National Library of Australia - Gateways

ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 56 | April 2002


Guide to the Manning Clark Papers

[Detail] Manning Clark with bust of himself, sculpted by Ninon Geier, Canberra, c.1985
[Detail] Manning Clark with bust of himself, sculpted by Ninon Geier, Canberra, c.1985
Reproduced from the album Manning and Dymphna Clark and Family, c.1900–1990
photograph courtesy Dymphna Clark. Pictorial Collection P1088/8

The historian Manning Clark had a very long association with the National Library. Following his move from Melbourne to Canberra in 1949, he began to delve into the Library’s collections for material for his publication Select Documents on Australian History, which was published in two volumes in 1950 and 1955. Shortly afterwards, he decided to embark on a general history of Australia, one of the most ambitious scholarly projects to be undertaken by a single individual. For 30 years he was a familiar figure in the reading rooms of the Library, poring over books, journals, newspapers, microfilms, maps and manuscripts.

The sixth and final volume of A History of Australia was published in 1987 and in the following year Clark began to transfer his papers to the Library. Library staff made numerous trips to his home in Forrest and brought back over 100 boxes of drafts of all his books, articles, lectures and speeches, the research notes for the History, and files of correspondence. Clark died in 1991 and he bequeathed his remaining papers to the Library. In due course, his wife Dymphna delivered long series of notebooks and diaries extending back to his days at Oxford University, as well as further correspondence, subject files and photographs. The will directed that the papers were to be closed until 2001.

In 2000, Graeme Powell, the Manuscript Librarian, began the task of sorting and listing the papers. While most of the papers were in titled files, Clark’s filing methods were idiosyncratic and changed considerably over time. The challenge was therefore to preserve the essentials of his filing system, as evidence of his thinking, and at the same time provide enough information to prevent researchers losing their way in nearly 200 boxes of loose papers. The correspondence was a particular difficulty; Clark’s own handwriting is hard to decipher and many of his friends concealed their identity through the use of first names and nicknames. It is an extraordinary correspondence, ranging from colleagues such as Keith Hancock, Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Max Crawford and Geoffrey Fairbairn to writers like Judith Wright, David Campbell, Geoffrey Dutton, Patrick White, Helen Garner, David Malouf and Iris Murdoch.

Powell organised the papers into 31 series, some based on the types of papers (e.g. general correspondence, diaries), some on Clark’s academic posts (e.g. Harvard University) and the remainder on the titles of his books. Within the guide to the Clark Papers, the lists of each series generally bring the reader down to the level of the folder and are preceded by some historical or contextual information. At the end of the guide is a lengthy list of the principal correspondents.

For some years all the finding-aids describing manuscript collections have been made available and searchable on the Library’s server, as well as in binders in the Manuscript Reading Room. A small number have been published, such as the guides to the papers of Alfred Deakin and Eddie Mabo, and it was decided to add the guide to the Clark Papers to this select group. The 56-page guide was launched at Manning Clark House on 1 March, at a function attended by a number of Clark’s old colleagues and friends.

Copies of the guide can be obtained gratis from the Manuscript Section. The text can also be found on the Library’s web site at www.nla.gov.au/ms/findaids/7550.html
—Graeme Powell

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