Openings and public events.
For over 170 years Maitland Hospital served the community from its site on High Street. As buildings were added, there were openings and public events, and the hospital was a focus for visits and assistance from significant local and colonial figures.
Items in the Maitland Hospital Collection evoke and document some of these moments. A small selection from these items is on display in one of the vitrines embedded in the timeline in the new Maitland Hospital.
Openings and public events, new Maitland Hospital, January 2022.
Plaque commemorating the laying of the hospital foundation stone by local police magistrate Edward Denny Day in 1846.
(Maitland Hospital Collection 2)
This is a replacement plaque. The original foundation stone disappeared within a week of being laid.
Visit A stolen stone and an empty beer bottle to learn more about this intriguing story.
A key commemorating the opening of the 1905 hospital building, and a photograph of NSW Premier Joseph Carruthers and other dignitaries at the opening.
(Maitland Hospital Collection 359 and 165.170)
Visit A gold key to find out more about the key, the local jeweller who created it, and the opening event.
Incomplete set of Maitland Hospital Minute books, 1890 to 1923.
(Maitland Hospital Collection 75)
Handwritten and leather bound, the minute books provide insights into the day-to-day management of the hospital as well as the arrangements for, and impact of, public events and visits by dignitaries.
The hospital’s centenary was celebrated in a number of different ways. A new building was opened, a booklet was published, records were created, and other celebratory events were held. The sesquicentenary was also celebrated with events, a lift-out in the Maitland Mercury, and the creation of memorabilia.
Click on the images below to get an enlarged view.
Visit A century of service for more details about the hospital’s centenary celebrations.