Betty Hart Collection - NJSN_AC-018 circa 1899-1987

BOX 1

Series 1: Correspondence 1986-1987.

This series consists of correspondence between the Australian War Memorial, Mrs Betty Hart and Sally Speed at the Canberra Women’s Archive relating to Hart’s Memoirs.

A typescript one page letter from the Australian War Memorial Canberra ACT signed by Margaret Browne, Historical Research Section for the Director, dated 10 June 1986 which must have accompanied the returned manuscript.

Memo on a with compliments slip is signed by Peter Stanley, Historical Research Section of the Australian War Memorial with Pages 3,4 and 7 of Hart’s manuscript attached. Some paragraphs are highlighted with envelope attached, undated.
Memo on with compliments slip sent to Ms Speed signed by Peter Stanley dated 27 January 987 with an accompanying copy of a letter sent to Hart dated 23 January 1987.

One page handwritten letter, with wrongly addressed envelope sent to Betty Hart at 31 Macintosh Street Gordon from Sally Speed, Women’s Archive (the correct street number is 51) and a typescript copy of the same handwritten letter wrongly addressed to Betty Hart at 31 Macintosh Street Gordon from Sally Speed, Women’s Archive. Envelope states “not known at this address’ dated 22 July 1986 presumably was returned to the Women’s Archive in Canberra.

One page handwritten letter from Betty Hart to Sally Speed dated 11 September 1986.

One page handwritten letter from Betty Hart to Sally Speed dated 11 September 1986.

One page handwritten letter, addressed to Sally Speed dated 29 April 1987 from Hart, which accompanied a family photograph that includes Betty Hart as a baby with mother and seven siblings.

Thank you card commercially produced, undated, white, grey and pink with gold writing includes a handwritten note inside addressed to Sally Speed from Betty Hart. The card has been cut to fit ‘Postpak’ padded postal bag. The date is indistinguishable on the ‘Postpak’ in which it was sent, however, the year 1987 is discernible.  It appears to have been incorrectly addressed but has been forwarded to Jill Matthews, Women’s Studies Program, ANU, GPO Box 4 ACT 2601.
File 1.

Series 2: Manuscript 1968-1987.

This series comprises the manuscript of Betty Hart’s memoirs and notes relating to it.

Betty Hart’s manuscript is undated and comprises twenty-nine handwritten foolscap pages. It appears that page 29 is missing. Another separate page number 1 and 2 written on both sides of the paper at a later date according to the text seems to be a continuation of the original twenty-nine pages. It is undated.

An unacknowledged person, probably from the Women’s Archive, has written a précis of Hart’s memoir. The notes consist of seventeen handwritten pages which are numbered but undated. There is no accompanying documentation to identify the author of the notes.
File 2.

Series 3: Photograph, c. 1899.

This series comprises one photograph of Betty Hart’s family, which includes her mother, seven siblings and herself as a four and a half month old baby pictured sitting on her mother’s knee.

Black and white photograph measuring 12.5 cm x 9.75 cm shows Hart’s family. Hart’s letter dated 29 April 1987, accompanying the photograph, states that the family was in mourning. Further reading of the manuscript informs that a runaway horse killed Hart’s father when she was four and a half months old. Presumably this was when the photograph was taken. The photograph was removed from a gilt frame and placed in acid free envelope for conservation purposes. There is no identification on reverse of photograph. The name, L Campbell Taylor R A appears on the label on the back of the frame.
File 3.
File 3A: Ted Bushell's family history, 2007.

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BIOGRAPHY

Betty Hart nee Bartlett was born at Wardell on the Richmond River in Northern NSW, probably in 1899. The youngest of eight children, Betty was the daughter of English immigrants who arrived in Australia fourteen years earlier in 1885.  Her mother, a midwife, worked with the local doctor helping poor families of the district. Her father worked for the North Coast Navigation Co. He had been trained in the British Royal Navy.

Betty married at sixteen years of age. Her first child was a daughter born when she was seventeen and, sadly, died after five days through the possible incompetence of the local doctor. This is in stark contrast to her mother’s skills as a midwife who boasted never to have lost a mother or child in her care. Betty later raised two children, a boy and a girl who were both born after her husband returned from the First World War. Hart mentions her eleven grand sons in her memoirs.

The exact date of her death is unknown. She was still alive and presumably well in 1987. That would make her eight-eight years old at the time she wrote these memoirs.

RESTRICTIONS ON REPRODUCTION
Library permission and acknowledgement is required to copy material for research purposes.

SOURCE OF ACQUISITION:
Canberra Women’s Archive Collections were donated to Jessie Street National Womens Library by Mary Hutchison and Frances Sutherland in July 1993.

Copyright holder is JSNWL.

English.