Gallery of Historic Photos
These are a selection of the historic photographs from our collection.
The collection covers the arrival of the Loreto Sisters in Australia and the development of Loreto communities and schools around Australia and beyond.
Enquiries about photographs held in our collection are welcome.
To publish a copy of a photograph from our collection or to display a copy in an exhibition, you need to gain permission from Loreto Province Archives. For permission to use and to obtain high resolution copies please apply to Loreto Province Archives.
Loreto does not hold the copyright for all items in its collections. If an item is still under copyright, you will need to get consent from the copyright owner to publish or reproduce it.
Please acknowledge Loreto Australia Province Archives when using a photograph from our collection.
Standing: Dorothea Frizelle, Berchmans Stafford, Bruno McCabe
Sitting: Boniface Volcker, Xavier Yourelle, Gonzaga Barry, Aloysius Macken
Front: Margaret Mary Hughes
The year after the founding of Mary's Mount; these are the first pupils who were boarders.
Standing - Minnie Martin, Minnie Twomey
Sitting - Mary Dynon, Alice O'Callaghan, Pollie Tappin, Maggie Martin, Ellie Gaunt.
Mother Gonzaga Barry was the founder of Loreto in Australia.
Mother Gonzaga Barry was a prodigious letter writer. Many of her letters can be found in our Archives.
Novices and Sisters forming the Novitiate at Mary's Mount in 1887. The first Novitiate was formed with the two postulants who came out from Ireland in 1875.
This group was named by the Community "The Evicted" because their rented house was bought "over their heads". On 4th September the Community moved to Kirribilli.
Students with Bella Guerin (teacher) in front of entrance gates of Mary's Mount.
Original house purchased by Loreto in 1875 to become their first Australian convent and school. The house was built by Edgar Agar Wynne in the late 1860s.
Girls at various activities in the Corridor Classroom. Girls in the foreground on the right are studying the orrery, a mechanical model of the solar system, still in the collection.
Outdoor cooking class
Miss Barry on the right (Sissie Barry, Mother Gonzaga's sister).
Pupils dancing under gas lights in the Study Hall. The Study Hall was on the ground floor of the Residential Wing built at Mary's Mount in 1882.
The German Countess was a pupil at Mary’s Mount from 1898-1899. Her bequest, after her death on her return trip to Germany, made possible the completion of the Loreto Chapel.
The Archery Club practising in the Paddock.
On 29th September 1899 work began again on the Chapel after Countess Elizabeth's bequest was announced. Each child was permitted to lay a brick in the cloister wall.
The Study Hall or School Room at Mary's Mount was part of the residential wing built in 1882. It was a large combined classroom and recreation area for the boarders.
Before the gothic façade was added to the original house in 1914 but after the completion of the Chapel in 1902.
Pupils demonstrating the wide curriculum available at Mary's Mount.
Pupils outside the Residential Wing holding various objects representing activities available at the school.
Group of Mary's Mount senior students outside the Residential Wing with bikes, tennis rackets, croquet club, book, embroidery.
One of the extra curricula activities available at Mary's Mount.
Formed for the Silver Jubilee of the founding of Mary’s Mount and the Golden Jubilee of Mother Gonzaga Barry in 1903.
Art class in St. Cecilia's Hall.
Portland Students with their Dolls' House 1880s
Original house purchased for Dawson Street day school in Ballarat, c.1875