Top blogs of 2023
News, Our stories, Tips and tricks:
Our incredible Librarians have added more than 50 new posts to the State Library Victoria blog this year. But what posts were most beloved by our audience?
Our stories
The unsolved mystery of the ‘Pride of Australia’
Ask a librarian, Victorian history:
In 1991, a seven-kilogram gold nugget was stolen from its display case in a daring raid on the Museum of Victoria. Speculation was rife that it was an inside job, but neither the thieves, nor the gold, were ever found.
Careful work for Howard Arkley’s ‘Casual Works’
Collection Care, Conservation:
State Library Victoria recently acquired 27 works on paper from Howard Arkley’s 1988 exhibition, Casual Works: Working Drawings, Source Material, Doodles, 1974-1987. This material forms part of a larger collection… Read More ›
‘Believe me to be your fellow laborer and friend’: The friendship between Redmond Barry and Augustus Tulk
Ask a librarian, Victorian history:
Sir Redmond Barry and Augustus Tulk are significant figures in the story of our State Library, as the first President and Chief Librarian. But what was their relationship like? Their personal correspondence provides an insight.
National Bird Week: Some of our birds
On the eve of the Aussie Bird Count, explore some of the birds in our collections.
Knitting, coding, and the stars: caring for a time-based media artwork in a library collection – Part 2
Collection Care, Conservation, Preventive conservation:
Through a two-part blog, gain a behind-the-scenes insight into ‘Stargazing’, a contemporary multimedia artwork that was the centrepiece of the Library’s Handmade Universe exhibition. Learn about the process of preparing it for display, a preventive conservation treatment undertaken once the artwork was deinstalled, and considerations for its care and future access.
3D modelling for ‘Beyond the Book’, bringing rare books to life by photogrammetry technique
Digitisation, Rare Books & Arts:
Learn more about the meticulous and extensive photogrammetry work undertaken by the Library’s Digital Production team in preparation for the digital exhibition, Beyond the Book: A digital journey through the treasures of the Emmerson Collection.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow: ‘a lost masterpiece’
Ask a librarian, Victorian history:
Last year marked the 75th anniversary of the publication in Melbourne of a novel compared by some to Leo Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’, and described as ‘a lost masterpiece’. The novel in question, ‘Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow’, was by M. Barnard Eldershaw, the pseudonym adopted by Marjorie Barnard (1897-1987) and Flora Eldershaw (1897-1956) in a remarkable literary partnership that produced novels, short stories, literary criticism, essays and lectures.
Marcus Clarke: Literary Librarian
Ask a librarian, Victorian history:
Marcus Clarke, author of the great convict novel, ‘For the Term of His Natural Life’, witty and provocative journalist, bohemian, and Librarian at our Library fitted much into his eventful but short life.
Victoria’s Intercolonial exhibition, 1866
Social life & customs, Such was life, Victorian history:
The nineteenth century was the great age of exhibitions as industrialisation, colonialism and nationhood led to national and international display and celebration. In 1866 the Great Exhibition Hall was built behind Ian Potter Queen’s Hall to host the Intercolonial Exhibition.
