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ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 48| December 2000
Manuscript acquisitions and the cultural gift program
Phillip Adamsbroadcaster and columnist.Pictorial Collection
In the last 20 years a significant proportion of manuscript acquisitions have come to the Library as donations under the Cultural Gifts Program. By making use of this scheme, the donors have been able to claim the value of their gifts as income tax deductions. The costs for the Library are relatively small, but the value of the gifts amount to several million dollars.
In the financial year 1999-2000 there were 19 gifts of personal papers with a total value of $233 150. The donors included philosophers, painters, writers, historians, architects and journalists. Some of the most recent gifts illustrate the variety of donations.
The broadcaster, columnist and public figure Phillip Adams has presented 82 cartons of papers extending from the late 1960s until 1998. There is a huge and lively correspondence, with letters from Prime Ministers, Premiers, film makers, playwrights and people who have been amused, stimulated or infuriated by Adams interviews and pronouncements. There are also files on the public bodies with which he has been associated, such as the Film and Television Board, the Australian Film Commission and the National Australia Day Council.
Another recent donor is an equally controversial figure, the philosopher Peter Singer, who taught at Monash University for many years. His papers cover a similar time span and include personal documents, correspondence, drafts of his books and articles, papers relating to the journal Bioethics, and project and subject files. In particular, there are papers relating to animal liberation, IVF, surrogacy and medical and nursing ethics.
John Calaby, who died in 1997, was on the staff of CSIRO for over 40 years, mainly in the Division of Wildlife Research. He was co-author of a major study of kangaroos, was involved in myxomatosis research, drew up the first management plan for Kakadu, and wrote a biography of the anthropologist Baldwin Spencer. Josephine Calaby has presented her husbands notebooks, research materials, manuscripts, correspondence and conference papers.
One of Australias most distinguished actors, Ruth Cracknell, also donated her papers to the Library. She began her career in radio drama in the 1940s and the earliest papers are contracts and scripts of that period. There are over 100 theatre programs dating from 1948 to 1998, many folders of reviews and other cuttings, photographs, scripts, and letters from such figures as Doris Fitton, Judith Anderson, Reg Livermore, Ray Lawler, Ron Haddrick, Richard Wherrett and Gillian Armstrong.
Finally, the Melbourne journalist and foreign correspondent John
Hamilton transferred an interesting group of files, notebooks, photographs
and cartoons. Of special importance are the papers on his visits to East
Timor in 1975 and Irian Jaya and East Timor in 1983. Other subjects are
varied: the nuclear bomb tests at Mururoa in 1965, the Hobart bushfires in
1967, American politics in 1973, the Ethiopian famine in 1984 and the fall
of President Suharto in 1998.
Graeme Powell
Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: dthomas@nla.gov.au