Reading Australian household inventories from the 19th century: possessions and living standards worksheet
What can a list of possessions reveal about everyday life? Use an authentic inventory to investigate household activities, distinguish evidence from inference and explain the limits of comparisons between living standards.
Before you begin
This worksheet requires a teacher-selected inventory facsimile or checked transcription; it does not reproduce a historical household’s possessions. Select a nineteenth-century Australian record with identifiable provenance and enough detail for close reading. Supply its repository, reference, document date, locality and page or image numbers. For comparison, provide a second record of similar date, locality and purpose where possible.
One starting point is Public Record Office Victoria’s VPRS 28, Probate and Administration Files. Its catalogue describes inventories among the estate documents and identifies files dated 1841–1922 in consignment P0000. Select a record within this worksheet’s nineteenth-century scope and inspect its contents before use. The catalogue is evidence about the collection, not evidence of any particular household’s furniture. See the PROV catalogue description on Research Data Australia.
Learning aims: accurately record evidence; connect possessions with possible daily activities; evaluate whether an inventory supports a claim about living standards. These are open interpretation tasks, with no fixed answer key.
Sheet 1: Identify and read the evidence
Use the supplied inventory throughout. Record what you can establish; write 'not stated' for missing information and mark uncertain readings. Do not fill gaps with imagined possessions or values.
1. Source identity
Repository and collection: ____________________ Item reference and page/image: ____________________ Stable URL or supplied source label: ____________________ Person or estate named: ____________________ Locality and colony as recorded: ____________________ Document date: ____________________ Creator or appraiser, if identified: ____________________
What was this document made for? Identify evidence for your answer. Distinguish the inventory's date from a death date or later filing date. Is your copy complete, an extract or a transcription?
Purpose and supporting evidence: ____________________ Dates and completeness: ____________________
2. Record three entries
Copy each entry's wording and locator. Keep quantities, condition descriptions and currency notation as written. If several objects share one valuation, record the group without assigning invented prices to its members.
| Entry and page/image | Quantity, condition and value as recorded | Possible activity; uncertainty |
|---|---|---|
| 1. ____________________ | ____________________ | ____________________ |
| 2. ____________________ | ____________________ | ____________________ |
| 3. ____________________ | ____________________ | ____________________ |
Choose one unfamiliar term or unclear passage. Record your tentative reading, the reference used to check it and whether uncertainty remains.
Term or passage: ____________________ Check and result: ____________________
Sheet 2: Possessions and living standards
3. Connect objects with daily life
Choose two recorded entries that might illuminate cooking, sleeping, washing, clothing care, work or leisure. For each, explain a possible activity and what the entry cannot establish about its frequency, the person doing it or the comfort it provided. Treat these activity categories as prompts, not as objects known to be present.
Entry and locator: ____________________ Possible activity and reasoning: ____________________ What remains unknown: ____________________ Second entry and locator: ____________________ Possible activity and reasoning: ____________________ What remains unknown: ____________________
4. Test the limits
Does this record describe one person's estate or establish everything used by everyone in the home? Identify any evidence about ownership, shared use, debts or grouped valuations. Explain why 'not listed' alone is insufficient to prove 'not used'.
Evidence and limits: ____________________ An alternative explanation for an apparent absence: ____________________
Choose an aspect of living standards that this inventory leaves uncertain: diet, health, crowding, income, access to water or workload. Name another kind of historical record you would seek and explain what it could test. Do not imply that you have consulted it.
Unanswered question: ____________________ Further evidence to seek and why: ____________________
5. Optional comparison
If a second inventory is supplied, record its reference, locality, date and purpose. Identify one similarity and one difference with locators. Before comparing wealth, consider completeness, valuation methods, household size and whether values cover household goods or the whole estate. Explain any information you would need before ranking living standards.
Second source identification: ____________________ Similarity and difference, with locators: ____________________ Limits of the comparison: ____________________
6. Write a qualified conclusion
Write 80–120 words explaining what this inventory suggests about everyday life in its particular place and time. Use two recorded details with locators, distinguish observation from inference and include one alternative interpretation or limitation. Explain why this case alone cannot represent all nineteenth-century Australian households, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander households.
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Self-check: Have I identified the source, preserved uncertain readings, cited specific entries, separated evidence from inference and limited my conclusion to what the record supports?
Teacher guidance
Provide readable copies and enough surrounding material to establish context. If the inventory gives only an aggregate value for household effects, use that limitation as evidence about the document; do not turn the total into an imagined room-by-room list. Offer a more detailed second record if students need practice identifying objects.
Assess the accuracy of transcription, traceable locators, reasoned links between objects and activities, and explicit limits on conclusions. Accept different interpretations when students support them. Do not award certainty about wealth, gendered work or household membership unless the supplied evidence warrants it.
For the optional comparison, students may conclude that the records do not support a reliable ranking. No currency conversion or predetermined historical answer is required.