Home > About Us > What we collect > Highlights > July-September 1995
July-September 1995
This listing gives brief descriptions of some of the more significant
items recently added to the National Library's collections.
Included this
month are items from the Manuscript, Oral
History, Pictorial, Map and
Asian collections. Collecting activity in the fields of
electronic media, Commonwealth
Government publications, and retrospective acquisition
is also highlighted.
Electronic materials
- Recognising the increasing importance of the use of electronic
forms of publishing in Australia, the National Library now has a position
dedicated half time to the monitoring and selection of electronic journals
(e-journals) appearing on the Internet.

Commonwealth Government publications
- The remaining time of the position referred to above is being
invested in an evaluation of the Library's success in acquiring
Commonwealth Government publications as a greater proportion
of these materials are now published and issued outside the traditional
publishing environment previously offered by the Australian Government
Publishing Service (AGPS). With increasing capabilities in desk-top publishing
and a trend towards decentralised publishing activities, less and less of the
Commonwealth Government's publishing is controlled by AGPS. This situation has
obvious implications for the deposit of government publications in libraries
and for the long-term preservation of these publications.
- The Library has recently completed a survey of the publishing
activities of Commonwealth Government departments and agencies in centres all
round Australia, including Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Brisbane, Townsville,
Darwin, Perth and Adelaide. The survey was conducted by face-to-face interview.
The Library's initiative in establishing personal contact was warmly welcomed,
especially in the more far-flung regions, and it was apparent that many
agencies were not aware of their obligation to deposit their published
materials with the National Library. It is of interest that in the course of
this survey alone, some ten kilos of material was collected and has since been
formally taken into the Library's collection. It is expected that publications
will continue to arrive as a result of the contacts established during this
project.

Retrospective monographs and serials
A continuing responsibility of the National Library is the acquisition
of older and retrospective materials that have previously eluded its net.
During the period under review, the Library acquired an interesting and diverse
range of material, some highlights of which follow:
- A collection of 72 items of Australian maritime
ephemera from the 1920s and 1930s,
including passenger lists, 'on-board' newsletters, price lists, menus,
entertainment programs and itineraries from passenger liners sailing into
Australian ports
- A collection of foreign language translations of works by
Australian romance fiction writer Emma Darcy, acquired from
the author
- A run (1950s-1960s) of the popular Australian magazine Pix
- A collection of performing arts materials relating to a number of
Australian performers, acquired from the dealer Karl Levett in
New York. These include programs of stage performances by the actor
Erroll Flynn from provincial theatres in the United Kingdom
prior to the establishment of his film career in the United States.

- The acquisition of the papers of Lindy Chamberlain
has been completed. The collection includes a great many personal and family
documents of Ms Chamberlain, including letters, legal documents, cutting books,
photographs, memorabilia and the drafts of her book Through my eyes. By
far the largest component is the thousands of letters from members of the
public, commenting on the Chamberlain case and expressing support or
opposition. They cover a ten-year period and constitute an extraordinary record
of public opinion, not only on the case itself but on the views of ordinary
Australians on such diverse subjects as the Australian judicial system, the
police, the media, religion (especially the Seventh Day Adventist Church),
family relationships, death and grief.
- One of the finest personal collections on the Australian
administration of Papua New Guinea has been received from the family of
E.W.P. Chinnery. Chinnery, who died in 1972, first went to
Papua in 1909 and served as a patrol officer. In 1923 he became the Government
Anthropologist in the Mandated Territory and later the first Director of
District Services and Native Affairs. He left in 1939 to head the Department of
Native Affairs in the Northern Territory, where he remained until 1946. The
papers cover his entire career and include diaries, reports, correspondence
with anthropologists, officials and politicians, photographs, maps and
publications.
- Other acquisitions in the area of public life have included the
papers of Frederick Osborne, and Gavan
Schneider. Frederick Osborne, who held a number of portfolios in the
Menzies Government and was later president of the New South Wales Division of
the Liberal Party, has added an important group of files to a collection
originally presented to the Library twenty years ago. They contain extensive
correspondence relating to the affairs of the Liberal Party from the 1960s to
the 1980s, as well as papers relating to its business and legal activities.
Gavan Schneider was active in the Australian Democrats Party in the 1980s and
has presented the first substantial collection of records of the Australian
Democrats so far received by the Library
- Currency Press, the leading publisher of
Australian plays, has made a substantial addition to its collection of archived
material already held by the Library. The new material includes correspondence
and drafts of many playwrights and papers of its co-founder Katharine
Brisbane. It complements another acquisition, the extensive archives
of the Australian National Playwrights' Centre. The Centre is
responsible for the annual National Playwrights' Conference, which started in
1973 and has become well established as an important venue for the workshopping
and refinement of unpublished Australian plays, many of which have gone on to
achieve professional presentation and, in some cases, national success.
- Also in the sphere of organisational archives, the
Australian Council for Overseas Aid transferred to the Library
records dating back to its foundation in 1965. Included are correspondence,
minutes, reports, files on particular countries and member agencies and
material on the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development.
- Brenda Niall has donated papers relating to her
biography of the writer Martin Boyd (complementing the large
collection of his personal and literary papers already held), while the papers
of his nephew, the sculptor Guy Boyd, have been presented by
Mrs Phyllis Boyd.
- A valuable series of albums documenting the life and work of the
Aboriginal tenor Harold Blair have been placed in the Library
by his widow.
- The Canberra writer Anne Edgeworth has passed to
the Library a collection of family letters covering three generations of her
family, including some papers of the eminent geologist Sir David
Edgeworth.

- Major interviews were recorded with eminent Australians in the
fields of law, science, religion, the performing arts, publishing and book
selling, diplomacy, librarianship, education, journalism, public administration
and architecture. Interviewees included Professor Geoffrey Sawer,
Justice Michael Kirby, Sir John Cornforth (UK), Lady Cornforth, Bishop John A.
Morgan, Maggie Fink, John Iremonger, Richard Walsh, Frank Thompson, Sir Peter
Lawler, Alison Crook, Dr Jean Blackburn, Archbishop James Gleeson, Brian Toohey
and Glenn Murcutt.
- Development of the social history segment of the collection saw a
number of interesting and valuable additions of material. Interviews were
received in the fields of whaling (through collaboration
between the Battye Library in Perth and the National Library), jazz in
Australia (a series of interviews collected by the Australian poet
Geoff Page pursuing a deep private interest),
environmental history (being further material received from
Gregg Borschmann), feminism (interviews
collected by the historian Ann Turner) and radical
politics (interviews collected by Wendy Lowenstein,
one of Australia's leading oral historians). One of the projects proceeding but
to date not yet transferred to the Library is Peter Parkhill's
interviews with residents of the Illawarra district (NSW).
- Collection development of the Library's folklore holdings resumed
their customary high level of activity following the brief lull reported last
time. Ann Turner recorded a very detailed interview in England
with Martin Wyndham-Reid, one of the best known performers of
traditional Australian songs. Peter Ellis completed two field
recording trips in the Bendigo district, focussing on traditional dance music.
Jennifer Gall completed the first phase of a project to
document the folklore and musical heritage of the Richmond River district
(NSW). Dave de Hugard, a well-known performer and collector,
deposited 32 hours of field recordings from the Glen Innes district (NSW).
Dr Barry York and Dr Edgar Waters deposited
the first 14 hours of field recordings made with members of the
Maltese-Australian community in the Blacktown district (NSW).

- Eight portrait photographs by the late Max Dupain were purchased
from the son of this great Australian photographer. This collection comprises
portraits of Peter Finch,
Jean Bellette,
Emeritus Professor Charles
Blackburn, Sir William
Dobell, John Dease, the
sculptor Tom Bass,
Sir Lorimer Dods and the
curator and historian Ian
North.
- A portrait of the Queensland art critic, the late
Dr Gertrude Langer, by Nan
Paterson was purchased. An outstanding portrait of the Australian composer
George Dreyfus by Brian
Dunlop was acquired. Apart from its high visual appeal, this portrait
complements the National Library holding of the
papers of George Dreyfus. Also of interest
is the portrait by Aileen Dent of the politician and diplomat
Sir Frederick Eggleston,
whose substantial collection of papers is
held in the National Library.

A number of interesting Australian map acquisitions were made during
the period under review. These include the following:
- Sketch map on butter paper of section of the barracks
adjacent to Cockle Bay, Sydney, dated 22 October 1858.
- Map of Sydney and suburbs showing tramway lines and
stopping places. Sydney: McCarron, Stewart and Co.
[1920-1929].Later edition of a series of maps issued by this company since the
1890s showing the development of Sydney's transport services.
- Polynesien (Insewelt) oder der Funfte
weltheil. [Vienna]: Daniel Djurberg, 1789. First Viennese edition
of Djurberg's map of Australasia and the Pacific, which was originally
published in Stockholm in 1780. The 1780 edition saw the first use of the word
'Ulimaroa', understood to be a Maori description of Australia.
- Crisp Estate, Cooma, 1882. Photographic facsimile
size copy of a rare original sales plan of the former Crisp estate, Cooma, NSW

- Following consultation with the Australian National University
Library as part of a coordinated approach to collection development, the
National Library is acquiring from Archive International in Neufchatel,
Switzerland the publication Japan and dependencies: political and
economic reports 1906-1960. This 20 volume work comprises British
political and economic reports on Japan and its former colonies, including
Korea, Taiwan and mainland territories in the then province of Manchuria. The
original documents upon which this publication is based are located in the
Public Record Office in London and in the Cambridge University Library.
Last updated 16 October 1995
