The National Museum of Australia (Canberra) is currently hosting the impressive Springfield–Faithfull Family Collection, one of the largest collections donated to the Museum. It reveals the life and times of a wealthy family who owned a merino sheep property.
Springfield is the name of the property which is in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales. It is approximately 200 km south of Sydney, 70 km from Canberra and 15 km from Goulburn. Springfield lies across part of the territory of the Gundungurra people.
The collection includes a landau carriage ordered from Brewster & Co Carriage Builders, New York by William Pitt Faithfull for his daughter Florence in 1889. William Pitt Faithfull was a very tall man and he often wore his top hat while driving, so the coach had to be made 5–8 centimetres higher than the standard carriage. A final account from Brewster’s reveals that the carriage and harness were purchased for a total cost of US$1,943.20 – a considerable sum in those days.
The collection also contains many fine costumes and photographs from the nineteenth century, and is sure to delight the whole family.
You can check the exhibition here: Springfield–Faithfull family collection | National Museum of Australia (nma.gov.au)
