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ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 53| October 2001


Treasures—A Celebration of Libraries and Human Endeavour

J.R.R. Tolkien’s original watercolour illustration
One of the many treasures in the exhibition is J.R.R. Tolkien’s
original watercolour illustration for the cover of The Hobbit

Margaret Dent says she has the best job in the Library. She’s the curator of Treasures from the World’s Great Libraries, and she and a small team of Exhibitions staff are responsible for the landmark international exhibition at the National Library from 7 December 2001 until 24 February 2002.

Treasures, as it is affectionately known around the Library, is the brainchild of Nat Williams, Director of the Exhibitions Branch. Having worked in art galleries who are used to sharing their treasures for exhibition internationally, Nat wasn’t aware of how unusual this is for libraries.

Nat says, ‘the response from libraries around the world has been overwhelmingly positive and generous. We are delighted to present this exhibition in Canberra over the summer holiday period.’

The Curator of the exhibition, Margaret Dent, has a long history with the Library, having worked in the rare books area since 1975. She says ‘this was a mountainous learning curve, there are not a lot of books around on how to curate exhibitions’. However she had some invaluable advice from Michelle Hetherington, curator of the award-winning exhibition, The World Upside Down: Australia 1788–1830, and was also able to sit in on the Curatorship subject of the degree in Art History at the Australian National University.

Approximately 140 treasures from libraries around the globe will feature in this exhibition. The preparation required lots of research across most major countries. Margaret found Gabriel, the information service for the National Libraries of Europe, an incredibly useful web site for a starting point. She also researched the Library’s Collection looking for books on the treasures of other libraries. She concentrated on National Libraries to begin with but in many cases found that other libraries held a nation’s treasures. Margaret says, ‘One brilliant book, Great Libraries by Anthony Hobson, has been a tremendous help.’

‘The next thing to do was to draft a letter telling potential lenders about the exhibition and outlining the loans we hoped for. We aimed high and only one place didn’t reply.’ One drawback was that most libraries took longer than the planned three months to respond. However when they did reply there was, ‘a unanimous response of what a great concept, congratulations. And on the whole they said they could lend what we asked for. None refused, some had better ideas, and some added treasures to our request’.

Margaret says ‘there are so many different reasons for something being a treasure. Some of the things are so amazing that an exhibition could be built around each one of them.

Items featured in the exhibition include:

  • A Gutenberg Bible c.1455the first book ever printed in the Western world using movable type
  • Alexander Graham Bells early drawings produced for the first telephone
  • Pages from Charles Darwins manuscript for On the Origin of Speciesthe theory of evolution
  • The failed Olive Branch petition to King George III, signed by Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, which sought to avoid the War of Independence
  • The conclusion to Martin Luther Kings I have a Dream speech
  • The famous E=mc2 manuscript (special theory of relativity) handwritten by Albert Einstein
  • A highly significant Dead Sea Scroll containing the Deuteronomy text of the Ten Commandments (touring for the first time)
  • J.R.R. Tolkiens original watercolour illustration for the cover of the The Hobbit
  • Extremely rare and treasured 3000-year-old oracle bone from China
  • Charlotte Bronte’s travelling desk and manuscript of Villette

The treasures Margaret most wants to see include the Books of Hours, a Beethoven manuscript, a Rembrandt sketch in an autograph album and 4000-year-old clay tablets. There’s a great story about how the Stockholm-Kassel Book of Hours, coming from the Royal Library in Stockholm, used to have full-page miniatures in it. By the sixteenth century, these had been removed and some were bound in a prayer book. The Kassel Landesbibliothek in Germany is lending this book, bringing the Book of Hours and its miniatures together again.

Margaret says ‘this exhibition is our gift to the nation. It is wonderful to be able to allow people to see all these priceless objects. An audio tour and catalogue will be available. The variety is amazing: this is not just books and magazines.

Margaret says, ‘working on Treasures has been the most marvellous experience, astonishingly different and a joy and privilege to work on.’ Best job in the Library? I think so.
—Della Thomas

Exhibition dates: 7 December 2001–24 February 2002

Treasures from the World’s Great Libraries is proudly supported by Singapore Airlines, Commonwealth Bank, SBS, The Australian, Art Indemnity Australia and Novotel Hotel, Canberra.

The Exhibition is organised and managed by the National Library of Australia in association with Art Exhibitions Australia.

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Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: dthomas@nla.gov.au

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