Blondin and his imitators
In the 1870s, a visiting French tightrope walker inspired others to try the same- often with disastrous results.
Our stories
Albert Ullin OAM (1930-2018)
In 1960 Albert Ullin founded the first children’s bookshop in Melbourne and named it the Little Bookroom. This tiny shop in the Metropole Arcade, followed by later expansions into other… Read More ›
A considered approach to the conservation of the McCrae family collection
Kathleen Rowbottom, Professional Placement, Conservation, Collections Care. The papers of the McCrae family collection are extensive and feature a range of different objects: from bound volumes such as scrapbooks, diaries… Read More ›
When NED rode into town
Changing libraries, Our stories:
Australian libraries join forces to build national digital collection By Kate Torney, Chair of National and State Libraries Australia (NSLA) and CEO, State Library Victoria This month something truly remarkable… Read More ›
The Johnny Crow stories
Arts & literature, Our stories:
In the early twentieth century, author Leslie Brooke developed new techniques that were to influence many in what became the Golden Age of Children’s books.
The chaos and order of Marion Page
Our stories, Social life & customs:
Follow the journey of a large, multi-format Manuscript collection belonging to the late Marion Page from a South Yarra storage room to our Preservation team.
Extract from ‘True portraiture: David Roberts’ The Holy Land and Francis Frith’s Photographic prints of Egyptian antiquities’
Our stories, Painting, Photography:
Europe went crazy for all things Egyptian in the early 19th century, which helps explain why the Library’s collection includes rare works by two famous Egyptologists: painter David Roberts and photographer Francis Frith.
The Chief Librarian and the soap thieves
Our stories, People & professions:
In 1887, someone was stealing the State Library soap- or was it ‘someones’?
From celebrity to the streets, the power of photojournalism
Our stories, People & professions:
Over the course of his 50-year career, news photographer Bruce Postle captured images of the rich, the famous and the powerful. But on many occasions, his work also involved the most humble and vulnerable people in the community.
‘Dear Walt’: Whitman in Victoria
Victorian school teacher Bernard O’Dowd entered a brief but remarkably intense and intimate correspondence with American poet and iconoclast Walt Whitman.
