Yetts Collection

Walter Percival Yetts (1878–1957) was born at Reading, England, and was educated at Bradfield College, London University and Lausanne University. He entered the Royal Navy Medical Service in 1903 and retired with the rank of staff surgeon in 1912. He was acting medical officer at the British legation in 1913 and served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War I. From 1920 to 1927 he was a medical officer in the Ministry of Health.

Wang Collection

Sing-wu Wang (1920–2004), also known as Sidney Wang, was born in Wenling, China, and was a graduate of the National Zhejiang University. In 1945 he joined the National Central Library as the head of cataloguing and helped to reopen and rebuild the library after years of war. In 1948–49 he was involved in moving rare books and artworks to Taiwan. He was librarian at the Yang-Min Shan Institute and in 1955 he was appointed director of the Taiwan Provincial Library in Taipei. In 1959–60 he went to the United States on study leave, where he was based at the Cleveland Public Library.

Vryonis Collection

Dr Speros Vryonis Jr (1928-2019), the son of Greek emigrants from the island of Cephalonia, was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He was educated at the Christian Brothers School and Southwestern College in Memphis, the American School of Archaeology in Athens, and Harvard University. He taught at Harvard and in 1960 joined the Department of History at the University of California at Los Angeles. He was Professor of History from 1966 to 1988 and for several years Director of the Gustave E. von Grunebaum Center for Near Eastern Studies.

Van der Sprenkel Collection

Otto Pierre Nicholas Berkelbach van der Sprenkel (1906–1978) was born in Bussum in the Netherlands. He grew up in England and was a graduate of the London School of Economics. In 1931 he was appointed a lecturer in political science at the University of Toronto. He returned to England in 1934 and lectured for the Workers Educational Association. In 1943 he began to study Chinese and in 1947 he went to China as a visiting professor at Nankai University in Tianjin (Tientsin).

Tilghman Collection

The Tilghman family have played a prominent part in American history. Richard Tilghman, a London surgeon, emigrated from England in 1660 and settled in Maryland. His grandson James Tilghman (1716–1793) was a lawyer and secretary of the land office of Pennsylvania. William Tilghman (1756–1827), the son of James Tilghman, was also a lawyer and was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania from 1806 to 1827.

Bronwyn Thomas Collection

Bronwyn Jean Dorothy Tricks (1923–2000) was born in Melbourne and educated at Firbank Church of England Girls Grammar School and Melbourne Technical College. She studied drawing at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School. She moved to Brisbane with her husband Fergus Yeates, studied painting with Jan Molvig, and taught drawing in the Department of Architecture at the University of Queensland. Her marriage ended in divorce and from 1959 onwards she travelled extensively in Europe and Asia.

Russian Socialist Collection

The Russian populist movement, inspired by the writings of Alexander Herzen, emerged in the years immediately following the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. The populists believed that the peasant commune was the germ of the future socialist society and that Russia should follow its own path, avoiding the evils of capitalism. In 1876 populists formed Russia’s first revolutionary party, Zemlia I Volia (Land and Liberty), which called for all land to the peasants, self-determination for all parts of the Russian empire, self-government for the communes, and the overthrow of the Tsar.

Oxford and Cambridge Club Pamphlet Collection

The Oxford and Cambridge Club was established in 1830, following a meeting at which Lord Palmerston presided. It originally occupied premises in St James’ Square and in 1837 moved into a building in Pall Mall, which had been designed by Sir Robert Smirke. It continues to occupy this building. For well over a century, membership was limited to men who were members and former members of the universities of Oxford or Cambridge. In 1971 it was decided that graduates of any university could be members and in 1996 women were finally admitted as full members.

Osborne Collection

William Alexander Osborne (1873–1967) was born at Holywood, County Down, Northern Ireland, and educated at the Upper Sullivan School, Queen’s College, Belfast, and the University of Tűbingen. In 1899 he was appointed lecturer at University College, London, and in 1903 he was appointed Professor of Physiology and Histology at the University of Melbourne. He held this post until his retirement in 1938. He was Dean of the Faculty of Medicine from 1929 to 1938. Although his interest in medical research declined, he was an inspiring lecturer and worked closely with his best students.

Okamura Collection

Acquisition

The Okamura Collection was purchased by the Library in 1949 through the Australian Mission in Tokyo. Nothing is known about Okamura except that he was a resident of Osaka who for 20 years had been collecting English-language publications about Japan. Apart from a collection of books left behind by the Japanese Mission in Canberra in 1941, the Okamura Collection was the first Japanese formed collection to be acquired by the Library.