De Groen family, pictorial collection, 1910-1964 / compiled by the de Groen family

PXE 1524

fonds

1910-1964

Graphic Materials, Photographs, Drawings

902199

1 box (4 folders - 124 photographs; 2 drawings) : black & white ; various sizes

Lewis De Groen (1868-1919) was a musician and conductor. He was appointment to the position of Conductor of Music to His Excellency Viscount Hampden, 25 July 1896. He had three children, Gladys b.1897 (Mrs. Colemen), Allan, and Lewis.

Lewis (1905-1928) (son) died aged 22. Allan (1903-1965) was the Head of Australian Customs in Papua New Guinea.

Lewis De Groen was one of Australia's most eminent bandmasters at the turn of the twentieth century. He was once described by an American newspaper as "the Sousa of Australia". As a young man De Groen organised a small orchestra in Sydney to play at social functions, and over time increased the orchestra's personnel following its growing reputation. During the governorship of Lord Loftus in the early 1880s, the band began to provide music for Government House functions, State balls, and social events at Parliament House, and it became known as the Vice-Regal Orchestra. The band enjoyed enormous popularity - in 1908, for instance, they played for 21 balls during Easter week alone. The band was highly visible to the public through its frequent performances on the lawns at the Randwick races, agricultural shows, the Glaciarium, Wonderland City, and in its Sunday afternoon concerts at the Sydney Town Hall. De Groen was a pioneer in the Australia's infant cinema industry, becoming associated with entrepreneur T. J. West in 1898. He wielded vast influence as musical director of West's entire Australasian cinema circuit, arranging the music for all the company's shows in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, and New Zealand, and employing a large number of professional musicians. His attractive musical programmes, which would invariably begin with a serious overture and feature music carefully selected to match the on-screen action, were well known. The Town and Country Journal (9 April 1919, p. 5) declared: "Mr West attributed much of the success of his early venture to Mr De Groen - and when one considers what passed for motion picture entertainment in those days, there is little doubt that music, more than anything else, carried the films over their first imperfect stages." Whilst De Groen was renowned as a very adept arranger, particularly of the works of Wagner, only one of his original compositions was published, the waltz La Fiancee. Apparently, "he preferred to keep his compositions for the edification of himself and a close circle of friends." (ibid.) He was music critic for the Australian Star newspaper in the late nineteenth century.
'De Groen, Lewis' 2009. Trove, viewed 23 May 2013 http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-679083

Collection includes portraits of Lewis de Groen and his two sons, Allan and Lewis, there is one portrait of Gladys. Several images of Allan's time in Papua New Guinea while working for Customs.
Also includes images of the Papua New Guinea Scouts at the Australian Jamboree of 1934-35.

There are also several unidentified images of portraits and groups.

This pictorial material is part of the Lewis De Groen papers, 1894-1917, 1976, at MLMSS 5027

Copyright status:: In copyright - photographs created after 1955
Out of copyright: Photographs created before 1955
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and courtesy de Groen Family

Pic.Acc. Upgrade Project - Information transferred from Pic.Acc.6594 as part of the eRecords Project 2012-13

Mostly identified on verso

Two are torn, the rest are in good condition