Studio portrait of Ada Evans, the first Australian woman to obtain a law degree and the first woman admitted to the Bar in New South Wales. Sydney, circa 1905.

A$1,650 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Gelatin silver print photograph, oval Paris Panel format, 190 x 140 mm, on the original card mount with the blind stamp of Swiss Studios, Sydney; in superb condition, with the original tissue guard preserved (lightly foxed) and still housed in the studio s green card portfolio, 310 x 235 mm (sunned at edges). Ada Emily Evans (1872–1947), barrister, was the first Australian woman to receive a law degree and the first woman admitted to the Bar in New South Wales. Other copies of this beautiful portrait of her, taken by the Swiss Studios in Sydney around 1905, are held in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra (2021.71), and the State Library of New South Wales (P1/2430). Evans arrived with her family from England in 1883, when she was eleven. She attended Sydney Girls High and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Sydney in 1895. In 1899, with the encouragement of her mother, she returned to her alma mater to undertake a law degree, despite the fact that women were not yet permitted to practise law in Australia. (She managed to enrol in the course while the Dean was on sabbatical). Evans graduated LL.B. in 1902; the Supreme Court, however, rejected her application for registration as a student-at-law; similarly, her applications to be admitted to the Bar in New South Wales and in England were unsuccessful. Evans earned a living for some time in journalism, as editor of the women s pages of the Australian Star . It was not until after World

• Binding: Hardcover

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