eHive Object Details

Name/TitleLewis Hart : Old Melbourne Cemetery, Jewish section, c. 1920

About this objectPhotograph of a large chest tomb with paneled sides and a horizontal stone with the inscription as the cover. The corners of the chest are decorated with rectangular inserts. There is another smaller chest tomb to the left of Hart monument, with a similar inscribed top. Both stones have Hebrew and English writing.

Selby tells us that, "Asher Hyman Hart applied for land in the Old Cemetery, and an acre was granted to the Jews. By a strange fatality, Lewis Hart (Asher Hymen Hart's brother) was the first interred... Lewis Hart was a clothier." (pp. 174-5, OPMHoM)

The inscription reads: (431 in Selby's grave index p. 399 OPMHoM)

7 lines of Hebrew
In Memory Of
LEWIS HART
Who Died On August 14th 5603-1843
Aged 40 Years
The First Jewish Interment In This Cemetery (carved along bottom edge)

According the newspaper reports under the heading of "Awfully Sudden Death" we learn that, "Mr. Lewis Hart, shopkeeper, at the corner of Queen and Collins streets, whilst walking in front of his establishment at about half past 9 o'clock on Monday morning, suddenly dropped down, and melancholy to relate before medical assistance could be procured, the vital spark had fled."

The other chest tomb, according to Selby's plan of the cemetery and his index (430), is named for Lewis Hart, son of Edward and Isabella Hart, who died on the 5th January, A.M. 5609, 1849, aged 18 months. (p. 399, OPMHoM)

From newspaper articles it can be deduced that Edward Hart, the father of baby Lewis Hart, was Lewis Hart's brither.

These two burials were among the few that remained in the Jewish section after the first market expansion in 1877.

This image is attributed to Everard Studley Miller who photographed many graves and tombstones in the Old Melbourne Cemetery (established in 1837) around 1920 as part of a project led by Isaac Selby to record and commemorate all aspects of Melbourne's second cemetery (the first being at Flagstaff Hill). The RHSV holds original glass negatives and albums of the photographs from this project.

One of the many glass slides purchased from retailers or specifically made for illustrated lectures given by Isaac Selby between c. 1930 and c. 1955 to raise money for the Old Pioneers Memorial Fund. Selby numbered this slide #15.

For more information about this image contact Royal Historical Society of Victoria.

MakerMiller, Everard Studley, 1886-1956.

Maker RolePhotographer

Measurements8.2 x 8.2 cm

Period1910-1920

Object TypePhotograph

Subject and Association KeywordsSelby, Isaac, 1859-1956

Subject and Association KeywordsMiller, Everard Studley, 1886-1956.

Subject and Association KeywordsOld Melbourne Cemetery (Melbourne)

Subject and Association KeywordsJewish community

Subject and Association KeywordsMonuments and memorials

Subject and Association KeywordsHart, Lewis, 1803-1843

Subject and Association KeywordsChildren

Named CollectionImages collection

Object numberGS-TM-26

Copyright LicenceAll rights reserved