The Life and Times of Heinrich (Henry) Muller, Photographic Artist (1830-1910)

Guest blogger: David Huggonson

Heinrich Muller arrived in Sydney in 1853 from Hamburg, He married another German immigrant in Sydney named Wilhelmine Henrietta Tiedemann. The family moved to Yass in 1860 before moving later to Forbes and the upper Hunter Valley. 

In 1866, the family moved to Toowoomba, where Heinrich anglicised his first name.  Henry Muller operated a photographic studio in Ruthven Street (opposite the School of Arts).  The only known surviving photograph taken by Henry Muller in Toowoomba is of an identified studio portrait of a young woman.  The Art Galley of New South Wales purchased the carte-de-visite image in 2014.  The back of the photograph contains Henry Muller ‘s business details.   

Robert Leck introduced the carte-de-visite technique to Sydney in 1859 by William Blackwell and to Brisbane in Brisbane in 1862. Cartes from the 1860s have square corners and are thinner than those made after 1870.  Vignetted portrait indicate an 1870s date, and the diamond cameo, in which four photographs appear on the one carte, is almost certainly 1865-66.  Most cartes are found in in albums specially designed to house them.

The State Library of Queensland holds an album of his photographs entitled the Davenport Album, which was originally presented to the Downs Club in Toowoomba by G H Davenport on his departure for England in 1877.  The album has been digitised and you can view it online. 

The Muller family moved to Brisbane in 1874. According to Mrs Muller’s obituary located on National Library's Trove website, the couple had four sons and a daughter. In 1915 the daughter was married to Walter Jackson at the time of her mother’s death in June that year. One son qualified as a doctor who went to London in 1915 to offer his services to the army.  The eldest son also named Henry Muller came from Sydney to attend his mother’s funeral. Mrs Muller is buried in Toowong Cemetery in Brisbane.  Heinrich (Henry) Muller died in 1910 aged 80 years. 

The author would be grateful for details of any other photographs taken by Henry Muller during his career or any additional information about him or his family. Please comment below if you know of any.

David Huggonson

References

• Davenport Album 1877, 9949 Davenport Album, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.

• Alan Davies and Peter Stanbury, The Mechanical Eye in Australia : photography 1841-1900, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1985.

• Obituary, The Week (Brisbane, Qld. : 1876 - 1934) 2 July 1915, pg 28.

Read other blogs by David Huggonson.