amateur photographer and monk, was born in Spain on 5 July 1811, son of Peter Salvado and his wife Francisca Rotea. Salvado learned photography in Spain at the court of Queen Isabella II where he was for many years chaplain and confessor to the Queen. While at the Escorial, the monastery of the court, he practised this new science. There were several revolutions in Spain at the time and Santos Salvado decided to accompany his younger brother, Bishop Rosendo Salvado, back to the now flourishing Benedictine monastery at New Norcia in Western Australia which Rosendo had established in 1846. He arrived at Fremantle in the Robert Morrison on 3 May 1869, accompanying his brother and 47 tons of baggage and objets d’art for the monastery.

Fr Salvado immediately proceeded to record every facet of life in the New Norcia area. His glass plates, still carefully preserved in the New Norcia Museum, are an invaluable record of Aboriginal and mission life in the late 1860s and 1870s. Several depict Aboriginal students of the Mission College for Natives established by his brother in 1848, either on their own or in the company of one or more of the Benedictine brothers. After about ten years at the monastery, during which time he served as prior for a year, Salvado returned to Spain, possibly in February 1879. He died on 17 April 1894.

Writers:

Pheloung, Ann

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

2011