Recent Acquisition Highlights

June 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 new items for the Pictorial, Oral History, Manuscript, and Printed Collections.

Pictorial Collection

A number of portraits have been acquired for the collection. These include:

  • Two charcoal on paper portraits of circus performers Nikki Ashton and Jonas Zilinskas by Diana Mogensen.
  • A dry-point etching of writer Dennis Altmann, by Richard Gordon Morrison.
  • A bronze bust of the forensic scientist Dr John Birrell by the sculptor Ethel Reynolds.
  • Fifty eight posters were received for the collections, and fifty-five cartoons by Tony Rafty were donated under the Taxation Incentives for the Arts Scheme.
  • The Library's extensive photographic collections continue to grow through purchase, donation and lending for copying. Items of interest recently received cover all aspects of Australian life and society.
    • Six exhibition prints of Australian artists by Greg Weight. The photographs were taken between 1971 and 1994 and the subjects are: Louis James, Martin Sharp, Reg Mombassa, William Robinson, and Rosalie Gascoigne.
    • Four photographs of the interior of Coombe Cottage at Coldstream near Lilydale, and signed by Dame Nellie Melba.
    • A donation by Dr Barry York of eleven photographs depicting Maltese immigrants in Australia.
    • Four photographs of Ethel Turner and her family, lent for copying, by Ethel Turner's grand-daughter Philippa Poole.
    • A photographic portrait of the Aboriginal writer Eva Johnson, taken by Destiny Deacon.
    • Other photographs purchased include the Prime Minister, Paul Keating, the Minister for Health, Dr Carmen Lawrence, Aboriginal artist Hector Djandalu, fashion designer and businesswoman Maggie Shepherd, Senator Margaret Reid, Aboriginal artist Hope Reid and ACT Legislative Assembly member Wayne Berry.

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Oral History

  • A number of Australians from many walks of life were interviewed recently for the National Library's oral history tape collections. They included Sir Jack Brabham, Bruce Clayton-Brown, Prof. Ronald Drayton-Brown, Clem Jones, Dr Richard Manchester, Darryl Pearce, Prof. Jack Richardson, John Olsen, Murray Rose, Lt. General John Sanderson, Ian Temby Q.C., and Sir Edward Williams.
  • Nine field recordings were received from the well-known performer Alex Hood under the Folklore Program.

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Manuscripts

Added to the manuscript collections during the last month were:

  • Papers of the broadcaster Muriel Howlett, political scientist Len Hume, letters of Barbara Hanrahan to Carmel Bird, and copies of papers of the novelist Colin McInnes.
  • Further papers added to collections already held of Aboriginal activist Charles Perkins, novelist Gillian Bouras, and Professor Jerzy Zubrzycki.

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Printed Materials

  • The Newspaper Advertising Bureau of Australia has presented the National Library with a bound volume entitled Caxton Awards for creative excellence in newspaper advertising, Volume 1 finalists and winners 1992 and 1993. This one-off bound volume relates to the Caxton Award, an annual award and record of newspaper advertising in Australia over the last twenty-five years.

Last updated June 1995

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