Harry Hastings Pearce (1897-1984) was an activist in the rationalist and humanist movements who devoted a great part of his leisure to Australian literature. In the course of his life Mr Pearce accumulated a large collection of material which he willed to the National Library. After his death, the Library purchased additional material from the Pearce Estate.
Transfer of the Pearce Collection began in the 1970s and by 1986, there were 54 shelves of material - well over 5,000 titles. Included in the Collection are manuscripts [MS 2765], pictorial items, periodicals, pamphlets, rare books and other printed material. Title pages of the publications in the H.H. Pearce Collection have been microfilmed for reference purposes and this film (6 reels) is available from the Newspaper/Microcopy Reading Room at mfm N 194.
Collection strengths are in the fields of 19th and 20th century Australian literature, poetry and prose - including C.J. Dennis and Hal Gye material; folklore; Australian politics; radicalism; and the development of nationalist and free-thinking philosophies.
The Harry H. Pearce Collection is available through the Library's various Reading Rooms.
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