National Library of Australia  - Gateways

ISSN 1443-0568 | no. 73 | February 2005


Some Cultural Gifts Program Donations during 2004

Under the Federal Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, donations of collection material to cultural institutions can entitle the donors to tax deductions for the market value of the material. This benefit can be spread over five income years and donations are exempt from capital gains tax. Gifts totalling $270 million have been added to the nation’s public collections since the program began in 1978.

The National Library of Australia continued to benefit from the program during 2004. One of its largest acquisitions was the library of books and papers assembled by John Cooper (1930–1998). By occupation an arts administrator, Cooper’s lifelong interest in theosophy led him to collect widely on this topic from Australian and overseas sources. The resulting accumulation of over 4000 publications and 30 cartons of papers was donated by his widow, Shirley.

Dr Charles Duguid (1884–1986) was a significant figure in the history of relations between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians, especially through his work in establishing the Ernabella Mission. His personal papers, already popular with researchers, were supplemented with a donation by his son, Andrew, of a variety of letters, diaries, photographs, press cuttings and other memorabilia covering all facets of his life.

Elena Kats-Chernin at the piano with Meryl Tankard and dancers of The Australian Ballet discussing the music for Wild Swans 2003

Regis Lansac (b. 1947)
Elena Kats-Chernin at the piano with Meryl Tankard and dancers of The Australian Ballet discussing the music for Wild Swans 2003
col. digital photograph
Pictures Collection, nla.pic-vn3279356

[CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE]

 

In the field of the performing arts, the prominent dance director, Meryl Tankard, donated a large quantity of written, pictorial and audio-visual records covering her career and dance company. Elena Kats-Chernin, the Sydney composer who created the music for the 2000 Olympics opening ceremony, continues to write prolifically and has added to her collection of papers and scores.

Additions have also been made to the papers of writers, including the novelist Murray Bail, playwright Jack Hibberd, poets Rosemary Dobson, Andrew Taylor, R.F. Brissenden, and the children’s author Joan Phipson.

Academics John Ritchie and Peter Karmel made substantial donations of papers reflecting their achievements in the fields of history, tertiary education and economics.

Sometimes papers make their way to the Library through the garnering activities of biographers, who keenly appreciate archives and the need to preserve such things for future generations. Michael Bird, on completion of his book on Charles Thomas Johnson (Bill) Adamson (1901–1978), transferred Adamson’s diaries, survey notebooks, reports, photographs and other documents to the Library. The creator of the documents, unlike many of the Papua New Guinea administrators and patrol officers represented in the Manuscript Collection, was an ‘ordinary bloke’. As a prospector, explorer and patrol officer, Adamson had a different perspective on government officials, missionaries, military personnel and indigenous people during the important pre-war and wartime period of the country’s development.

Political and social cartoons have proved to be a fast-growing aspect of the collecting program of the Pictures Collection. Politicians, economic issues, national and local events, international relations and public opinion are portrayed with provocative, succinct and topical images. The large donations of original drawings by cartoonists such as Geoff Pryor, Alan Moir, Arthur Horner and John Spooner complement written documentary sources. Future researchers and exhibition curators will thus have a range of material at their disposal to help them present their interpretation of historical events and Australian society.
—Valerie Helson , Manuscript Branch

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