The backs of two people standing looking at 3 framed floral images on a wall.
National Library of Australia Treasures Gallery

Find treasure at the National Library this April! Highlights from our exhibitions and events program include a new selection of treasures going on display in the Treasures Gallery, the final days of our Viewfinder: Photography from the 1970s to Now exhibition, and an Australian Women’s Archive Program event.

Program

  • New Treasures on display
    From Thursday 6 April | 9am to 5pm daily (except Good Friday, Friday 7 April, when the whole Library building is closed)

    The Treasures Gallery highlights the extraordinary holdings of the National Library of Australia. From maps and rare books to manuscripts, photographs, oil paintings and watercolours, this is where you will find many of the Library’s most unexpected and unique items.

    From Thursday 6 April, visitors to the gallery will be able to see a new selection of treasures from our collection including:

    • Harold Cazneaux’ first camera (a Midg box quarter-plate), which he purchased in 1904. In 1909, Cazneaux became the first Australian photographer to exhibit his works in a solo show.
    • The Schevenhuysen Map, a cosmographical map dating from the end of the ‘Dutch Golden Age’ (c. 1700) and acquired by the Library in 2022. The map’s layout brings together different mapping and philosophical traditions of important past mapmakers.
    • Ellis Rowan’s Chrysanthemums, a more recent addition to the Library’s vast Rowan Collection, the bulk of which was acquired for the nation for £5,000 in 1923.
    • The journal that British naval captain James Cook kept during the voyage of HMB Endeavour to the South Pacific will also be returning to the gallery. This item was also purchased by the Australian government in 1923 for the cost of £5,000.
       
  • New Collection-In-Focus Display: Joyce Evans
    From Tuesday 4 April | 9am to 5pm daily (except Good Friday, Friday 7 April, when the whole Library building is closed)

    The career of Joyce Evans OAM (1929–2019) spans more than six decades of landscape, documentary, and portrait photography. Her work is preserved through the Library’s Joyce Evans Archive, one of its largest collections of images by a contemporary Australian photographer. Highlights from this archive will go on display in the Treasures Gallery from Tuesday 4 April.

    You can read more about Evans’ life in NLA Publishing title, Joyce Evans by Sasha Grishin.
     

  • 2024 Fellowship applications are open
    Researchers, folklorists and creatives are encouraged to apply for fellowships offered by the National Library of Australia. Applications for National Library of Australia Fellowships and Creative Arts Fellowships close Wednesday 26 April 2023. Applications for the National Folk Fellowship (offered jointly with the National Folk Festival) close Monday 19 June 2023.
     
  • School holiday activity: Board game workshop
    Wednesday 19 April | 10.00am to 12.00pm
    In this two-hour workshop, participants will have an opportunity to create, design and build their own board game that they can take home with them.
     
  • School holiday movie: Jumanji (1995, 104min, PG)
    Wednesday 19 April | 1.30pm to 3.30pm
    Come and watch a movie on the big screen these school holidays! Bring along the family and enjoy watching (or re-watching) this classic family-friendly film.
     
  • Fellowship presentation: Community singing in interwar Australia
    Wednesday 19 April | 5.30pm to 6.30pm
    Dr Georgia Pike-Rowney will be presenting a participatory musical lecture on her 2020 National Library Fellowship research about community singing in interwar Australia.
     
  • Women sharing stories: Australian Women’s Archive Program
    Sunday 30 April | 2.00pm to 4.00pm
    Learn more about the fascinating women whose lives and experiences are recorded in Canberra’s collecting institutions. A panel of archivists, librarians and curators will share their passion for this work, revealing some of the intriguing women whose stories can be found within the collections and giving a behind the scenes glimpse of what they do to safeguard these stories.
     
  • Viewfinder exhibition closing soon
    Closing Sunday 30 April | 9am to 5pm daily
    Come and see our Viewfinder: Photography from the 1970s to Now exhibition before it closes. Viewfinder takes a unique look at the journey of Australians and Australian documentary photography over the last five decades, from black and white images to the vibrant high-definition images of today.

See the full list of what’s currently on at the Library: https://www.nla.gov.au/whats-on

For more information about each event and to book, please visit the relevant event webpages.

To arrange an interview with a spokesperson about any exhibition or event, please contact 0401 226 697 or media@nla.gov.au

What's on at the Library

Contact 

Mirelle O’Mara, Media Liaison, National Library of Australia  

M: 0401 226 697

E: media@nla.gov.au