With the aim of attracting "bright young men" and exceptional scholars, the campaign included a series of visits to universities around the world and publicity to demonstrate the attractiveness of the national capital.

But it was also clear that to recruit a stellar team required attractive "conditions of work, life and travel".

Canberra was a young city at the time the university was founded. To acquire its first body of scholars and administrative staff required bold thinking. With a population of 19,000 and growth about triple that of other parts of Australia, the city was struggling to establish the services that would compete with places like London, Oxford and Cambridge.

Inspired perhaps by the focus on building Canberra as a "family", as discussed in the 1940s by government officials, the university developed a wonderful (and successful) program to attract these men by focusing on their wives.

Future chancellor Herbert "Nugget" Coombs had already, in his government role, reflected on the creation of a city that "made convivial colleagues a family". The university took this further with a program to encourage wives to urge their husbands to come to Canberra.

The Canberra Album, containing 41 black-and-white photographs taken by the Commonwealth Department of Information, was an important part of the publicity campaign.

Six copies of the album were sent to the London Office in April 1949 and it is likely that more were used in presentations at universities across the United Kingdom to promote the new university. They were displayed in the ANU's London office for many years, at least until 1952.

The album paints a picture of Canberra as a modern city with great schools, monumental buildings and pastoral landscapes. Produced by the Office of the Registrar, the photographs were taken at locations including the ANU campus, homes, churches, schools and recreational facilities.

A photograph of children, Bridge to the Cotter Trout Hatchery, Australian Capital Territory, is a beautiful, dreamy image. The four young girls have ribbons in their hair and are clearly enjoying an outing with sunlight filtering through mature eucalypts. There are echoes of Enid Blyton in the magic of the children who, if not actually in the faraway tree, are at least experiencing adventures in a romantic forest.

Ainslie Primary school features prominently in the album, with images of serious students in the library and classroom, and a "visual room" featuring a projector and screen, no doubt the height of technology at the time.

For those with very young children, or planning a family, the pictures of the Nursery School in Acton had a reassuring message, showing the building, children napping, painting and selecting toys.

Modern values, important to post-war women who were experiencing the loss of jobs and roles, are reflected in the photograph of Boys and girls change places Canberra High School, Acton. The boys are mixing flour in a domestic science classroom. Canberra High School, designed by Charles Whitley, was regarded as one of the most modern high schools in Australia. The school is now the home of the ANU School of Art and Design.

The idyllic sites for children and modern facilities presented Canberra as an attractive modern city to the wives of academics. While in reality Canberra was as yet an emerging city, the incoming community of academics strengthened the population as well as providing a richness in intellectual life.

Perhaps the most significant issue, lightly referenced in the album, was housing. Canberra was experiencing a rental shortage post-war and construction of buildings was slow. The university worked assiduously to construct homes; its annual report of 1950-51 records that "the university has built, or has under construction, twelve houses in various parts of Canberra, and has a few blocks of land on which dwellings will shortly be commenced".

By June 30, 1951, the university had acquired 24 flats and seven houses. Arthur Shakespeare, prominent local citizen and founder of The Canberra Times, notably commented at the time that "The Australian University is declaring war on the security of the Canberra community ...The National University by its power and opulence, was able to place itself in a position more advantageous that other authorities..." to construct housing.

The album paints a charming picture of a city full of modern institutions; significant buildings such as the Australian Forestry School in Yarralumla show classical architecture worthy of a city of international renown.

You may be wondering whether the university aimed to attract bright young women to join the new university. The official history of the university records that "occasionally a woman was considered for an academic appointment".

They were excluded, as the good men decided they would probably not be interested, despite employment of female academics in other Australian universities at the time. It took till 1964 for Hanna Neumann to be appointed the university's first female professor.

All the images in the Canberra Album have been digitised and can be found online at anu.edu.au.

You can see the album on display from July to October in the RG Menzies Library as part of the People of ANU 75th anniversary exhibition of ANU Archives.