Two historic images from 1800s Maitland have been digitally restored and donated to Maitland Library's heritage collection.
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East Maitland resident David Sciffer made the restorations and, armed with a high quality scanner and great photoshop skills, spent over 800 hours working on them.
West Maitland, New South Wales and it's leading commercial buildings
The first image came from a 1878 issue of the Sydney Illustrated News, and is 106 by 76 centimetres long, with intricate details that map out Maitland's major buildings and streets.
Mr Sciffer said the image, titled West Maitland, New South Wales and it's Leading Commercial Buildings contained a wood engraving of Maitland as seen from the air.
"It shows Telarah, the river and the buildings. You see Regent Street in the foreground and in the very far distance you can just make out the jail on the hill," he said.
"There are also 24 panels that show Maitland's major buildings."
Mr Sciffer said it's a measure of how important Maitland really was at that stage.
"Maitland was the second habitation in the colony, more important than Newcastle, more important than Morpeth although Morpeth was the gateway."
A friend at the University of Newcastle's library sent Mr Sciffer a high resolution scan of the image which had a fair amount of damage, that he has now digitally removed.
Mr Sciffer gave a framed copy to his friend, Graham, who was a professor at the University of New South Wales.
When Graham sadly passed away last year, he wanted his copy to be donated to the library.
View of West Maitland
The second image is a poster from 1891 called View of West Maitland.
It's a chromolithograph, meaning it was printed onto a flat surface, in colour.
Mr Sciffer said it was based on photographs taken by Morris Moss.
"According to what I've learned, the poster was available for sale in town at one shilling and six pence in 1891," he said.
"I spent probably 400 hours or so removing the damage that was caused by the poster being folded."
Mr Sciffer has always been interested in photography, and then in the 1980s learnt how to build computers.
"When I retired in 1998 I decided to put the two hobbies together and get into digital imaging."
Donating the works
Mr Sciffer donated printed and framed copies of the digital restorations to Maitland City Library's heritage collection in April at a Rutherford-Telarah Probus Club meeting.
Bethany White, manager Libraries and Learning at Maitland City Council said the heritage collection includes maps, pamphlets, posters, books, private letters, photographs and architectural plans.
"Collection items represent the ideas, resources and attitudes that shape the people, places and events from Maitland's past and present," she said.
"They are crucial to honouring and preserving local heritage and stories."
To see the images, check out the Maitland Library.
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