Recent Acquisition Highlights
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.
Electronic Media
- 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.
