Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- ca. 1900-1987 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent and medium
9 boxes, 3 albums, 3 parcels
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Emily Caroline Watson was born in Manchester in 1899, she moved to Australia in the 1920s and became involved in the theatre, first in Brisbane and then in Sydney. During this time, she used her mother's maiden name and was known as Carrie Tennant. In 1929, Caroline married Francis Kelly and took his surname. She founded the Community Playhouse, the first theatre in New South Wales devoted to producing Australian drama, in 1929, followed by the Play Society in 1931. She edited The Community Magazine: Official Magazine of the Community Play-house from 1930 to 1931. In the 1930s she enrolled in a Diploma in Anthropology at the University of Sydney and went on to conduct anthropological fieldwork in Aboriginal communities at Fraser Island and Cherbourg in Queensland and at Burnt Bridge in New South Wales. During the Second World War she began a major survey of non-British settlement in Australia for the Commonwealth Government, a project that continued until the late 1940s. Towards the end of her working life, she served as a consulting anthropologist to the State Planning Authority of New South Wales. Caroline Kelly died on 1 September 1989 in Kyogle.
Repository
Archival history
When Caroline Kelly died in 1989 in northern New South Wales, her personal papers passed into the hands of her friends Grahame and Stephanie Gooding, who recognised their potential value as historical records and carefully preserved them until 2010. In that year, Kim de Rijke and Anthony Jefferies, two postgraduate students in anthropology at the University of Queensland who were researching Caroline Kelly and her work, advertised in local NSW newspapers seeking anyone who might have known her or have records pertaining to her work. The Goodings responded to their advertisement and gave the papers into their custody. The two postgraduate students contacted James Kelly, Caroline Kelly's son, and told him of the discovery of the papers, of whose existence he was previously unaware. He agreed that the papers should be donated to Fryer Library, which holds an earlier collection of his mother's papers dealing with her theatrical career in Sydney (see UQFL52). Fryer Library is grateful to all three parties involved for allowing this unique and historically important collection to be added to its holdings.
Collection previously titled as: Papers, 1909-1987
Collection alternatively titled as: Caroline Kelly Collection
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Deposited by University of Queensland anthropology graduate students, Kim de Rijke and Anthony Jefferies. Donated by James Kelly.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Personal and professional papers of Caroline Kelly, including correspondence; financial and legal papers; unpublished poetry and stories; theatre records and publications; anthropology field notes, reports and articles; photographs and newspaper cuttings.
Content advice: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are warned that this resource may contain images, transcripts or names of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples now deceased. It may also contain historically and culturally sensitive words, terms, and descriptions.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Arranged into seven series:
Series A - Correspondence.
Series B - Financial and legal papers.
Series C - Other personal papers.
Series D - Theatre papers.
Series E - Anthropology papers.
Series F - Newspaper cuttings.
Series G - Photographs.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Unrestricted access, except for restricted access to the glass plate negatives in Series G-Subseries 3 (Parcel 3), and one handwritten letter in Series E-File 19 (in Box 7 Folder 19). Application for access to restricted material may be submitted to the Fryer Librarian for consideration.
Conditions governing reproduction
In copyright. Contact the Fryer Library. Can be reproduced for personal research and study. For other uses see About copyright. Please attribute the Fryer Library.
Pre-1955 photographs - Out of copyright. Able to be reproduced without permission. Please attribute the Fryer Library.
Language of material
- Australian Language
- English
Script of material
Language and script notes
Please refer to Series E - Anthropology Papers, to view the various Aboriginal languages recorded in this collection.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
A published guide, as a CD-ROM, to the anthropological material held in this collection was compiled by the University of Queensland Anthropology School prior to donation to Fryer Library:
Kelly, Caroline; Trigger, David S., et al. (2011). The Caroline Tennant-Kelly ethnographic collection : fieldwork accounts of Aboriginal culture in the 1930s. University of Queensland, Brisbane.
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Some of this collection was digitised in 2010. These digital copies are not available in UQ eSpace.
Related units of description
Publication note
Material in this collection has been cited in:
Lowe KM and Law AME (2022) ‘Location of historic mass graves from the 1919 Spanish Influenza in the Aboriginal community of Cherbourg using geophysics’, Queensland archaeological research, 25:67–81, doi:10.25120/qar.25.2022.3890.
Notes area
Note
Material in this collection may contain culturally sensitive words or descriptions.
This material contains culturally sensitive depictions of Indigenous people.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are warned that photographic works may contain images of people now deceased.
Note
In different periods of her life Caroline Kelly was also known as Caroline Watson, Caroline Tennant-Watson, Caroline Tennant, Carrie Tennant or Caroline Tennant Kelly. To avoid confusion Kelly is used throughout this collection description. It was her legal name from 1929 and her preferred public name from 1937.
Alternative identifier(s)
Alma MMS ID
Access points
Subject access points
- Aboriginal Australians -- Social life and customs
- Cherbourg Aboriginal Reserve (Qld.)
- Australia -- Emigration and immigration
- Guwamu language D33
- Biri language E56
- Giya language E58
- Yuru language E62
- Aboriginal Australians
- Gubbi Gubbi language E29
- Wakka Wakka language E28
- Biri people E56
- Gubbi Gubbi people E29
- Wakka Wakka people E28
- Biri language (Australia)
- Gubbi-Gubbi language
- Gubbi Gubbi (Australian people)
- Wakawaka language
- Wakawaka (Australian people)
Place access points
Name access points
- Tennant-Kelly, Caroline, 1899-1989 (Subject)
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Revised
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Revised, Kymberley Doyle, 16-Oct-2024.
Revised, MSB, 13-Jul-2023.
Revised, Linda Justo, 19-Jun-2023.
Revised, SJB, 18-Nov-2022.
Revised, Linda Justo, 15-Feb-2022. Revised, AM, 19-May-2020.
Migrated from LMS: April 2019, P.A.