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Portrait of Gregory Macalister Mathews 1929

enlarge imageB. Gotto
Portrait of Gregory Macalister Mathews 1929
oil on canvas; 91.6 x 71.1 cm
Pictorial Collection

 

In 1944 Binns sent Courtenay Key to London to represent the National Library in Europe. In 1945 the Library followed the London appointment with the establishment of a Liaison Officer in New York.

The task of building a National Library that could serve the research purposes of a nation, whose cultural roots were largely European and specifically British, was daunting. In posting someone to Europe the Library was able to participate in the much larger British market. It was Key who began negotiations with the New Zealand art dealer Rex Nan Kivell for his immense and important collection of paintings, prints, maps, manuscripts and books relating to Australia and the Pacific.

In London the Liaison Officer also began what would prove to be the enormous task that came to be known as the Australian Joint-Copying Project, the systematic copying of British documents that related to Australia. Set up in conjunction with the State Library of New South Wales, the Australian Joint-Copying Project would continue until the early 1990s.

Despite the limitations imposed on Binns’ period as Head Librarian by the Depression and World War II, his recognition of the importance of film and sound recording, along with his strategic placement of liaison officers in London and New York, positioned the Library in readiness for the expansive years that followed under Harold White’s direction. 

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