This photo is part of the Australian National Maritime Museum’s Gervais Purcell collection.

Gervais Purcell (1919-1999) was a respected Australian commercial photographer who worked from the 1940s with retailers like David Jones and Hordern Bros, radio technology manufacturer Amalgamated Wireless Australasia (AWA), swimwear manufacturer Jantzen, tourism operator Ansett Airways, and cruise ship operators P&O.

Gervais’ camera and some of his swimwear fashion photographs were featured in the popular ANMM travelling exhibition Exposed! the story of swimwear of 2009.

The photos in this collection are a part of the 3000 images gifted to the Museum by Gervais’ son Leigh Purcell in 2012.

If reproduced or distributed, this image should be clearly attributed to the collection of the Australian National Maritime Museum; and not be used for any commercial or for-profit purposes without the permission of the museum.

For more information see our Flickr Commons Rights Statement.

The Australian National Maritime Museum undertakes research and accepts public comments that enhance the information we hold about images in our collection. If you can identify a person or fashion design, write the details in the Comments box below.

Thank you for helping caption this important historical image.