Leeper Family Papers

Leeper Family Papers is an archival collection held by University of Melbourne Archives. It contains records relating to pupils at the school at Mount Margaret Mission in Western Australia during the 1930s and 1940s.

Access Conditions
Open access.

Records
The records in the Leeper Family Papers relating to Mount Margaret Mission came to be in the possession of Valentine Leeper through her association with the Victorian Aboriginal Group. Leeper was also a friend of Mary Bennett, who taught at the Mount Margaret School.

This collection also includes some records created by Save the Children Fund’s Victorian branch. This organisation had some involvement with children in Victorian institutions in the 1940s and 1950s. Annual reports show that it had a ‘Sub-Committee for Lonely Children in Victorian Institutions’ which met monthly. This sub-committee organised an annual Christmas party for the children at Kew Children’s Cottages. The annual report for 1950 stated that its objective was to assist in ‘brightening the lives of unattached children in institutions’. Periodically, it organised picnics or other gatherings for children in institutions. It also sent “unattached children” a birthday card and a handkerchief, using a list of names provided to them by the Child Welfare Department (Box 69, Leeper Family Papers).

Finding Aids
The University of Melbourne Archives has more information about the Mount Margaret school records than is publicly available through the records description list for the Leeper Family Papers. Please contact the University of Melbourne Archives for more information (such as names of students whose work is in the collection).