isabella dn Thomas Moffatt]
20. [Thomas de Lacy Moffatt, son of Isabella and Thomas Moffatt]
21. Maida Bell
22. [Missing. Handwritten caption says 'T. B. Thomas Bell. d. 1872 with g'daughter Maida Moffatt]
23. [Thomas de Lacy Moffatt]
24. [Gerald Kellett Moffatt]
25. [Early photo of one of the Moffatt girls?]
26. [Missing. Handwritten caption says Thos Bell]
27. [Gerard Kellett Moffatt?]
28. [Woman. Caption on reverse says Margaret M Bell but not correct]
29. C.B.P. Bell
30. [Photo of two young men]
31. [Isabella and Mary Moffatt?]
32. [One of the Moffatt girls?]
33. [One of the Moffatt girls?]
34. [Missing]
35. [Missing]
36. [Older woman]
37. [Moffatt girl]
38. [Moffatt girl]
39. [Thomas de Lacy Moffatt]
40. [Isabella and Mary Moffatt?]
41. [Moffatt girl]
42. [Moffatt girl]
43. [Moffatt girl]
44. Maida I. S.
45. [Woman]
46. [Group of four women]
47. [Man]
48. Oswald
49. [Man]
50. [Woman]
51. [Young man]
52. [Woman]
53. [One of the adult male Bells?]
54. [Thomas de lacy Moffatt]
55. [Man. Inscription on reverse "To A Queenslander from a 'would be' Queenslander 30/6/81]
56. [Man]
57. [Woman]
58. [Handwritten note 'Welton']
59. [Thomas de Lacy Moffatt]
60. [Man]
61. [Maida Bell? Not a carte de vistie]
62. [Thomas de Lacy Moffatt]
63. C.B.P. Bell
64. Ossie Bell
65. [Inscription: Mr & Mrs Armstrong to their friend G Proley]
66. [Man]
67. J.T. Bell
68. [Man leaning against fence]
69. [Inscription: D. E. Brown, 1880]
70. [Boy]
71. J. T. Bell
72. J. T. Bell
73. [J.T. Bell]
74. J.P. Bell
75. [Young man]
76. [Young woman]
77. [Moffatt girl?]
78. [Moffatt girl?]
79. [Man on a horse in fromt of house]
80. [Horse drawn carriage]
81. [Landscape picture of man with unsaddled horse]
82. [Portrait picture of man with saddled horse]
83. "Ossie" & Maida
84. [Two boys]
    [85. Picture inserted in back of album of young woman with inscription on reverse 'From Evelyn']

Blue cloth bound album, “Sunny Memories” on top left-hand corner of cover, initials "K. J." at bottom right-hand corner of cover. Catherine Jane Ferguson married Charles Syndey Jones (1861-1896) on 28 Oct 1889 in Melbourne. They had three daughters: Ella Maud (born 9 Mar 1891), Enid Frances Sydney (born 31 May 1892) and Kate Elaine Sydney (born 27 Apr 1895, also known as Katie, Kit or Kitty). After the death of Sydney Jones, Catherine married Joshua Thomas Bell.

This album contains 194 photographs dated 1897 to around 1901. There are twenty pages. Photographs have been pasted to the inside and back covers of the album. First five pages have captions with dates (1897 to 1901) and initials [of photographer?]. There are photographs of the family, children, Mount Morgan, 'Kenmore' (residence of John Ferguson, in Rockhampton), Rockhampton botanical gardens, 'Killin' (now called Yungaba, residence built by John Ferguson for Catherine Janes Ferguson and her husband, solicitor, Charles Sydney Jones), the Grandstand at the Rockhampton race course.

From page five, the last captioned page, photogaphs are taken when Catherine and her children travelled to Lenzie, Scotland, and include photographs from the trip there, activities while overseas, and what appears to be photographs from the trip back to Australia.

The Sunny Memories album was produced by Percy Lund & Co. and allowed photographs or photographic scraps to be inserted into the album. It was produced from 1898.

Black and white phototgraph on mounting board which appears to have been framed at some time (frame now removed). It shows the construction of the new railway bridge at Indooroopilly over the Brisbane River. The previous bridge had washed away in the 1893 floods. This photograph show crowds gathered to watch the hulk, Beatrice used on the Brisbane River to float another span on the Indooroopilly Railway Bridge. Like most material in this collection from this era, it was probably in the possession of Joshua Thomas Bell.

This album was created by Joshua Peter Ferguson Bell. Photographs are arranged chronologically, mostly by location, and most have captions written beneath them. Included with this album are post-it sticky notes with information about some of the content of the album. These notes have been written by Sue Bell.

Photographs include: 'Spicer's Gap, April 1930', 4 photographs with captions. -- 'Upper Logan and Cronan's Creek - Mount Barney - Easter 1930', 24 photographs with captions. -- 'Australia to England, P&O, R.M.S. Mooltan, May-June 1930', 25 photographs with captions. -- 'The Sunbeam, 1930', 4 photographs. -- 'Snowdonia, September 1930', 6 photographs with captions. -- 'English Lake District and Scotland, September 1930', 11 photographs with captions. -- 'Cotswold Hills, Bibury, September 1930', 7 photographs, some with captions. -- 'Brighton - October 1930, Mrs Stuart, Beth & J.P.F.B.', 11 photographs. -- 'Fontainbleau - October 1930, Mr. & Mrs. Stuart, Beth, & the Sunbeam', 6 photographs. -- 'Fontainbleau', 8 photographs, some with captions. -- Tilbury, January, 1931', 5 photographs with captions. -- 'Dover - October 1930', 3 photographs, 1 missing, some with captions. -- 'The Continent, October - December 1930', 5 photographs with captions. -- 'Prague', 4 photographs with captions. -- 'Austria', 4 photographs with captions. -- 'Venice - November 1930', 5 photographs with captions. -- 'Switzerland - November 1930', 10 photographs with captions. -- 'South of France - December 1930', 5 photographs with captions. -- 'Spain - December 1930', 4 photographs with captions. -- [September 1930 to March 1931], 6 photographs with captions. -- 'Jimbour House, Darling Downs, Queensland', 6 photographs, some with captions. -- Marseilles to Bombay, P&O Mooltan, February, 1931', 6 photographs with captions. -- 'Mooltan', 12 photographs with captions. -- 'Swimming pool - Aden', 2 photographs with captions. -- 'India, March 1931', 7photographs with captions, inserted is a notice questing passengers to the a Vaccination Certificate, 2 May 1930. -- 'Mombasa, March 1931', 8 photographs with captions. -- 'Kenya Colony - March 1931', 10 photographs with captions. -- 'Kingatori Estate, Kiambu, April 1931', 6 photographs with captions. -- '"Claude" - May 1931', 4 photographs with captions. -- 'September 1931', 11 photographs, some with captions. -- 'Kiambu Road Repairs - Jan. 1932', 2 photographs with captions. -- 'Kingatori Estate, Kiambu, January 1932', 13 photographs with captions. -- 'Cricket in Kenya, 1931-32', 8 photographs with captions. -- 'Victoria Nyanza, Feb. 1932', 16 photographs with captions. -- 'Trip Home, March-June 1932', 47 photographs with captions. -- 'Coochin - June 1932', 19 photographs with captions. -- [Untitled page], 6 photographs photographs with captions. -- 'Westland - August 1932', 17 photographs with captions. -- 'September 1932', 19 photographs with captions.

This is a large commercially produced photograph album using a punch-and-bind system in which two metal posts are inserted through punched holes near the binding edge. There are 32 brown card pages in this album. The photographs have been adhered overall to the pages.

Large black diary with lock (broken and torn from front cover) and 'Private' embossed on the cover. Inside page has 'Autobiographical Diary of William Alexander Dorsey Bell born June 3, 1865, in Brisbane Australia'. Approximately 16 handwritten entries from 20 Jul 1892 to 27 Jun 1916. Most of the volume is blank.

Photocopy of 'Autobiographical Diary of William Alexander Dorsey Bell born June 3, 1865, in Brisbane Australia'. Approximately 16 handwritten entries from 20 Jul 1892 to 27 Jun 1916.