Our stories

Photos by Teagan Glenane

Cataloguing the Emmerson Collection

April 15, 2016

Our stories:

In April 2015, we received the most significant and valuable donation of rare books in our 160 year history: The Emmerson Collection. One year on, we look back over the extraordinary work being carried out by our rare book cataloguers Derrick Moors and Richard Overell.

Behind the lens of the Library’s studio photographer

Behind the lens of the Library’s studio photographer

March 7, 2016

Our stories:

The Library’s imaging studio is home to two full-time photographers and a studio supervisor. We handle the high end digitisation of a variety of collection items for public orders, digitising projects and other library requests. A day in the studio is never dull.

Celebrating Indigenous children’s books

Celebrating Indigenous children’s books

February 15, 2016

Our stories:

The Legends of Moonie Jarl (1964) was the first Indigenous children’s book published in Australia. Here, Juliet O’Conor explores this extraordinary book and the contemporary diversity of Indigenous children’s literature.

Joan of Arc / Jeanne d’Arc, Emmanuel Frémiet (1824-1910)

Melbourne’s Joan of Arc

February 1, 2016

Our stories:

Melbourne’s Maid of Orléans arrived at Port Melbourne from Marseilles on 28 January 1907. Here, Pictures Librarian Gerard Hayes traces Joan’s history from a Francophile rallying point to the mysterious case of a missing crown.

King Charles on the scaffold, bound in copy of King Charls his speech made upon the scaffold London, 1649

The trial and execution of a King

January 29, 2016

Our stories:

The Library holds some of the earliest printed accounts of the trial and execution King Charles I. The pamphlets are part of the Emmerson collection, one of the great private libraries of early English books in the world.

A little bit easier to carry.

The man who shrank the book

December 29, 2015

Our stories:

Do you like to take your books with you; to read on the train, a park, or in a plane? You have a man named Aldus Manutius to thank for that.… Read More ›

It can feel a little submarine like down here. Photograph: Teagan Glenane

Life behind the stacks

November 30, 2015

Our stories:

11 kilometres of books, papers and ephemera are hidden beneath the streets of Melbourne. Anyone can access them, but they’ll need a State Library card.

Aurora ‘secured’ to shore prior to being carried away by the ice

The other side of Shackleton’s Antarctic adventure

November 19, 2015

Our stories:

When Ernest Shackleton’s 1915 Antarctic expedition ran into trouble, the Ross Sea party that was laying out stores for his team continued unawares, facing harrowing challenges of their own.

A little history of the humble lamp post

A little history of the humble lamp post

November 2, 2015

Our stories:

The humble lamp posts on either side of Redmond Barry’s statue might tend to be overlooked, but at 124 years, they are hardy survivors. This week our Pictures team take a closer look at some of Melbourne’s oldest working street fixtures.

Two unidentified women kicking up their heels in carpark at racecourse © Rennie Ellis

The race that stops a nation

October 30, 2015

Our stories, Such was life:

Take a punt on Melbourne Cup Day and explore our wealth of Cup and horse racing resources online.