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Presentation of the Alfred Deakin Papers 1965

enlarge imagePresentation of the Alfred Deakin Papers 1965
photograph
Pictorial Collection
(Robert Menzies far right)

 

White's administration also coincided with the end of the period of fiscal restraint imposed by the war years and the Depression. The close working relationship established between politicians and the Parliamentary Library would also prove useful. As Burmester records, Robert Menzies, Prime Minister from 1949 to 1966, was very supportive of major and expensive acquisitions, such as the Nichol Smith Collection:

When Menzies received the submission he noted it ‘The Eighteenth Century! How could I refuse!’ He was similarly generous with the Clifford Collection.

Clifford Burmester’s unpublished memoirs, Manuscript Collection

Menzies made a cryptic reference to White's powers of persuasion when opening a Nan Kivell exhibition at the festival of Adelaide in 1962:

But I think I ought to say a word or two to you about Mr Nan Kivell. I'd heard about, I've seen some of his remarkable collection. I’d been told [about it by] Mr Harold White, the Commonwealth Librarian, who has a prehensile grip on anything that matters from the point of view of Australian history and records—marvellous! A grip like a pawnbroker, do you know what I mean?

Harold White receives a portrait of Henry Handel Richardson by Rupert Bunny presented by Lady Casey  April 1969

enlarge imageHarold White receives a portrait of Henry Handel Richardson by Rupert Bunny presented by Lady Casey 
April 1969
photograph
Pictorial Collection

Although capable of great charm, it was White’s tenacity that led to the success of many of the acquisition negotiations during this period. Finding the money was, of course, a central issue for a Library in the process of expanding its collections, yet throughout the 1950s and well into the 1960s the other problem that faced the Library was space. Without a building to unite the collections, the Library remained dispersed around Canberra. As Clifford Burmester has commented:

It never ceased to amaze me that people had the faith to entrust these papers to an institution still without a home.

Clifford Burmester's unpublished memoirs, Manuscript Collection

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