Recent Acquisition Highlights
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.
Manuscript Collection
- 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.
Oral History Collection
- 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.
Pictorial Collection
- 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.
Map Collection
- 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)
Asian Collection
- 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.
- Kokuritsu Kokkai Toshokan Zosho Mokoroku : Meijiki = National
Diet Library
