A vibrant place in the heart of the city, Canberra Museum and Gallery celebrates the region's social history and visual arts with dynamic exhibitions and unique community programs and events.

Housing a permanent collection, Reflecting Canberra, and a variety of local, national and international exhibitions, CMAG provides a refreshing insight to the integration of social history and the visual arts.

Reflections

Sewing machine and stand, 1953
Cast iron, chrome-plated tubular
stand with red vinyl seat machine

manufactured by Singer, model 210K
105 x 70 x 82 (on stand)
Gift of Peter Parsons 2007

SYLVIA PARSONS COLLECTION

The Singer sewing machine was owned by the late Sylvia May Parsons (née Johnson) who was born on a property near Gunning, New South Wales in 1911. She came to Canberra in 1941 following her marriage to John Parsons and taught Home Economics at Kingston Technical College, a course that included dressmaking
and design.

In 1948 Parsons saw a business opportunity for a ‘fashion house’ in Kingston and opened her own shop; straight away she was making around forty dresses a week. In time the Sylvia Parsons shops traded in four locations in Canberra: Kingston (1948-96); Manuka (1950-55); Civic (1955-63) and Woden (1972-90).

Sylvia Parsons and her fashion houses played a signifi cant role in Canberra’s retail and social history, opening at a time when there were few retailers of good women’s clothes in Canberra.

Her shops featured prominently in many women’s lives and Parsons maintained a regular and loyal clientele over nearly half a century. Her establishments were known for the quality of their staff and service. Parsons’s good business sense and involvement in local charitable organisations through groups such as the Soroptimists Club made her a ‘Canberra identity’.