Our current exhibition, Tasmanian Regattas: boats, bathers, bonnets and beer, is on show at the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts.
 

The exhibition runs from 12 Dec 2007– 26 April 2008.

The People's Day

The first official Tasmanian public holiday took place on 1 December 1838.

Declared by Sir John Franklin as a day of celebration for all Tasmanians ‘regardless of class’, the first Hobart Town Regatta saw an estimated 12,000 people help themselves to free food and beer and enjoy a variety of entertainments and boat racing, while Governor Franklin, whose popularity soared after the event, strolled among the happy crowd carrying a large bouquet of red roses.

This exhibition, featuring digitally enhanced reproductions of photographs from the Archives Office of Tasmania, and a selection of Regatta memorabilia from our Heritage Collections, encourages you to pause for a moment, and share in that sense of celebration by looking closely at the detail in the imagery.

A tightrope walker pauses in mid air, as women in their finest dresses walk carefully along a rocky shore; a working family poses happily for a moment around a picnic table, while on the river, during the excitement of a race, the wind fills the sails of a stately ketch.

The festive, carnival atmosphere of the Regatta holiday- traditionally called The People’s Day - continues to this day. The tightrope walkers and whale boat races may be gone, but their spirit remains in the fine displays of athletic and sailing prowess on the water and with the lingering hope of winning a prize on land, at sideshow alley.

Current opening times

Monday - Friday: 9.30am - 5.00pm

Last Saturday of each month: 9.30am - 2.30pm

Guided tours of the exhibition are available. 

Please contact the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts for further details.