Vale Frank Moorhouse
State Library Victoria was saddened to learn this week of the death of prominent Australian writer Frank Moorhouse. Des Cowley and Maxine McKew reflect on his life and works.
Magic in the night sky
Ask a librarian, Victorian history:
Moomba, the Royal Melbourne Show, New Years Eve…Victorians love to celebrate major events with fireworks. While we might have an idea of what a typical firework display looks like (such as the regular ones held each New Years Eve), the displays of the nineteenth century were completely unlike like what we see today.
A trick of the light: a personal response to several paintings in the Cowen Gallery
Ask a librarian, Collection spotlights, Our stories, Victorian history:
The Library’s Cowen Gallery features some magnificent paintings by Australian artists, whose work sheds light on how the Australian Impressionist movement inspired Australian painters around the turn of the century.
Sufficiently educated
Social life & customs, Such was life:
Maybe you received a Victorian Certificate of Education? Or a Higher School Certificate? A School Tertiary Certificate? Leaving? School graduation requirements have come a long way from having to be ‘sufficiently educated’, as was the case in the 1870s.
The Damian Smith Archive
A healthy art community relies on figures that move quickly between commissions, code-switch through high and colloquial cultures, and translate between foreign lands. The record of Damian Smith’s career is the archive of one such figure.
Online Collection Spotlight: Archives Unbound
Ask a librarian, Collection spotlights:
It’s International Archives Day and what better way to celebrate than to check out our database Archives Unbound! Explore women’s history, LGBTIQ+ activism and even Shakespeare’s plays. You’ll discover a renewed appreciation for archives and their role in history.
Collection connections: romance & a rock poster
Ask a librarian, Collection spotlights, Reference desk:
We take a look at a concert poster from our collection and explore the meaning it holds for one of our Library members
From flappers to fast fashion: 100 years of style in Melbourne
Ask a librarian, Victorian history:
Join us on a journey from the 1920s to now. See what women were wearing across the decades and which trends mark each changing era.
![The Chalet, winter, Mt. Buffalo 9Vic.) [1910]](https://blogs.slv.vic.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Chalet-Winter-MtBuffalo-ca-1908-1910-or-later-120x120.jpg)
Mount Buffalo Chalet: the island in the sky
Ask a librarian, Victorian history:
Over 110 years old, picturesque Mount Buffalo Chalet sits atop a plateau in the Mount Buffalo National Park. This grand old lady has provided a leisurely holiday escape for almost one hundred years. Little wonder that for decades, Victorians made the chalet their favourite winter and summer retreat.
The Australian Joint Copying Project and family history research
Family matters, Research guides:
Explore these primary source documents for your family history research.
Such was life
Mary Fortune: pioneer of Australian detective stories
Mary Fortune was the author of the longest running 19th-century crime fiction series published in a periodical and one of the earliest female crime writers in the world.
Arts
‘It really belongs to you people anyway…’: The story of Ken Pound
To celebrate the Children’s Book Council of Australia Week, we pay tribute to the life of children’s literature collector, Ken Pound, and the collection he has left for us all.
