Articles by: Sarah Matthews
People & professions, Such was life:
Nature photographer Ern Mainka had a gift for capturing the divine. Pictures manager Madeleine Say tells us more about Mainka’s extraordinary photographs in her guest blog this week.
Buildings & streets, Cities & towns, Such was life:
Creative fellow and author, Dr David Sornig, shows us how the library’s maps and manuscripts chart the demise of West Melbourne’s wetlands in his special guest blog this week. Welcome David.
‘Pongo’ was a term used by Australian troops in World War One to refer to the common foot soldier of the infantry battalions. The songs, stories, art and verses of the pongos tells us much about the Australian soldiers who fought in the Great War.
People & professions, Such was life:
From 1948 up until 1969, the Melbourne Public Library’s training school educated nearly 300 aspiring librarians. Many things have changed since then, but some things still remain the same…
People & professions, Such was life:
Alice Manfield, or ‘Guide Alice’ as she came to be known, had a strange, romantic childhood on Mount Buffalo. She grew up to become a talented naturalist, photographer and writer, as well as an unlikely feminist figure.
Buildings & streets, Such was life:
There’s a little blue building outside Flinders Street Station. ‘When was it built?’, a curious library patron asked. The question led me to some interesting research involving milk cans, viaduct vaults and bananas.
In the 1970s and 80s, the Carlton Bluebirds added a touch of glamour and excitement to Carlton home games with their high leg kicks, cheeky dance routines, and dedicated pom pom waving.
Social life & customs, Such was life:
As far back as the 1850s, slums existed in inner city Melbourne. In the 1930s, Frederick Barnett began taking photos of the slums, using them in a push for social reform.
Social life & customs, Such was life:
Melbourne’s love affair with coffee has been long-term, passionate, and sometimes controversial.
People & professions, Such was life:
One of my favourite books in our children’s collection is a story written by explorer Matthew Flinders about his cat, Trim. This story languished for many years in the archives of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, until it was discovered and published in the literary magazine Overland in 1973.
