This report offers a review of recent major acquisitions of significance and trends in collection development activity in the National Library. It does not describe the large volume of acquisitions of both Australian and overseas materials that are routinely acquired through deposit, purchase or donation to build the collections. During the financial year 2003-2004 it is estimated that the Library will acquire over 300,000 collection items in a large range of formats.
The National Library continues to acquire many printed works associated with the European discovery and exploration of Australia.
A number of books related to Australia and not previously held in the Library's collections have been received. These include nineteenth and twentieth century imprints.
During the last six months, through a concerted effort to locate and acquire foreign language editions of works by Australian authors, more than 300 titles have been added to the Australian collection. This program will continue with more than 100 Australian authors being searched regularly on overseas databases and catalogues.
The Library has sought the assistance of an antiquarian supplier to seek out specific titles on the Library's behalf. This has been a successful strategy and four items have been identified and supplied in the period under review.
Australian documentary heritage is also represented by more ephemeral or insubstantial material, and the National Library collects a varied selection documenting aspects of Australian life.
The Library is constantly seeking Australian periodicals not represented in the national collection, or individual issues missing from its sets. Among the most recent acquisitions are:
A number of works for children published in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have been acquired in the past six months including:
The Library's Digital Archiving Unit seeks out and archives significant Australian websites and other electronic documents as a way of preserving this aspect of Australia's published heritage material. The following examples of items recently archived show the diversity of the material being collected and preserved.
A donation of four literary classics transcribed by hand by Shen Hongsheng was received. Shen Hongsheng shou shu ben Zhongguo gu dian wen xue si da ming zhu. The works, in presentation cherry wood boxes, are a particularly fine example by this calligrapher, a well-known master from Fujian Province. They were a gift to the Prime Minister from the Chinese government on the occasion of the APEC Meeting in Shanghai in 2001, subsequently donated to the Library.
Auzhou Hua wen wen xue cong shu [Chinese writing on Australia] Fuzhou Shi, China: 2002. 5 vols. Published in China, this anthology of literary works by Chinese-Australian authors, including poetry, fiction, prose and reportage literature reflects the social life and social conditions of overseas Chinese students and Chinese-Australian in Australia. An important addition to the Library's collection of Chinese Australiana, it highlights the growing cultural links between China and Australia and an increasingly outward-looking Chinese society.
Order of service for the Bali Memorial Service, 12 October 2003. Order of service for the commemoration of the Bali bombing held in Bali, Indonesia.
Makino, Mamoru Nihon eiga Kenetsu shi [History of film censorship by the Japanese government] Pandora : Gendai Shokan (distributor), 2003. A major new work on Japanese government censorship of films, for the period 1896 to 1945. The laws and legislation supporting film censorship are reproduced in the appendix with other significant primary sources. The work will assist researchers of film history and the history of Japanese law, as well as researchers of modern Japan in general.
An addition to the overseas collection was part of the folklore collection amassed over many years by Mr Warren Fahey. Mr Fahey, a folklore specialist, was selling much of his collection and 41 overseas titles were acquired to build up the Library's folklore collection.
The Library's holdings of works on imaginary voyages were increased with the purchase of Voyages imaginaires, songes, visions, et romans cabalistiques compiled by Charles Georges Thomas Garnier. This 39 volume work was published in Amsterdam and Paris from 1787-1789. It is an extremely comprehensive anthology containing more than 70 separate titles, ranging from established and well known works of Defoe, Swift, Paltock, Mercier, Berington and Longueville to many obscure and anonymous works. Four of the titles have an Australian connection. The collection contains 78 engravings by Clement Pierre Marillier, one of the foremost book illustrators in France. The volumes are leather-bound with gilt and are in very good condition.
Also housed in Rare Books is a collection of 118 plates from a published work on a joint Dutch-American expedition into the hinterland of Dutch New Guinea in 1926. The expedition was led by Dr Matthew Stirling of the Smithsonian Institution and appears to have been the first expedition to use aerial photography in that region. Unfortunately the publication itself has not been traced but the plates provide valuable research material on the peoples and regions of Dutch New Guinea. The captions are in Dutch but the donor, with the assistance of two Dutch neighbours, has produced English language translations of all the captions. The translated captions have been spiral bound and housed with the material together with a journal article by Dr Stirling describing the actual expedition.
The provision of access to electronic resources continues to be a priority. During the last 6 months, the following resources have been made available:
The earliest original documents acquired in the period under review were a series of letters written by the Reverend John Hutchinson. The first Wesleyan minister to be ordained in Australia, Hutchinson was briefly a missionary in Tonga before serving in Sydney and Hobart, where he and his wife managed the Female House of Correction. The letters, written between 1822 and 1857 to his sister in Yorkshire, refer to his work as a missionary, economic conditions and social hierarchy in Van Diemen's Land, and the effects of the Victorian gold rushes of the 1850s.
Many years ago Sir John Gorton placed his personal papers in the Library and they formed the basis of the biography written by Ian Hancock. Lady Gorton has now added further papers to the collection and they have been complemented by the first instalment of papers of Ainslie Gotto, who was Gorton's principal private secretary in 1968-72. Other acquisitions document aspects of Australian public life in the last twenty years. Peter Karmel has transferred the files that he kept in 1972-82 as chairman of the Universities Commission and the Tertiary Education Commission. The barrister Bryan Keon-Cohen, a key figure in the Mabo Case, has donated an important collection relating to Aboriginal land claims, including the Wik and Yorta Yorta cases. Colin Madigan, the architect of the National Gallery, has presented papers on the original designs and his very public disputes with recent directors of the Gallery concerning changes made and planned to the building. Another public figure was the television presenter and interviewer Paul Lyneham, who died three years ago at the age of 55. His papers include speeches, drafts of books, photographs and an extensive correspondence with members of the public.
Literary collections continue to be acquired by the Library. Papers have been purchased from Murray Bail, mainly comprising a series of drafts of his novel Eucalyptus. Published in 1998, Eucalyptus was one of the most acclaimed novels of recent times and won several major prizes. Ian Templeman, a former member of the Library Council and staff, has placed his personal papers in the Library. They deal in particular with his work in Perth and Canberra as a publisher and arts administrator, but also include drafts of many of his poems and his extensive literary correspondence. Among his regular correspondents have been the writers Elizabeth Jolley, David Foster and Nicholas Jose. Additional papers have been received of the playwrights David Williamson and Dorothy Hewett, the poets Ray Mathew and Kevin Hart, the short story writer Hugh Clarke and the children's writer Hesba Brinsmead. The folkloric collections have been strengthened by additional papers of John Meredith and the extensive personal archives of Bill Wannan. The author and editor of over 50 books, Wannan's papers cover a period of nearly 60 years and document many aspects of Australian social history, legends, folk stories and language.
In the arts, the two most noteworthy acquisitions have been the papers of the painter Hilda Rix Nicholas and the composer James Penberthy. Born in 1884, Hilda Rix studied with Frederick McCubbin and travelled extensively in Europe before World War I. Many of her later paintings depict the landscape and the horsemen of the Monaro, where she lived for 30 years. Her papers include diaries, sketchbooks, cuttings, manuscripts and a large personal and family correspondence. Along with Don Banks and Keith Humble, who are already represented in the collection, James Penberthy (1917-1999) was one of the outstanding Australian composers of his generation. Both prolific and innovative, he was possibly the first Australian to use the computer as a compositional tool. His executor has handed over a large collection of music manuscripts, and also personal documents, correspondence and sound recordings. The Library has also received smaller collections of papers of the dancer Marilyn Rowe, the ballet administrator Geoffrey Ingram and the painter Russell Foreman.
Historians tend to be good keepers of papers. Allan Martin, the biographer of Sir Henry Parkes and Sir Robert Menzies, had a long association with the Library and it is pleasing that his correspondence and other papers are now lodged in the collection. The papers of Dymphna Clark complement those of her husband Manning Clark and document her achievements as a historian and translator, especially her work on the German botanist Baron von Hugel. Professor Max Hartwell, who taught at Oxford University for many years, has presented a very large collection covering his early career in Australia and his later work as one of the outstanding economic historians in Britain. Another substantial collection has been received from Betty Meehan, the widow of the archaeologist Rhys Jones. Born in Wales, Jones came to Australia in 1963 and in the next thirty years his fieldwork took him from the Franklin River in Tasmania to Arnhem Land and the Kimberleys. Together with the papers of his friend John Mulvaney, his collection will be one of the major sources on archaeology and Aboriginal culture in Australia.
Good diarists are quite rare, but occasionally the Library discovers a passionate diarist who maintained the practice for many years. The politician Patrick McMahon Glynn, the painter Donald Friend, and the writers Barry Oakley and Barbara Hanrahan are examples. Tony Bomford, who died recently, was an English surveyor who came to Australia in 1961 and was for some years Director of National Mapping. He started keeping a diary in 1942, when he was 15, and continued without a break until his death. The 84 volumes, together with correspondence and a series of photograph albums, record his work and travels in many parts of the world.
In addition to personal papers, the Library selectively acquires the records of various non-governmental organisations. In this period it has received the archives of the Australian Deafness Council, the National Flag Association and the National Foundation for Australian Women, as well as further files of the Australian Union of Students.
The Library has acquired a Spanish map of the Pacific Ocean published by the geographer Isidoro de Antillon y Marzo in Madrid in 1802, the year in which Flinders was circumnavigating Australia. While the heyday of Spanish exploration was in the sixteenth century, Spanish cartographers continued to produce some exceptional maps of the Pacific Ocean until the early part of the nineteenth century. This map, which is accompanied by a booklet on the geography of the region, is extremely rare.
Two manuscript maps record voyages in Australian and Pacific waters. A map of Bass Strait was compiled in Mauritius by a French cartographer, drawing on the charts of Matthew Flinders, who was incarcerated on the island. It possibly pre-dates Flinders' published map of the Strait, in which case it would be the first to document the full extent of the islands, including King Island. It also documents the tracks and discoveries of the second and third ships to traverse the Strait: the Harbinger (Captain Black) in 1800 and the Margaret (Captain Buyers) in 1801. The second map was produced by J.P.E. Jurien de la Gravière and traces the voyage of the French corvette La Bayonnaise across the Pacific in 1847-50. In addition, a Dutch world map has been acquired, produced in about 1700 by Peter Schenk, which contains manuscript annotations added in about 1790. They show the position of 'Sidnei' and extend the southern and eastern coastlines of the Australian mainland to incorporate Tasmania.
The Library holds a significant collection of real estate plans relating to New South Wales and also Queensland, received as part of the Ferguson Collection. It has received two printed broadsheets issued by auctioneers, one of the Wilston estate in Enogerra in western Brisbane (1891), the other of the Palm Beach estate in the Gold Coast region (1923). Such items are now quite rare and they document the beginning of the land booms in Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
Australian dancers, choreographers, directors and notators have always been peripatetic, travelling to where work can be found or following a mentor to pursue their career. Some recent dance acquisitions have highlighted the work of Australians in New York. The New York Public Library has donated a program of the production of HereAfter by the American Ballet Theatre in New York in May 2003. It had the unusual distinction of being choreographed by the Australian expatriates, Stanton Welch and Natalie Weir. In addition, the Australian notator, Ray Cook, who has been based in Vasser College in New York for several years, has donated two dance scores. 'The Wombat Duet' is from Tangle, choreographed by Cook for the Australian Dance Theatre in 1972 and 'The Three Ivans' is from The Sleeping Princess as performed by the Borovansky Ballet in 1959. Marilyn Rowe, the director of the Australian Ballet School, has presented material recording a visit to Australia in 1913 by Adeline Genée and the Imperial Russian Ballet.
The collection of sheet music has been enhanced by a donation from EMI Music Publishing. It comprises both sheet music and albums covering a variety of music, from teaching pieces for piano to popular songs and music of the past three decades. An interesting nineteenth century acquisition is The Southern Cross Song, with words by W.A. Withers and music by M. Loredan, published in Melbourne in the 1870s.
The performing arts have been a major area of recording in the period under review. The Sydney Morning Herald theatre critic James Waites interviewed the veteran actor Ron Haddrick, the theatre designer Brian Thompson, the arts patron Professor Ross Steele and the Greek-Australian actor Nick Lathouris. In his interview, Haddrick discussed his long career in the theatre, ranging from his youthful experiences with the Stratford Memorial Theatre Company in England in the 1950s to his recent work for the Sydney Theatre Company. Thompson, who grew up in Western Australia but has long been based in Sydney, has been a dominant force in Australian theatre design for over 30 years. His interview provides insights on his work for such major productions as Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar and the Rocky Horror Show. The Curator of Dance, Michelle Potter has recorded interviews with the choreographer-castanettist Deanna Blacher and the director-choreographer Kate Champion. Albert David, the celebrated dancer from the Torres Strait Islands, has been interviewed by Mark Gordon.
The historian David Walker, who is an authority on Australian relations with Asia, has interviewed Stephen Fitzgerald and D.S. Abeyagunawardena. Professor Fitzgerald spoke of his role in the development of Asian studies in Australia since the 1960s and referred to his experiences as the first Australian Ambassador to the People's Republic of China. Mr Abeyagunawardena, the last survivor of the team that produced the influential journal Hemisphere, discussed his struggle to disseminate information about Australia to Asian-Pacific countries from the 1950s to the 1980s.
The collecting of papers of historians is being complemented by a series of interviews with academic historians conducted by Susan Marsden. Her most recent interview was with Graeme Davison, Professor of History at Monash University, whose books include The rise and fall of marvellous Melbourne and The use and abuse of Australian history.
The science journalist Peter Pockley is conducting a series of interviews documenting science policy and scientific research. At Oxford he spoke to Robert May, who taught at Sydney University before becoming Professor of Biology at Princeton University and Chief Scientific Adviser to the United Kingdom Government. Lord May acknowledged the interview as the most far-reaching and valuable that he has ever given. At Cambridge Dr Pockley interviewed the Vice-Chancellor, Sir Alec Broers, who described his early life in India, the move of his family to Australia prior to World War II, and his gradual emergence as an international authority in electron microscopy, semiconductor technology and nanoscience. In Australia Diana Giese has interviewed James Sprecht and Ronald Strahan of the Australian Museum in Sydney. Dr Strahan discussed his various careers, as a world authority on primitive fishes, as an author of texts on Australian vertebrates, and as director of the Taronga Zoo. Another interviewer, Gregg Borschmann, recorded an interview with the ornithologist Harry Recher. Professor Recher spoke of his role in struggles over forest management, wood-chipping, land-clearing and population policy.
A few other oral history recordings should be mentioned. Dr Jan Lyall, who was formerly on the staff of the Library, has recorded interviews with several Australian conservators. As part of a cooperative interviewing program the Battye Library, State LIbrary of Western Australia, has provided copies of interviews with the artist Robert Juniper and the Chief Rabbi of Perth, Dr Shalom Coleman. Finally, Frank Heimans has recorded the construction magnate, Gennaro Abignano. Abignano described his arrival in Australia in 1957, as an impecunious 25 year old, and his gradual success in the heavy construction industry over a period of 30 years. By 1985, when he sold his company to Enacon, his business was estimated to be worth $300 million.
The Library's photographic documentation of Australian boxing was significantly strengthened with the acquisition of the Arnold Thomas Collection. Boxing is a significant part of Australian popular culture, but the Library's collection of boxing photographs has mainly dated from the 1960s onwards. The Arnold Thomas collection focuses on the development of boxing from the introduction of gloved fighting in 1884 through to the late 1920s, with occasional photographs from later periods. It contains a comprehensive record of significant Australian boxers such as Albert 'Griffo' Griffiths, who was unbeaten in his 82 Australian matches, and Les Darcy. Its watercolour portrait of boxer Larry Foley, painted in 1877, is a rare example of a painted portrait of an Australian working class hero. The photographs also document some of the social history surrounding Australian boxing, such as the involvement of the Catholic Church (Les Darcy, for instance, is photographed more than once accompanied by his priest). The racial aspects of boxing are also documented in photographs of Aboriginal boxers, and of the match between Tom Burns and the black American Jack Johnson. Their fight in Sydney in 1908, the first world championship in which a black man beat a white man, caused riots when reported in America.
The Charles Ulm National Aviation Collection was donated by members of the Ulm Family in May. Charles Ulm is remembered for completing in 1928 the first aerial crossing of the Pacific, with Charles Kingsford-Smith, in their second-hand Fokker tri-motor, Southern Cross. As well as being a great navigator, Ulm made an enduring contribution to the establishment of an Australian aviation industry as managing director of Australian National Airways from 1928 to 1933. The Charles Ulm National Aviation Collection includes over 500 black and white vintage photographs, letters, invitations, press cuttings, rare first day covers, medals, maps, and papers relating to early Australian aviation companies.
The second and third batches of the Wolfgang Sievers Collection were received, completing the acquisition of the work of Australia's most important twentieth century industrial photographer.
Documentation of Australia's multicultural society continued with the acquisition of photographs from Sydney-based photographer John Immig. The subjects included a Tongan community gathering in Sydney in 1999, the election of the Asanteman (Ghanian) Australia Tribal Chief, Sydney, 2001, and Afghan refugees working in an abattoir at Young, NSW. Five photographs by Paul Cosgrave of the Salatul Istisqa, the Islamic rain ceremony, were purchased. The prayer was conducted in a dry riverbed in Muswellbrook, NSW, during the height of drought in January 2003.
Library staff contacted a number of the photographers whose images appeared on the Internet after the January 2003 fires in Canberra. Photographs by Canberrans such as David Tunbridge and Tony Miller were purchased. They record the efforts of the fire-fighters and home-owners to control the blaze and complement photographs taken in January by the Library's photographers of the aftermath of the fires.
Although the main responsibility for pictorial documentation of the War in Iraq rests with the Australian War Memorial, the Library has actively sought out photographs of reactions to the War within Australia. Five photographs of the 'Welcome Home March' held in Sydney on the 18 June 2003 were purchased from photographer Wendy McDougall. Photographs of protests such as the 'Books not Bombs' Rally in Sydney and at Parliament House, Canberra, were also acquired.
A collection of 1,780 photographs of huts sites in the Kosciusko and Namadgi National Parks was donated by the Kosciusko Huts Association. The archive will be a significant resource for research on Australia's high country heritage, as well as recording the Association's work in preserving and maintaining the huts and hut sites. The archive is an invaluable record of the huts and hut sites before the destruction caused by the bushfires that swept through the parks in January 2003. A beautiful presentation album of 32 photographs of the Royal National Park, Sydney, in the 1880s was purchased from Melbourne collector Denis Joachim. Established in 1879 on the southern border of Sydney, Royal National Park was Australia's first national park and was only the second of its kind to be established after Yellowstone National Park in the United States.
Photographs of Australian daily life continue to be a topic of steady interest to researchers and publishers. A number of acquisitions in this field have been added to the Pictures Collection since May. They have included photographs of a milkman delivering bottled milk in Kingsford in 1964, some very relaxed patrons of the verandah of the Hellensville Pub, near Cooktown, in 1972, both by the photographer Raymond de Berquelle, and a series on country children recently photographed by Peta Hill.
To support biographical research, the Library continues to acquire portraits of Australians of national significance. A major find was a self-portrait in charcoal by Hugh Ramsay, acquired at auction. Hugh Ramsay (1877-1906) was a significant Australian painter, of whom few portraits were made during his brief life. Other portraits acquired included an oil portrait of writer Rosemary Dobson by Kerry McInnis, donated under the Cultural Gifts Program, a pencil portrait of a young Lloyd Rees by Adelaide Perry, and an oil portrait of Kenneth Myer, a former chairman of the National Library Council. Photographs were also acquired of a number of contemporary Australians, including Rabbi Raymond Apple, Senior Rabbi of the Great Synagogue, Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, the Aboriginal photographer Mervyn Bishop, and several oral history interviewees.
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