Early Map Collections in Australian Libraries
Note: This is an edited version of an article which originally appeared in The Map Curator, no. 55, Summer 1991.
- Introduction
- The Petherick/Rare Map Collection
- Ferguson Rare Map Collection & Sales Plans
- The Rex Nan Kivell Collection
- Tooley Collection
Until being united as one nation in 1901 when the Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed, the country was a series of colonies, the first being New South Wales founded in 1788. Within each colony separate Lands and Mining Departments, as well as State Libraries and Archives, were established. This pattern continued at a national level even after Federation in 1901.
Consequently, Australia's rich and diverse cartographic heritage is to be found amongst a number of institutions both at Federal and State level. While most of the collections developed as the continent was surveyed and mapped, others were also supported through the acquisition of formed collections such as those of Ferguson, Mitchell and Dixson [1] during the early years of the twentieth century.
In 1960, the National Library of Australia Act was passed, formalising a separate national collection whose origins lay in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library which was established near the turn of the twentieth century. The National Library's map Section is composed of five core collections: the Petherick or Rare Map Collection, the Ferguson Rare Map Collection, the Ferguson Sales Plans, the Rex Nan Kivell Collection and the Tooley Collection. The geographic coverage is worldwide with an emphasis on Australasia, Pacific Ocean, Asia and South-east Asia. The collection contains about 400,000 [2] maps of which half are topographic series and the remainder single and series thematic mapping. The Library has a deposit collection for all Australian mapping. They have a collection of over 6,000 early maps, 1,000 modern atlases, 400 rare atlases, and over 500,000 aerial photographs of Australia.
The Petherick/Rare Map Collection
British born bibliographer and book collector, Edward Augustus Petherick (1847-1917) emigrated to Australia with his family in 1853. Quite early on, no doubt influenced by his job with George Robertson, a Sydney bookseller, he developed an interest in Australiana which extended beyond books to pamphlets, maps and manuscripts. In 1887 he founded the Colonial Booksellers Agency. Despite going bankrupt in 1894 he managed to retain his own collection which led to the publication of his catalogue, Edward's Australasian Catalogue: Catalogue of books relating to Australasia, Malaysia, Polynesia, the Pacific coast of America and the South Seas.
The depth and breadth of his collection, which he offered to the Australian colonies in 1894, is reflected in his catalogue description ' ... the larger proportion comprises works on the geography, discovery, exploration, aborigines and natural history of the Australian colonies ... ' More significantly, he saw the collection as a nucleus for an Australian library emphasising the need for continuing acquisitions after it had been deposited.
The collection of over 1,200 maps and more than 300 atlases includes works by Abraham Ortelius, Nicolas Visscher and Pieter Goos together with maps and atlases by well known British and French cartographers up to the turn of the twentieth century. Rare items include the 1659 (first edition) of Hendrick Doncker's 'De Zee-Atlas of Water-waereld ...' and two lovely maps by Hessel Gerritsz - one of Australia and Indonesia dated 1627 entitled 'Caert van't Landt van d'Eendracht ...', and another of Western Australia, 1631, showing discoveries around the west coast. Petherick's vision that further material should continue to be added to the collection has been followed. The Rare Map Collection now comprises nearly 3,000 maps and 400 atlases.
Ferguson Rare Map Collection and Sales Plans
Sir John Alexander Ferguson (1881-1969) was a bibliographer, collector and judge of the New South Wales Industrial Commission. He was also associated with the bookseller George Robertson - marrying his daughter in 1906. Ferguson was preoccupied with books for the whole of his life; he was concerned with preserving the past and present, particularly those items bearing on national history and development.
Family and work interests further determined the direction of his collection which is strong in material relating to church and mission station history in Australia and the Pacific as well as industrial arbitration. Like Petherick, whom he admired, he believed that a carefully acquired collection of 'pamphlets, broadsides, pictures, maps, newspapers and manuscripts, may throw important light on local events, social tendencies, the great men and movements of the past, parliamentary government, family history and the like'.
Nowhere is this philosophy clearer than in his collection of 911 maps which reflect his interest in local history, church history, and mining and industrial matters. Many of the maps are tracings on butter paper, often brown and brittle with age, recording land ownership throughout New South Wales during the nineteenth century.
Ferguson also made a collection of real estate sales plans mainly of Sydney but also of other New South Wales and interstate towns produced by various estate agents between 1880 and 1920 (eg Seaforth, Toronto andManly). About half the collection of 7,200 plans has been mounted in 32 quarter leather-bound elephant folio volumes, the remainder gathered loosely in drawers. Fragile, and in some cases highly decorative, these documents are a remarkable source of information for anyone studying early Australian urban development.
Rex Nan Kivell (1899-1977) was born in New Zealand but his interest in Australia and Pacific dated back to his boyhood. He started collection in London during his convalescence from war service. Partner and later owner of the Redfern Gallery in London, he extended his collecting interest across England, Europe and North Africa while pursuing his hobby of archaeology.
In 1959 the Australian Government bought his collection of pictures, manuscripts, pamphlets and maps now held in the National Library. Among the 1,000 or so early maps are Dutch and French items of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries tracing the development of exploration of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. About a third of the collection traces Australia's development during the nineteenth century with a particular emphasis on cadastral and electoral maps of Victoria. He did not forget his New Zealand origins, however, for amongst the material is a superb atlas The Maori Wars, New Zealand 1863-4. Like Ferguson, he meticulously documented his collection, the numbers he assigned still providing access to the collection today.
In 1970 Rex Kivell was interviewed about his collecting and he told the story of how it all started and the many adventures he had trying to collect during the Second World War. He bough the painting, 'The Death of Cook' at Christies during an air raid. "I was sorry for Lord Crawford who was selling it, but on the warning [air-raid] going the sale room emptied and the auctioneer asked those remaining if he would postpone the sale. I said NO and it was almost like bidding against myself to secure it. What a grand painting it is". He bought from the antiquarian booksellers, Francis Edwards, and Maggs Brothers in London and also travelled to Morocco, Italy, Turkey, France and Spain in search of material.
Ronald Vere Tooley's collection of Australian maps is well documented through his catalogue first issued in parts in the Map Collector's Circle series and later in a book, The Mapping of Australia (London: Holland Press, 1979). Unlike the other three collectors (Petherick, Ferguson and Nan Kivell), Tooley's interest was solely in maps and he dominated the antiquarian map trade for 50 years. Through his publications, including Maps and Mapmakers (still on sale today), and his consultancy work, first through Francis Edwards and later his own business, he encouraged and promoted the study and collecting of maps.
Tooley' Australian maps were acquired by the National Library of Australia via an English, and then a Dutch dealer in 1973. However, some items were removed by dealers and substituted so the collection is not as complete as the catalogue suggests. Nevertheless, it reflects the dedicated interest of one man to document the history of the cartography of Australia to the turn of the twentieth century.
Maura O'Connor, Map Curator
Last updated 13 February
1996.
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