Madame de Staël was one of the most fascinating, intelligent and influential women of the French revolutionary and Napoleonic years. Brilliant, passionate and intense, she lived life through her passion for politics and love at the highest levels of society.
Collection Care, Conservation, Our stories, Preservation:
While the Western tradition of bookbinding is well represented in the State Library Victoria (SLV) collection, the Library also holds a small but fascinating assortment of manuscripts produced in the Islamic world. A clear understanding of the different materials and structures used in the production of Islamic manuscripts is essential for the Library’s Book Conservators to make informed decisions regarding appropriate methods for preservation, repair and display.
Randolph Caldecott (1846-1886) broke late 19th century conventions of children’s book illustration by interpreting stories rather than decorating them, peopling them with cheeky caricatures involved in chaotic escapades.
Walter Crane (1845-1915) is today best known for his ornately illustrated 19th century children’s books. He designed artwork for the British master printer Edmund Evans in a variety of capacities for ten years, before Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway joined him as Evans’ triumvirate of children’s Toy Book illustrators.
To celebrate World Tourism Day (27 September), we’re taking a trip around the globe with some amazing photographs, photo albums, diaries and posters from our collection. Enjoy!
Our stories, Performing Arts, Rare Books & Arts:
Magician William Ellsworth Robinson left behind his plain name and New York background and reinvented himself as the Chung Ling Soo, the Marvellous Chinese Conjurer, complete with an imaginative and fictitious life story, In the great days of vaudeville he achieved world fame and in 1909 embarked on a wildly successful tour of Australia and New Zealand. A decade later, still at the height of his career, Chung Ling Soo was mortally wounded on stage undertaking his sensational bullet catch trick.
![Mother Goose: or old nursery rhymes, illustrated by Kate Greenaway, engraved and printed by Edmund Evans, Frederick Warne and Co., London, [190?].](https://blogs.slv.vic.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Mother-Goose-title-page-1-120x120.jpg)
Kate Greenaway (1846–1901) was an English children’s book illustrator. She was a remarkable success during her lifetime, pleasing audiences with her form and originality.
Today, Indigenous Literacy Day, we celebrate Indigenous authored and illustrated children’s books on a range of topics.
From a first edition of Newton’s Principia Mathematica (1632) to the first Star Atlas ever produced (1729), the Library’s collection contains a number of early astronomical books.
Jane Austen transcends time. Her work critiques 18th century England but it remains compelling to contemporary readers. Her terrific characters, realism, and her sense of irony and humour have earned Austen critical acclaim and a wide audience, inspiring countless readers and writers. All that for a writer who spent her entire writing career anonymous.
