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An Accommodating Friendship

>The Australian  Academy of the Humanities Royal CharterThe Australian Academy of the Humanities Royal Charter
Manuscript Collection, MS10062

>Portrait of Harold WhitePortrait of Harold White, 1905 - 1992
Pictorial Collection

>The AAH Secretariat's new home at 3 Liversidge Street, ActonThe AAH Secretariat's new home at 3 Liversidge Street, Acton
Photo:Jesse Boyd

The Australian Academy of the Humanities has recently entrusted its Royal Charter to the National Library of Australia on permanent loan. In a poetic twist, the Charter is returning home as the National Library building on the foreshore of Lake Burley Griffin, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2008, was the home of the former Australian Humanities Research Council (AHRC) when it was incorporated by Royal Charter as the Australian Academy of the Humanities (AAH) in 1969.

The AHRC, incorporated in 1957, began its life in Adelaide before moving to offices in the Academy of Science building, Gordon Street, Acton, when it opened in 1959 and remained there until the Academy of Science expanded so far as to require the space. The Council then moved up the hill to the Australian National University campus in Acton for the first time, taking rooms in the Old Hospital Building, until parts of that building were demolished in 1968. Along with the Social Science Research Council, the Humanities Research Council found hospitable arrangements in the new National Library building, Parkes, and there began a long friendship with the National Library of Australia. Harold White, the Library’s first National Librarian was an Honorary Foundation Fellow of the Academy.

In 1968 the Council petitioned the Queen to be granted a Royal Charter, and accordingly the Australian Academy of the Humanities for the Advancement of Scholarship in Language, Literature, History, Philosophy and the Fine Arts was constituted by Letters Patent in June, 1969. The rather unwieldy title was almost immediately abbreviated, and the inaugural meeting of the Academy was held in September in the National Library, with Sir Keith Hancock as the inaugural President of the Academy. The Royal Charter arrived in the same year and the Academy was granted a Coat of Arms by the College of Arms in 1973.

The Secretariat of the newly-incorporated Academy shared the National Library with the Social Science Research Council (now the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia) until 1982, when the expanding National Library required the space. After much discussion of building a joint Academy building with ASSA, both Academies flew the nest, relocating to the Garden Wing of University House on the Australian National University Campus.
 
After three decades of sharing quarters with ASSA, in 2001 the AAH Secretariat moved just up the road from University House to 3 Liversidge Street, Acton, where it remains in 2009. It is still only around the corner from ASSA, in Balmain Crescent, and enjoys a picturesque view of its former home, the National Library of Australia, from across Lake Burley Griffin.

Even across the lake, the Academies have maintained cordial relationships with the National Library, where Academy events such as the National Scholarly Communications Forum (NSCF) and National Academies Forum (NAF) meetings are held. The National Library will host the Academy’s 40th annual Symposium in November, 2009.

 

Phoebe Garrett, Project Officer & Janet Hadley Williams, Library and Archives Officer
The Australian Academy of the Humanities