Recent Acquisition Highlights

June 2006

Background

This report offers a review of recent major acquisitions of significance and trends in collection development activity in the National Library. It covers the period from November 2005 to April 2006. 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 2005-2006 it is estimated that the Library will acquire over 380 000 collection items in a wide range of formats.

Australian Printed Materials

A major collecting priority for the National Library is literature on Pacific voyages, and on the major figures involved in the European discovery and exploration of Australia and the Pacific. Significant items from two major collections were acquired in the period covered by this report.

Part One of the David Parsons Collection of rare Pacific voyage books was offered for sale by Hordern House. This part of the collection covers the period from Dampier to Cook, the late 17th to late 18th century. The Library held 90 per cent of material listed in Part One. Amongst the items not held were some very rare and unusual items relating to Cook’s voyages including eye-witness accounts and depictions of his death. Acquisition of items from this collection has given the Library the opportunity to strengthen holdings of German imprints and to improve holdings of United States imprints on Cook. The Library acquired six items at a total cost of $145,350.

The second part of the Rodney Davidson collection covering printed works, manuscripts, pictures and maps relating to Australia from 1810 until the discovery of gold in 1850 was auctioned in February 2006. As with the David Parsons collection, the Library already held a large percentage of the material on offer.  Nine items were acquired at a cost of $670,075 and are listed below. Two works are not known to be held by any other Australian library.

The Library acquires artists’ books on a selective basis as examples of the art and craft of book production. An interesting range of works have been purchased in the period under review.

Australian Electronic Publications

The Library’s Digital Archiving Section seeks out and archives significant Australian websites and other online documents as a way of preserving this aspect of Australia’s published heritage material. The following examples of online resources recently archived show the diversity of the material being collected and preserved in the PANDORA Archive.

Manuscripts

The Library acquired further Deakin family material with the papers of Alfred Deakin’s grandson Kenneth Rivett, academic, immigration reformer and refugee advocate. An addition to the papers of Patrick McMahon Glynn, a Federal and South Australian parliamentarian and Minister, documents early 20th century views on the future of the Murray River and dissent over diversion of water from the Murray and its tributaries.

Papers of one of Australia’s most popular literary and public figures, Tom Keneally, were donated to the Library in November. This very large collection covering more than thirty years of Keneally’s career documents the development of more than sixty novels, screenplays, plays and television scripts, together with correspondence and interaction with the Australian public on a wide range of issues. There were also additions of further letters of Patrick White, Judith Wright and Michael Dransfield which strengthened the Library’s holdings of these important writers.

The collections on performing arts were enhanced by a donation from singer, composer and festival director, Robyn Archer and by a generous donation of archival performance recordings of the pianist Geoffrey Parsons by his brother. In addition, the Library is now the custodian of the Records of the UNESCO supported International Council for Traditional Music, recently transferred from the United States of America following the appointment of the ANU’s Professor Stephen Wilde as Secretary-General of the Council.

The Library’s art collections were strengthened with the addition of further papers of painters Hilda Rix Nicholas, Judy Cassab and Eirene Mort. Mort’s papers include a three volume manuscript Mort family history, drawings, verse and correspondence extending from 1904 to 1980. The Library had sought this collection for more than twenty years.

Nancy Bird Walton donated photographs, documents and a certificate authenticating the presence of her autographed copy of her autobiography on the spaceflight of the shuttle Discovery in 2005. Charles Kingsford-Smith’s ‘wings’ were also present on the flight.

The Library acquired two important early 19th century items during this period. Four manuscript issues of Melbourne’s first newspaper, the Melbourne Advertiser, were purchased at the Rodney Davidson auction. The Library now owns seven of the ten original manuscript issues, all in splendid condition. Also purchased at the Davidson auction was an important letter by John Batman to James Simpson, Police Magistrate at Campbelltown (Tasmania), 26 June 1830. The letter reports on Batman's efforts to clarify the claims of some captured Aboriginal women that an Aboriginal woman had been killed by white men and buried near Piper's River.

Maps

There have been over the last six months several acquisitions of charts that describe the Dutch and immediate post Dutch understanding of the Australian continent, together with some important post-settlement maps.

The Chart of Van Diemen's Land by Thomas Bowen was published in London in 1780 and is a nautical chart of coastal Tasmania from South West Cape to Maria's Isles. It shows the track of the Resolution on Captain Cook's third voyage in 1777. Several views of Van Diemen's Land are shown pictorially on the map.

Thomas Mitchell’s 1834 benchmark map of the Colony of New South Wales is among several early eighteenth century terrestrial map acquisitions and provides an accurate record of settlement to that date. Also acquired were several colonial maps aimed at the popular education market and produced in the 1830s by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.

A highlight purchase from the Rodney Davidson auction is a map made by Ludwig Leichhardt of part of the South Queensland Downs. It is a clear illustration and extremely rare example of the role a survey map could play in the opening up of new territory. Thought to have been executed a few months before Leichhardt’s second and ill-fated attempt to cross the continent from east to west in April 1848, the map is the last remaining of 15 lithographs presented to a select few pastoralists, in this case the squatter Arthur Hodgson of Eton Vale, later Sir Arthur Hodgson, MLC, MLA, Member for Clarence and Darling Downs. The map is dedicated in Leichhardt’s own hand.

A geological map of the Foster gold field in south west Gippsland, dated July 31st 1875, was also received. The map shows gold workings at Turton's Creek, including the geological composition and period stratas of the region with the gold deposits shown in yellow. Gold was discovered at Foster and Turton’s Creek in the 1870s and while the finds were never as rich as those elsewhere in Victoria, goldmining continued through to the 1930s.

Music and Dance

Recent acquisitions highlight the broad scope of material that is acquired, ranging in date from the 19th to the 21st centuries and including pictures, manuscripts and printed music. Highlights for the period are:

Acquisitions of Australian sheet music have included a number of patriotic anthems and war songs such as Land of the Southern Cross written for the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge (1932); Australia! Oh thou favoured isle! a national anthem with words by C.J. Dennis (1927); Flags of the free (1908); Recruiting song, [191-?] and a song from the Boer War The Queen's fifteen: an Australian national song [190‑?]. Another highlight was twelve items of published music by Paolo Giorza, an Italian musician who resided in Australia from 1871-1883 and contributed greatly to Australian musical life of the time.

Oral History

During the period under review interviews were conducted with eminent Australians in a wide range of endeavours, and a number of specialised projects were advanced. Activity was particularly strong in the fields of arts and literature, and interviews were recorded with Domenic Mico, multicultural arts director; dancer Alana McKinley; writer Leonard Radic; theatre directors Gale Edwards, Andrew Guild and Philip Quast; actor Tony Sheldon, opera director Moffatt Oxenbould and music broadcaster John Cargher. Children’s author Mem Fox and writer Dorothy Johnston were also interviewed.

The historian Dr Susan Marsden continued a series of interviews with fellow historians including Professors Janet McCalman, Marian Quartly and Stuart Macintyre. In politics and government Dr Norman Abjorensen interviewed Hon. Michael Beahan, former President of the Senate and former Senator Hon. Jocelyn Newman. Jonathan Gaul, political journalist was interviewed by Fred Brenchley.

Astronomers Professors Matthew Colles, Richard Hunshead and Bryan Boyle were interviewed by Dr Ragbir Bhathal. Gregg Borschmann interviewed Henry Nix, agricultural scientist and David Paton, ecologist. Dr Jan Lyall conducted interviews with conservators Andrew Durham, Christopher Payne, Ian Godfrey and Ian Macleod and museum director Dawn Casey.

Interviews conducted jointly with the State Library of South Australia included surgeon Dr Donald Beard, grazier Colin Broad, horticulturalist David Ruston OAM and sculptor Andrew Steiner.

Ann-Mari Jordens conducted interviews with Atem Dau Atem, Sudanese refugee and medical scientist; Domenico Romano, Italian migrant, lawyer and advocate for the Italian community in Canberra; and Simon Siharath, Laotian community leader. Peter Parkhill interviewed Amanda Yee, Trish Robinson and Yvonne Steinberg about teaching English to speakers of other languages. Dr Peter Read and Jackie Huggins continued to collect for the Seven Years On: Continuing Life Histories of Aboriginal Leaders and recorded a further four interviews. They also recorded Linda Burney, Sir Gustav Nossel, Mary Graham, Dimity Fifer, Ian Spicer and Rick Farley about their involvement in the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation.

The History of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, an Australian Research Council funded project, recorded interviews with Professors A.G.L. Shaw AO, Jill Roe and Leon Mann.

For the Folklore Collection Rob Willis lodged interviews from the Kempsey, Nulla Nulla, Bellbrook, Condobolin, Sydney and Canberra areas. Fourteen field recordings from Preston West and Warrandyte Primary Schools were received for the Children’s Folklore Project.  Dr Karl Neuenfeldt lodged recordings with Torres Strait hula dancers Mary Bowie, Betty Foster, Cessa Mills, Ina Titasey, Sarina Ahmat and Taumatini Tangatatia.

Pictures

A highlight of the Library’s acquisitions for the period was the purchase of the Eric Milton Nicholls collection. The collection consists of historically significant material from the architectural practices of Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin. The Griffins are two of the most eminent architects to have worked in Australia and architectural historians have credited them with having had a significant influence on Australia’s, and particularly Canberra’s, architecture and history. The collection includes photographs, original architectural plans, presentation drawings on silk and linen, correspondence and other material of significant research value.

A collection of over three hundred photographs taken after the bomb explosion outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta in September 2004 was acquired with the assistance of the Library’s Indonesian Office staff.

Photographic portraits of indigenous dancers, choreographers and commentators who attended Ausdance’s Creating Pathways Forum at the National Museum of Australia in November were acquired. A collection of photographs taken at the Wave Aid Tsunami Relief Concert held in Sydney in January 2005 was acquired which documents contemporary music, aspects of youth culture, and humanitarian work.

A collection of photographs of Cooma and Kosciusko from the 1930s to the 1950s was donated from the National Parks and Wildlife Service in Jindabyne and enhance the Library’s documentation of the Kosciusko region, which is increasingly the focus of research interest.

Twenty-two photographic portraits of Australian artists taken in the 1970s were acquired from the widow of the photographer Richard Beck. The portraits include artists such as David Armfield, Roy Churcher and Jan Senbergs.

A small but delightful collection of colour photographs of children’s activities in outback Queensland by station manager and mother Jennie Bucknell was received.

Asian Publications

During the period Asian Collections acquired a representative sample of current materials documenting sexuality and gender issues. These materials are increasingly in demand by researchers and cover areas of research as diverse as the AIDS epidemic in China, homosexuality in Japan, and the tourism sex trade in Thailand. Items acquired are generally not commercially available and include books, journal issues and pamphlets.

Other Overseas Publications

In addition to collecting a wide range of books and journals published overseas, the Library also acquires electronic and microform research collections to complement and enhance the print collection. During the last six months, the following resources have been made available:

The Library continues to acquire a small number of items for the Rare Books Collection which fill gaps or which otherwise make a substantial contribution to an area of existing strength within the present collection. Acquisitions during the previous six months include:

 

 

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