We are excited to welcome back Lorinda Cramer for our opening Talking History for 2023. When Irish-born draper Mark Foy arrived in Victoria in the 1850s, little could he have imagined that his stores on the Central Victorian diggings would grow by the end of the century into 'the largest manufacturers and the largest retail distributors in Australia'. He then relocated to Melbourne and entered a short-lived partnership with Scotsman William Gibson, giving the store its name, Foy & Gibson. The business continued to serve country customers via richly illustrated mail order catalogues produced across decades. This presentation explores Foy & Gibson's clothing through these catalogues: their promotion of Australian made, often in Australian wool.
Dr Lorinda Cramer is a Research Fellow in the Gender and Women's History Research Centre at the Australian Catholic University. Her work on Foy & Gibson was carried out as Redmond Barry Fellow for the State Library of Victoria's 2022 Fellowships Program, supported by the University of Melbourne and State Library of Victoria.
Image: 'Winter 1925' [detail], Foy & Gibson, Melbourne, magazine cover. Foy & Gibson Collection. Courtesy of the University of Melbourne Archives
