Join Margaret Betteridge, curator of Ruth Lane-Poole: A Woman of Influence, as she delves into Ruth’s early life, including her Irish connections to the Celtic Revival and the celebrated Yeats family. Margaret will explore the background to Ruth's appointment in 1926, by the Federal Capital Commission, to furnish the Official Residences – Government House and The Lodge in Canberra – and the societal context in which she worked and lived. Married to the Commonwealth's Forestry Adviser, later Commonwealth Inspector-General of Forestry and Acting Principal of the Australian Canberra Forestry School at Yarralumla, Ruth admired the natural beauty of Australian timbers and specified their use in the furniture she commissioned for the Official Residences. As the Commonwealth's first 'interior furnisher', Ruth balanced practical sensibility with refined 'good taste' in the face of bureaucratic hurdles, and the personal wishes of occupants, to successfully meet the deadline imposed by the opening of Federal Parliament and accompanying Royal Visit in 1927.
Presented in partnership with The Australiana Fund.
This Curator's talk will also have an Auslan sign-interpreter for people who are deaf or hearing impaired.
Free. Bookings essential
Image: Ruth Lane Poole’s design for the Dining Room at Government House showcased Tasmanian oak timber panelling. Photograph by Harold Cazneaux, circa late 1920s. State Library of NSW.
