What we collect
Mills, Alice, 1870-1929.
Portrait of Edward
Augustus Petherick
and his wife Mary Agnes Petherick
[189-?]. Details
The Petherick collection
The Petherick Collection, some 16,500 titles from the collection of Edward Augustus Petherick (1847-1917), formed the nucleus of the National Library's collection of Australiana when it was acquired by the Commonwealth of Australia through the Petherick Collection Act of 1911.
Petherick was a book-seller, book collector and bibliographer who began to assemble a collection relating to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific some thirty years before Federation in 1901 in the hope that it would become part of an Australian national library.
Many items received as part of E.A. Petherick's library are available through the Main Reading Room; while some, particularly the rare items, are available only through the Petherick Reading Room.
See also information on the Petherick Maps.
