AN album of historic photographs including images of the moment on March 12, 1913 when Canberra was named as the nation’s capital, has been donated to the National Museum of Australia by the family of former ACT Greens MLA Meredith Hunter.

Compiled by photographer and public servant WJ “Jack” Mildenhall, the album provides a snapshot of the origins of the national capital, the album, containing 41 large photographs and ephemera relating to the early development of Canberra to Hunter’s father, the late John Stevenson, in 1944.

Mildenhall compiled the album from earlier plates held by the Federal Capital Commission, where he worked as a photographer during the 1920s and 30s.

The photographs of the 1913 laying of the foundation stones feature Governor-General Lord Thomas Denman, his wife, Lady Gertrude Denman, Prime Minister Andrew Fisher, and Minister for Home Affairs King O’Malley have been attributed by historian David Headon to Claude Vautin, who was among Charles Scrivener’s party of surveyors who determined the best site for the new capital.

The album also includes and image the ceremonial trowel used by prime minister Andrew Fisher to lay one of Canberra’s three foundation stones.

Senior curator at the NMA, Ian Coates said: “In one of the images of [King] O’Malley you can almost read his thoughts as he imagines what Canberra might become. As a visual record of the origins of Canberra it is unique.”

But, he added, several things remain a mystery. One of the photos features seven men posed against a vine-covered wall. So far, he said, they had identified Robert Garran and George Pearce but hoped to engage the Canberra public’s help in identifying the other five people.

Hunter’s mother, Judith Stevenson, said: “John was a teenager and aware of just how special the gift was. He’d be so pleased that this extraordinary album will take its place among the other treasures at the National Museum of Australia.”

Hunter said her father had been “thrilled” that the album was displayed as part of a 2013 centenary exhibition at Parliament House.

There are 41 photographs in the album taken during the period 1908 to 1913 and paper ephemera relating to the events of March 12, including a program for laying the foundation stones of the commencement column, a copy of the hymn played by the massed bands, a seat allocation for luncheon and a booklet detailing rail and road arrangements for the ceremony at Federal Capital Site, as well as photographs of Duntroon homestead, St John’s Church in Reid, and landscapes of the Murrumbidgee and Cotter rivers.