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May 1995
This listing gives brief descriptions of some of the more significant
items added to the National Library's collections.
New items for the Manuscript,
Oral History, Pictorial,
Map and Asian Collections have been
included.
- A letter of the writer Joseph Conrad referring to his visits
to Australia.
- A manuscript written around 1910 and relating to the early
history of the Sydney Theatre.
- Papers of Dr William McBride, and the archives of
Foundation 41.
- Papers of the mathematician Peter O'Halloran; and of the
industrial advocate and President of the Industrial Relations Commission,
Barry Maddern.
- Further papers of politician Clyde Cameron and further
papers of Ian Downs relating to his work as an official in Papua New
Guinea.
- Copies of Irish-Australian letters collected by the Irish
historian David Fitzpatrick.

- A project to interview eminent Australian astronomers
continues with recordings being made with Dr Bob Frater, Prof. Donald
Melrose, Dr Russell Cameron, Prof. Henry Brown, Prof.
Bernie Mills, Prof. Donald Matthewson and Mr Ron Ekeos.

- Several interesting portraits were received:
- A portrait by an unknown artist of
Surgeon William Broughton
Monkhouse, a doctor and member of the Endeavour expedition of
1768-1771 on which Captain Cook charted and claimed the eastern coast of
Australia.
- Portraits by George Gittoes of the performance artist
Ronaldo Cameron and the
photographer William Yang.
- An oil portrait of
Dr William McBride by an
artists identified only as "Rooney" was donated to the Library by Dr McBride.
- Photographs continued to be purchased for the collection,
copied for the collection, and in many cases donated to the Library.
- In the continuing project to collect images of Australia's
regional cities and major towns, photographs of Armidale and
Wollongong (NSW), Benalla and Bendigo (Victoria) and the
Western Australian towns of Albany, Broome, Bunbury,
Carnarvon, Derby, Geraldton, and Kalgoorlie were
added to the collection.
- Exhibition prints of seven Australian artists were
purchased from the photographer Greg Weight. The subjects include
Imants Tillers,
Yve Close and Joshua Smith,
Charles Blackman,
Robert Klippel,
Cressida Campbell, and
Emily Kame Kngwarreye.
- Fifteen exhibition prints of eminent
Australians were purchased from the photographer Henry Talbot. Among them
are portraits of Athol Shmith, Judy Cassab, Mirka Mora, Victor and Loti
Smorgan, Professor Ron Penny, Louis Kahan, Deirdre Rubenstein and a portrait of
Henry Talbot himself by Athol Shmith.
- Other purchases included a large
signed photograph by Kenneth
Crane of Don Bradman in action at the Adelaide Oval circa 1934; a portrait
of the artist and cartoonist
Rick Amor from the Melbourne photographer Francis Reiss; and a cartoon by
Geoff Pryor depicting the Prime Minister at the time of the announcement of the
Creative Nation program.
- Three very interesting donations to the Library's pictorial
holdings were five colour prints depicting the effects of
heavy January rain on Uluru,
donated by the photographer David Burke of Burradoo (NSW); a photograph of the
manager and staff of the cable
station on Norfolk Island circa 1904, donated by Mr Reginald King of
Maroochydore (Qld.); and a pen and ink portrait of singer
Enrico Caruso, given to
Amelia Benjamin by the singer, and donated by her niece, Mrs Nancy Arlen of
Sydney.
- A useful way of adding to the collections is through lending
the Library photographs for copying. Mrs Dymphna Clark lent for copying 95
photographs of Professor Manning
Clark and his family. The ballet dancer
Peggy Sager lent a
collection of 72 photographs of herself and other ballet performers for
copying. The photographs cover various productions between 1938 and 1960. Among
the ballets in which Ms Sager danced leading roles were Swan Lake with the
Kirsova Ballet in 1943, Terra Australis with the Borovansky Ballet in 1946, and
Don Quixote with Garth Welch in 1960.
- The Kodak Eastman box camera used by the photographer Peter
Lawrence was donated to the Library by his widow, Mrs E. McWean.

- Some rare maps received by the Library include a complete set of 26
charts of the Caroline Islands dating from 1836, and maps of the
counties of Wellington and Bathurst, 1851.
- Maps from overseas include the Wallis and Futuna Islands and
New Caledonia (1:50 000 topographic series from IGN in France) and, a
gift from the Australian Army, of maps of China (1:250 000 topographic
series from the AMS in the United States)

- A ten volume set of Japanese translations of modern Australian
drama has been received, and an eleven volume history of the Korean
War.
- Amelia McKenzie, the Library's Jakarta based officer has sent in a set of
papers and documentation prepared by the Australians attending a joint
Australian-Indonesian workshop on the reform of administrative law. This
workshop marked an important development in Australian-Indonesian legal
relations.
- Other notable works received include:
- Kokuritsu Kokkai Toshokan Zosho Mokoroku : Meijiki = National
Diet Library
Catalog : Meiji Period (1868-1912). 8 vols. Tokyo : Kokuritsu
Kokkai
Toshokan, 1994. ISBN 4-87582-392-4
- Kokuritsu Kokkai Toshokan Zosho Mokoroku : 1948-69 = National
Diet Library
Catalogue : 1948-68. 16 vols. Tokyo : Kokuritsu Kokkai
Toshokan, 1994.
ISBN 4-87532-364-9.
Last updated May 1995
