A trick of the light: a personal response to several paintings in the Cowen Gallery

A trick of the light: a personal response to several paintings in the Cowen Gallery

June 14, 2022

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

Sufficiently educated

June 11, 2022

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

The Damian Smith Archive

June 9, 2022

Rare Books & Arts:

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

Online Collection Spotlight: Archives Unbound

June 9, 2022

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 

Collection connections: romance & a rock poster 

June 7, 2022

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

From flappers to fast fashion: 100 years of style in Melbourne

June 4, 2022

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]

Mount Buffalo Chalet: the island in the sky

June 1, 2022

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

The Australian Joint Copying Project and family history research

May 30, 2022

Family matters, Research guides:

Explore these primary source documents for your family history research.

Gas lighting in (Ian Potter) Queens Hall. Charles Nettleton

Let there be light

May 29, 2022

Ask a librarian:

Within months of our Library opening in 1856 gas lighting was installed to allow the Library to stay open in the evenings. However, there were some unforeseen problems, and the gas lights were later replaced by electricity.

Setting the curriculum: the history of Victorian school readers

Setting the curriculum: the history of Victorian school readers

May 28, 2022

Ask a librarian, Collection spotlights, Victorian history:

To mark the 150th anniversary of public education in Victoria, we take a look at school papers and Victorian school readers. What insights can these texts offer into the social, political and cultural environments of their day?

Such was life

Digitised dogs

Digitised dogs

August 26, 2024 0 comments

Celebrating this much loved (and digitised) species on International Dog Day.

Arts

Portrait of Ken Pound for the Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants oral history project, 2010. Photo by Gwenda Davey. This work is in copyright. National Library of Australia; nla.obj-228944556

‘It really belongs to you people anyway…’: The story of Ken Pound

August 19, 2024 6 comments

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.