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April 1995
This listing gives brief descriptions of some of the more significant
items recently added to the National Library's collections.
Electronic media as well as new items for the
Printed, Pictorial, Manuscript, Oral History, Map and Asian Collections have been
included.
- The National Library's charter for collecting Australiana
encompasses all forms of publishing including electronic formats. In the last
12 months electronic publishing in Australia has dramatically increased and
with the emergence of electronic journals on the Internet, a list of Australian e-journals has been produced.

Printed Materials Collection
- Illustrative car advertising publications including early Holden
material, and a collection of catalogues from 1910-1940 of the Anthony Horderns
department store in Sydney.
- The J.F. & L.F. Fitzhardinge Collection.
Laurie Fitzhardinge was for many years a well-known identity around Canberra,
particularly at the Australian National University and the National Library.
His collection of books was built up over a lifetime of informed interest in a
wide range of subjects, from the classics to Australian history, from art to
the history of the printed book. The collection was in fact a phoenix: started
by his father, J.F. Fitzhardinge, but destroyed by a catastrophic fire. Laurie
Fitzhardinge set about rebuilding it and achieved a magnificent collection
which he saw as a memorial to his father. The Library is very pleased to have a
group of 30 early printed items and about 300 private press works donated under
the terms of the Taxation Incentives for the Arts Scheme. The collection
includes five incunables (books printed before 1500); the gem among these being
a bible printed in 1477 by Anton Koberger, the printer of the
Nuremberg Chronicle. Among the private press books are works produced by the
Golden Cockerel, Cuala, Doves, Eragny, Gregynog, and Kelmscott presses and some
examples of European printing.

Manuscript Collection
- The manuscript of a novel, Ralph Rashleigh, written by
convict James Tucker in about 1845. This is the earliest substantial literary
manuscript ever acquired by the Library, and was the basis of the definitive
edition produced by Colin Roderick in 1953. It joins the journal, letters and
poems of John Grant, the diary of John Ward, and the letters of Margaret
Catchpole, amongst others, in making the Manuscript
Collection a key repository of the convict experience.
- Papers of the writer and political activist Jack
Beasley and the papers of the human rights lawyer Rosemarie
Gillespie. Further papers of the trade union leader Lloyd
Ross, and of the feminist Edna Ryan, strengthen two
notable collections. The papers of the limnologist and conservationist,
Ian Bayly, are important in telling the story of the dispute
over Lake Pedder. Further papers of the erstwhile biographer of Sir Robert
Menzies, Lady McNicoll, of H.C. (Nugget)
Coombs, and additional papers of Sir Ernest White,
should also be mentioned. The additional White material includes correspondence
files between 1940 and 1967, which will strengthen an already important
collection dealing with the formation of the Liberal Party, Australian-American
relations and Australian military and business history.
- Papers relating to biographical research on Joan
Lindsay by Cathy Peake have been acquired, as have
materials relating to the book The Yellow Lady, by Alison
Broinowski, and papers of the novelist Margaret
Barbalet. Further papers have been received from the Canberra academic
Thelma Hunter, mostly relating to social welfare, women's
issues and health matters.
- The penultimate consignment of Manning Clark's
papers have come into the collection, and it is expected that the
final boxes will arrive in the very near future. This collection provides a
unique insight into the entire twentieth-century historiography of Australia,
as well as into the life and work of Manning Clark himself.
- The extensive aviation collections of the Library have been added
to by the papers of the aviator G.U. (Scotty) Allan. Allan,
who is one of the last of the great pioneer aviators still alive, joined Qantas
as a pilot in 1934, and later served as Controller of Technical Developments
and Deputy Chief Executive. The collection also includes material relating to
Allan's service in both world wars.
- A small collection of papers relating to the aviator Andrew
Lang adds to the Library's documentation of the activities of the
photographer Frank Hurley.
- Art-oriented collections have been added to by letters of
William Dobell, Russell Drysdale and
Donald Friend, and also a further diary of
Judy Cassab. As well, two illustrated manuscripts by the
artist John Olsen have been purchased. One is his journal of
the painting of 'Five Bells', at the Sydney Opera House, superbly complementing
the original manuscript of the poem by Kenneth
Slessor, which has been in the Library for some time.
- Papers of the newspaper executive Angus McLachlan.
- Papers of the defunct Youth Affairs Council of
Australia is worthy of note. Rescued from temporary storage in a
hostel toilet block, this substantial collection was formed between the 1960s
and the 1980s.

Oral History Collection
- Major interviews were recorded with eminent Australians in the
fields of literature, politics, defence studies, journalism, acting, music,
education, astronomy, librarianship, public affairs and religion - including
writers Alan Gould and Marion
Halligan, former State and Federal parliamentarian Wal
Fife, academic Des Ball the Library's
Director-General, Warren Horton, actress Jackie
Weaver, journalists Alan Ramsey and David
Bowman, historian Geoffrey Bolton, bookseller
Bob Gould, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch,
Bishop Neville Chynnoweth, and astronomers Professors
Jeremy Mould, Ken Freeman, S.C.B.
Gascoigne, W.W. Christiansen and Dr Paul
Wild.
- Social history projects during the period included Gregg
Borschmann's People's Forest project, which has now taped more
than fifty interviews in all states; Ros Bowden's Rural Women
project, which completed six interviews in South Australia; and
Marie Nicholl's project to interview people who knew Walter Burley
Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin.

Pictorial Collections
- The sketchbook by Charles Whitmore Babbage documents travels with
his father on surveying expeditions in South Australia between 1857 and 1862.
- Sketchbook of Emily Macarthur, wife of James Macarthur and
daughter-in-law of John and Elizabeth Macarthur containing
drawings, watercolours and photographs of the Macarthurs, their friends and
acquaintances as well as views of
Camden and Sydney.
- Collection of more than 260 photographs from the Gilbert
and Sullivan actress, Elva Blair, who was a leading actress with the
J.C. Williamson company during the Second World War.
- Photographs: an album of
portraits of poets and
writers, formed by the Sydney photographer Juno Gemes;
multicultural religious
photographic collection put together by the Melbourne photographer Viva
Gibb which includes the Cambodian Buddhist Temple at Springvale, and a view of
an Egyptian Coptic wedding at the Archangel Mikail and St Anthony's Church,
Oakleigh; an interesting album of 573
photographs recording the
travels of Sir Laurence Olivier and Vivian Leigh during their tour of Australia
in 1948 - mainly informal snapshots, showing. amongst other subjects,
ship-board life, beach outings, country views, and portraits of friends;
photographs for the Regional Cities and Major Towns Project which include the
towns of Swan Hill, Shepparton, Horsham and Yallourn in Victoria and Maitland
in New South Wales; an unusual collection of 96
photographs of notable
Australians, taken by Greg Barrett and commissioned by the businessman
Peter Weiss in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the Weiss
Corporation - including Maggie Tabberer, John Laws, Bronwyn Bishop and Brian
Henderson.

Map Collection
- An untitled seventeenth century German hemispherical
map with an unusual pictorial depiction of the earth's surface.
- Late eighteenth century French map of magnetic declinations,
Carte des declinaisons et inclinaisons de l'Aiguille,
from a 1775 edition of Bufon's works. It joins the similar maps produced by the
British scientist and mathematician Halley in the same era.
- The jigsaw has its origin in educational maps and the Library now
has an unusual eighteenth-century jigsaw map, Océanie et
Australie cinquième partie du monde of
c.1740, which makes it the earliest jigsaw map in the collection.
- CD-ROM products added to the collection include
census-based maps from the United States, a collection of worldwide historical
maps, and a new atlas of Florida.

Asian Collections
- Recent acquisitions from Indonesia include several large legal and
newspaper sets on microfilm. A substantial collection of 965 sheet maps of
Indonesia has also been purchased and selection of new serial titles continues.
- Acquisition of the cumulative edition (1985-1989) of the
Japanese periodicals index: humanities and social science, the catalogue
(1948-1968) of the National Diet Library, and Ming Ch'ing tang an (Ming
and Ch'ing dynasty archives) series 8-9, has added to Japanese and Chinese
holdings.
Last updated April 1995
