[WESTERN DISTRICT] Photographs of The Burns Boys, and the Bark Mill machinery, by which they lost their arms, at Portland.

A$400 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

[1874]. Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format, 104 x 62 mm (mount); the negative with caption in manuscript A.M. Copyright Registered ; verso with printed title in various fonts Photographs of The Burns Boys, and the Bark Mill machinery, by which they lost their arms, at Portland , and Copyright Registered / Evening News office, Sandhurst ; the print has a nick at upper right corner, but is otherwise in good condition; the verso has some light marks. A rare photograph relating to a horrific accident that occurred in Portland, on the far west coast of Victoria, on 21 April 1874, involving two young brothers, John and Thomas Burns. The photograph was published as one of a series of six cartes de visite of this gruesome subject. One of the other cartes showed the machinery involved in the accident, and on its verso was printed the following text: How the Accident Occurred. The two brothers Burns, who live at Portland, aged respectively ten and twelve, were going home from school one day in May [sic], 1874, and on their road, stopped at a bark-mill, which the elder began to feed, and in doing so got his hands caught. The younger brother, seeing this, called for assistance, and in endeavouring to release his brother, got his own arms caught. Assistance being near at hand, the machinery was stopped, which prevented the whole of their bodies being drawn in and crushed to atoms. The doctor who was first called to attend them was equal to the dreadful task, and successfully

• Binding: Hardcover

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.