This report offers a review of recent significant acquisitions 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. During the current financial year it is estimated that the Library will acquire over 260 000 collection items in a wide range of formats.
The highlight of the Library’s acquisitions during the period April to October 2006 was the October acquisition of the personal papers of Patrick White (MS 9982). During his lifetime, Australia’s only Nobel Laureate in Literature claimed that he destroyed all his manuscripts. A 1977 letter from White to former Director General of the National Library George Chandler making just this claim is currently part of the travelling Treasures from Australia’s Great Libraries exhibition. In 1991, the National Library and the State Library of New South Wales jointly purchased what was believed to be the only extant Patrick White manuscript (of his 1986 novel Memoirs of many in one) and scholars all over the world gave up hope of ever being able to view more than this single example of his working methods.
In August 2006, White’s Literary Executor, shortly after completing another sale to the National Library of an important set of White letters, offered the Library the current archive. It is magnificent, although incomplete. White clearly did destroy many of his manuscripts when the relevant works were published, but he also kept significant quantities of manuscript material. This includes 10 notebooks (containing the beginnings of at least 11 of White’s 12 novels); every draft of his 1981 autobiography Flaws in the Glass; typescripts, corrections and correspondence for three of his published novels; manuscripts for two unpublished novels and a novella; manuscripts and typescripts for several short stories; manuscripts for three late and publicly performed plays; manuscripts for several never performed plays; typescripts for several major plays and manuscripts for a significant number of poems, many contained within the notebooks.
In addition to this wealth of literary manuscript material, the collection includes: drafts of the important speeches given in White’s later life; some incoming and outgoing correspondence retained by White; a large number of photographs covering every period in his life; translations and adaptations of White’s work by others; diaries and personal documents; iconic objects including White’s beret and beanie, often worn in later portrait photographs and a substantial and profoundly moving collection of condolence letters sent to Manoly Lascaris, White’s partner of 49 years, after White’s death.
The significance of this collection to literary scholarship can hardly be overstated. White is by far Australia’s most written about writer (1600 articles had been written about White in 2001, compared to 900 about his nearest ‘competitor’ Henry Lawson) and continues to attract Australian and international scholarship. The availability of this collection which is on open access presents rich new seams for literary scholarship and will undoubtedly attract in depth research for years to come.
A major collecting priority for the National Library is literature on Pacific voyages, and the major figures involved in the European discovery and exploration of Australia and the Pacific. During the period covered by the report a number of important items were acquired by purchase from antiquarian dealers and at auction.
During the review period the Library purchased several interesting items featuring Australia’s kangaroo in children’s literature. The items showed varying images of the kangaroo and other Australian fauna. No holdings for these titles had been recorded on Libraries Australia.
Other acquisitions of early Australian titles or editions not previously held by the Library include:
The National Library collects posters as part of the Australian documentary heritage. Items acquired during the previous six months include:
The Library’s collection of trade catalogues offers a unique view into industry, trade and Australian social history. An interesting range of catalogues have been purchased during the period under review:
In August and September 2006 the National Library of Australia conducted a project to undertake a second large scale harvest of the Australian web domain. The first harvest was performed the previous year and was the subject of a report to Council in April 2006. The objectives of harvesting the Australian web domain are to collect, for preservation purposes, as much, in terms of breadth and depth, of the .au domain as possible within a defined and limited crawl duration and to gain more understanding of the issues associated with this approach to digital archiving. The Internet Archive, being the only agency experienced in such large scale web harvesting for preservation purposes, was contracted to undertake the crawl on behalf of the Library. The harvest crawl was run continuously for five weeks and captured 516 million documents compared to 185 million files in 2005. The domain harvest provides a valuable benchmark and foundation for the National Library to develop future web archiving strategies and also provides the basis for the development of a significant collection of Australia’s documentary heritage for future generations.
In addition to the major acquisition of the Patrick White papers, other significant acquisitions during the period include new collections from Papua New Guinea Patrol Officer Norman Wilson; dancer Joan Gadsdon; the records of the Commission of Enquiry into the Rehabilitation of the Worked out Phosphate Land in Nauru; the records of Pandanus Books and a small donation of correspondence from Edmund Barton to a Captain Chuck. There were also additions to the papers of Sir Ernest Littleton Groom (last acquired in the 1930s); League of Nations lawyer, the late Joe Starke; the Institute of Public Affairs; restaurateur Gay Bilson; dancers Peggy Van Praagh, Maroussia Richardson and Moya Beaver; folklorist Wendy Lowenstein; Aboriginal rights campaigners Jack and Jean Horner and Michael and Honor Thwaites; historians Professors Bill Gammage, Geoffrey Bolton and the late John Ritchie; writers Tom Inglis Moore, Barry Hill, Patricia Clarke and Paul Collins and Burmese leader Maung Maung .
The past six months acquisition activity was capped in October by the purchase of the Edgewater Collection of British Admiralty charts, on loan to the Library since 2002. While the National Library’s rare map collections include a good range of the Dutch, French and British mapping produced in the period 1600 1800, Admiralty charting in the period following Flinders is not particularly well represented. This collection of 99 original, first-issue nautical charts and views published by the Hydrographic Office for the British Admiralty, provides the first detailed charting of the Australian coastline published between 1814 1861 and is the largest single collection of pre 1900 Admiralty charting in any Australian institution. In addition to five charts by Flinders, the collection provides a very nearly complete record of the circumnavigation by Phillip Parker King in the 1820s. It is particularly strong in what is considered the detailed survey period (1837-1860s) including the surveys by J C Wickham and others of the north coast and Great Barrier Reef, and surveys of the western, southern and eastern coasts. It includes the first detailed harbour surveys of Port Jackson, Moreton and Holdfast Bays, and the Swan River mouth. The process encapsulated by the Admiralty Charts collection, from ‘sketch’ to detailed survey periods, paved the way for the beginnings of Australian commercial shipping.
The Library acquired three unusual globes of contrasting style and composition during this period. In May, a pocket-sized terrestrial globe was acquired, mounted in a mahogany stand, and constructed by Leonard Cushee in 1751. Used as a teaching aid, Australia is labelled 'New Holland' and 'Lewin' according to Dutch discoveries, while the eastern coastline is ill defined, with Van Dieman’s Land joined to the mainland. In August, a miniature terrestrial globe c. 1830 was acquired, The Earth and its Inhabitants, in its original container and with a long accordion fold hand coloured print attached, showing people of 32 different nationalities in native costumes. Also acquired in August was a large inflatable globe, constructed of paper over a bone and wood frame, by Philipp Cella in 1831. Originally made to accompany book and map sales, the globe shows the routes of several explorers, including Cook’s three circumnavigations, and indicates the location of the mutiny on the Bounty in 1789.
Three charts by Sir Robert Dudley (1573-1649) were acquired, covering Southeast Asia from northern Cape York Peninsula to the Spice Islands. One of these, Carta secona generale del'Asia, was originally bound as plate 17 in Dudley’s atlas, Arcano del mare, and is the first English map to show the discoveries of Dutch explorer Jan Carstensz. Continentem dudum notam componebat, by the priest and cartographer to Propaganda Fide in Rome, Giovanni Battista Nicolosi was also acquired. Dated 1660, it is unusual for the time in that it shows a vast south land and quite speculative Australian outline but includes some of the Dutch discoveries.
A highly significant collection of personal papers, music and arts criticism from the estate of Curt and Maria Prerauer has been donated by Maria Prerauer’s nephew. The papers document Australian musical, literary and artistic life in the period 1934-2005. Highlights include documents about Curt’s dismissal by the Nazis in 1933 from his position as conductor at the Berlin State Opera, their radio scripts and commentaries about Australian culture in the 1950s and 60s prepared for German publishers and radio stations; drafts of their German translations of major Australian literary works, including Patrick White’s Riders in the Chariot and Ray Lawler’s Summer of the 17th Doll; performance memorabilia relating to their respective musical careers, including Maria’s premiering role in Wozzeck at Covent Garden in 1953; documents concerning the major Australian musical organisations established in the 1950s-70s; their own creative writings and musical works and a complete set of their published reviews and criticism from the 1940s until c.2001. Twelve boxes of letters to and from many of Australia’s most prominent artists and arts administrators include correspondence with Patrick White, Peter Sculthorpe, Don Banks and Richard Meale among others and are complemented by correspondence with leading international musicians such as Benjamin Britten, Alfred Brendl, Adrian Boult, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Otto Klemperer.
A collection of eight albums of historical sheet music, beautifully bound by their owner Eda White and in fine condition, was acquired. The volumes include 131 pieces of music published in Australia between 1901-1914 and sixteen composers not previously held in the Library. One album includes a 1907 version of Advance Australia Fair with a note by the composer about changes to the last verse.
The first sheet music item to be purchased by the Library from eBay proved a timely and delightful addition to the Library’s cricketing memorabilia. Keep your tail up, Kangaroo was published in 1932 for the 1932-33 Ashes series and includes Don Bradman jokes on the back cover. It is the 10 000th musical item in the Library’s collection to be digitised.
Curator Robyn Holmes interviewed the direct descendants of Christina Macpherson, composer of Waltzing Matilda, Dianne Baillieu, Joan McCrae and Alistair Macpherson, for the Oral History collection. The family had previously donated the original 1895 Waltzing Matilda manuscript currently on display in the National Treasures exhibition. Richard Magoffin, the most significant researcher of Waltzing Matilda, added documents to his collection of manuscripts before his recent death.
Australian entrepreneurs and business executives have been the subjects of recent Oral History interviews, including Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon; Bill Rogers, former Chair of Woodside Petroleum amongst many other business appointments and John Ralph, retired CRA executive, all interviewed by Rob Linn. Mathieu Beauregard, theatre entrepreneur, was interviewed by Bill Stephens. Tim Fischer, former National Party politician was interviewed by Rob Linn not only about his political career, but also about his Directorships of Australian Agricultural Company Limited, Ausmore, Asia Pacific Transport and the Chairman of Tourism Australia. Kate Carnell, former ACT Chief Minister and businesswoman, was interviewed by Ann-Mari Jordens.
Victor Carroll, former editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, was interviewed by Daniel Connell. Actor/director John Bell was interviewed by James Waites and Bill Stephens interviewed musician and band leader Dennis Farrington, actor/director John Unicomb, choreographer Ivan King, now Curator of the Museum of Performing Arts in Perth; opera producer/director Stuart Maunder, Ballets Russes dancer and teacher Kiril Vassilkovsky and Reg Park, who has had an international career in choreographed ice skating performances.
Emeritus Professor Di Yerbury, the recently retired Vice-Chancellor of Macquarie University, was interviewed by Dr Ann Moyal. Professors Warrick Couch, Head of the Physics Department at the University of New South Wales; John Storey, Head of the School of Physics at the University of New South Wales and Brian Schmidt, Federation Fellow at The Australian National University's Mount Stromlo Observatory, were all interviewed by Dr Ragbir Bhathal about Australian astronomy. Shortly after this interview Professor Schmidt was jointly awarded the 2006 Shaw Prize honouring major scientific breakthroughs. Peter Bassett-Smith, scientific cinematographer and botanist Raymond Specht were interviewed by Dr Martin Thomas.
There are a number of special and joint projects underway in Oral History and Folklore. As part of his history of pioneering figures in Asian Studies, Professor David Walker interviewed Alan Gregory, Ailsa and Din Zainu’ddin and Don Anderston. James Murdoch conducted 10 interviews in Bali with people who knew Donald Friend. For Seven Years On, which records interviews with upcoming Indigenous leaders, Carly Lane was interviewed by Professor Peter Read and Jackie Huggins, who also interviewed Ian Viner about the work of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. In three Australian Research Council funded projects, Monash University Professor Jenny Hocking interviewed Gough Whitlam for the political biography she is writing; Professor John Williams and Dr Fiona Wheeler from ANU interviewed Sir Anthony Mason for their oral history of the High Court and Peter Cole-Adams was interviewed by Dr Richard Trembath for the Melbourne University history of Australian war correspondents.
US academic Professor Colin Davis conducted 13 interviews with people engaged in the maritime economy of Broome. Serbian refugee and former detainee Gyzele Osmani and Polish refugee Peter Witting were interviewed by Ann-Mari Jordens and Polish-Australian Euguene Bajkowski was interviewed by Dr Barry York. In the very successful Drovers Project a further 47 interviews were added by Professor Bill Gammage and his drover co-interviewer Bruce Simpson.
The most exciting Folklore acquisition is that of the Mark Schuster Collection. The collection, assembled over 25 years, represents interviews with immigrants and their descendants from Germany, who settled in Queensland farming communities from the mid nineteenth century until the first decade of the twentieth. The collection documents the social, cultural and musical life of the community from the time when solid German respectability was its hallmark, through to the periods of anti German sentiment during two world wars.
Other folklore recordings were collected by Rob Willis in the Euabalong, Kempsey, Condobolin and Forbes regions of New South Wales and from Mount Gambier, Prospect, Adelaide and Holden Hills in South Australia. He also undertook recordings in Western Australia in a project jointly supported by the Library and the folklore archive at Curtin University. Dale Dengate and Gay Scott were interviewed by Jenny Gall as a record of the involvement of women in the Australian Folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s.
The major purchase made for the Pictures Collection in the period April to October was a group of five panoramic colour photographs from Anne Zahalka’s Leisureland series taken between 1998 and 2000. The large format photographs, measuring up to 115 x 245 centimetres, document the Crowning Ceremony at the Grafton Jacaranda Festival, the Sydney IMAX cinema and gambling hall at Star City Casino, Robosaurus, and Oceanworld. It is pleasing to have a photographic record of the interior of the IMAX cinema which is challenging to capture photographically.
Other purchases included an oil portrait of writer Kylie Tennant by Nan Paterson; twenty cartoons by Judy Horacek and fifteen photographs of Frank Hurley at work, one of which shows Hurley and his daughter making the composite images for which the photographer was so well-known.
Youth culture continues to be a theme in photographic collecting with images showing night clubbing, body piercing, snow boarding and drug use acquired.
The Pictures Collection also received some important material by donation. Four leather bound sketchbooks containing 235 drawings by Richard Wingfield Stuart were donated. Stuart was a station owner, renowned horseman and amateur artist. The sketchbooks include lively drawings of station life in Queensland in the 1870s.
Fifteen photographs from Matthew Sleeth’s Tour of Duty series, 1999-2000 were donated to the Library by Patrick Corrigan, AM. The photographs document aspects of Australian participation in the United Nations sanctioned InterFET force in East Timor and complement sixteen photographs from the Tour of Duty series purchased by the Library from Matthew Sleeth in 2003.
A sketch by Dr Seuss of a ‘Beatle-haired platypusss [sic]’, circa 1968, was donated by the daughter of his Australian publisher. This sketch, made while Theodore Geisel visited Australia, depicts a platypus with a Beatles-inspired hairdo.
During the period Asian Collections acquired a complete set of Kogei [crafts], the official journal of the Nihon Mingei Kyōkai [Japanese Arts and Crafts Association]. A major source on the Japanese arts and crafts movement of the early 20th century, the journal Kogei [Crafts] was edited and published by the founder of the Japanese Arts and Crafts Association, Yanagi Muneyoshi (1889-1961). Muneyoshi drew attention to the neglected traditions of folk art and handmade objects used in daily life. The products of various local folk craft traditions included works of pottery, dyeing, weaving, metal work, lacquerware and crafts, using wood, bamboo, leather, and paper. The essence of folk art was that it was anonymous, created by individual artisans who made beautiful and functional things for everyday use. Japanese industrialisation and mass production threatened to wipe out these traditional arts and Muneyoshi’s campaign to re-invigorate the appreciation of traditional arts and crafts of the people was a critical factor in their survival to this day. Muneyoshi and his contemporaries influenced the development of the British arts and crafts movement of the early twentieth century, which itself drew inspiration from John Ruskin, William Morris and the Pre-Raphaelite movement of the late 19th century. The Library’s set of Kogei is complete in 120 issues published over 20 years, from 1931 to 1951 and was acquired from the Japanese antiquarian book dealer Isseido. The issues are in excellent condition and all have the original hand painted linen covers with striking designs and motifs. Many issues contain samples of textiles, dyes and papers discussed in articles.
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 major resources have been made available:
The Library continues to acquire a small number of rare items which fill gaps or which otherwise make a substantial contribution to an area of existing strength within the present collection. Acquisitions during the last six months include:
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