Early Victorian Retailers

By the late nineteenth century Melbourne was a mercantile city with a plethora of the new department stores, many of which survived into the mid twentieth century. UMA holds large collections of archival records from some of the major early Melbourne retailers. These collections contain board minutes, correspondence, financial records, staff records, photographs and sometimes catalogues, providing a unique documentary record of how the increasing material needs of the new colony were met.

• Ball & Welch
• Myer Emporium
• Bright & Hitchcocks Pty Ltd
• Cox Brothers (Australia)
• Edward Duckett & Sons
• Foy & Gibson
• Hicks Atkinson Ltd
• Mutual Stores

The catalogues of Foy & Gibson have been digitised and available for all researchers via the Library’s Digitised Collections.