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January 1995
This listing gives brief descriptions of some of the more significant
items recently added to the National Library's collections. Included, are new
items for the Printed, Pictorial,
Manuscript, Oral History, Map and Asian Collections.
Printed Materials Collection
- 19th century silk single sheet programs for events in Brisbane and
Sydney between 1860 and 1880, including benefits, inaugurations and galas for
the International Exhibition in Sydney.
- Invitations and menus produced by the Melbourne printing firm of
Osboldstone for events such as mayoral occasions, Melbourne Cup dinners, and
testimonials between 1916 and 1935.
- General Tom
Thumb's three year's tour around the world (New York, 1872) which
includes an account of the visit to Australia by this 'Lilliputian Quartette'
of midgets under the auspices of the famous P.T. Barnum.
- Kookaburra, the
laughing jackass and the black snake, 1897 illustrated novelty book for
children in the shape of an emu egg by Sydney-based Japanese artist, Jonaski
Takuma.
- Zwischen zwei
Feinden=Between two enemies by Franz Pistorius - an adventure story for
children published in Germany c. 1870 and set in Van Diemen's Land in the
1860s. Apparently set on board a ship or hulk in the Derwent River, this
curiosity has a vividly coloured cover depicting a confrontation between the
Captain and an elaborately plumed native with a boomerang in his belt.

Pictorial Collection
- Miniature portrait on ivory of Rear Admiral
William Bligh by Alexander
Huey - believed to have been exhibited at the Royal Academy (London) in 1814.
- Portrait in oils of the botanist
Robert Brown by Henry
William Pickersgill.
- Contemporary portraits of
Thea Astley by Anne Clark
and David Malouf by Ann
Thompson; composer Miriam
Hyde by Margaret Brady; a self-portrait by war artist
Sybil Craig; the late
businessman and founder of Esprit
John Bell by Peter Byron;
and two figures connected with the legal process in Australia,
Ian Barker QC and
Lindy Chamberlain by Neville
Dawson.
- Photographic portraits by Greg Weight, Francis Reiss, Heide Smith
and Angela Lynkushka.
- Louis Buvelot watercolour (1873),
At Fernshaw.
Fernshaw, a forest area near Healesville in Victoria, is still noted for its
magnificent ferns, which are a feature of this particular work.

Manuscript Collection
- 19th century diaries kept by travellers who spent a few
weeks in Australia during voyages around the world: William Bethell, a young
Yorkshire landowner who visited Australia in 1871-1872; and an American
traveller who used the pen-name Josephus, en-route to England from New York via
the Pacific in 1879-1880. Included are descriptions of Victoria, Tasmania and
New South Wales - including the Sydney Exhibition at the Garden Palace, the
first international exhibition held in Australia.
- Collections of papers of Australian public figures, including the
unpublished memoirs of Frank Clarke, a Member of the first House of
Representatives; letterbooks of John Monash dating from 1902-1914;
papers from the former Labor politician and Federal Minister, Tom Uren,
which cover his entire career in politics; and papers of the economist Sir
Leslie Melville, who led the Australian delegation at the 1944 Bretton
Woods Conference.
- Literary manuscripts and paper, including those of the poet and
critic Elizabeth Riddell, poets John Tranter and Anthony
Lawrence, children's writer Christobel Mattingley, biographer
Patricia Clarke, and historians Robin Gollan and Humphrey
McQueen.
- Musical scores and marked up collections of violinist Ernest
Llewellyn; research materials on the history of music publishing assembled
by Ken Snell; and the correspondence and other papers of music critic
Kenneth Hince.
- Diaries and letters of Tom Cole describe his life since
arrival in Australia in 1923 and his experiences as a station hand, miner,
buffalo and crocodile hunter in Queensland, the Northern Territory and New
Guinea; papers of Ellis Blain containing some interesting material on
the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the early days of television in
Australia; Stewart Harris, Barry Christophers and Peter
Read have each transferred papers relating to the history, values and
problems of Australian Aborigines; while the papers of Professor Cecil
Gibb which deal with his long career as a psychologist and university
administrator, also have some useful material on the working conditions of
Aborigines in the Northern Territory in the early 1970s; diaries, letters and
other papers of the artist Lorri Whiting and her husband Bertram
Whiting provide a fascinating account of their lives in Australia, England
and Europe and their wide circle of political, literary, artistic and show
business friends; papers of J.N.D. Harrison relating to his work as a
policeman in Malaya include two detailed diaries kept while a prisoner at
Changi in 1942-1945.

Oral History Collection
- Interviews with eminent Australians including Tasmanian
environmentalists Jesse Luckman and Bob Brown; journalists Max
Suich, Trevor Kennedy, Richard Walsh, Alan Ramsey and
Ian Matthews; former diplomats Peter Henderson and Les
Johnson; photographer Olive Cotton; writer Barry Oakley;
activist Rosemary Gillespie; performers Jeannie Little,
Margaret Roadknight, Robert Klippel and Nora Hewson; dance
identities Maina Gielgud and Lady Viola Tate; historians
Father John Eddy and Father Edmund Campion; writer Donald
Horne and poet Anne Edgeworth.

Map Collection
- Major Mitchell's Map of the colony of New South Wales
(reissued from the original copper plates and published, limited edition) which
features roads, tracks and places of interest in the 19 counties of New South
Wales in 1834.
- 1994 Times electronic world map and database
containing thousands of interactive maps and statistics has been installed in
the Map Reading Room.
- Rare maps, including: Norton/Kattilby [Western
Hemisphere] (1684) which shows the discoveries of Australia and Tasman's
second voyage; Bufon's Carte des declinaisons et inclinaisons de L'Aiguille
almante(1775); Mappemonde pour servir a l'histoire des decouvertes et
conquestes des Portugais dans le Nouveau-monde (1734); and the French
Marine's Carte de la Tasmanie et des Terres Environnantes (1847).
- Current and retrospective topographic maps of South-East
Asia, including Indochina, China, Korea and Vietnam; and an extensive
collection of early Dutch cartography on microfiche which is based on material
in Dutch colonial archives and contains rare atlases from the 16th to 18th
centuries and 18th century maps of China, Indonesia and Japan.

Asian Collection
- Banthuk Pawattisat
saphan mittraphap Thai-Lao, Thai publication on the Australian built
Friendship Bridge across the Mekong River which links Thailand and Laos.
- Works about Australia published in Japan during World War II,
including a confidential report on Australia and New Zealand prepared in 1942
by Okinaka Tsuneyuki.
Last updated January 1995
