Bookings open for online family history course
Branching Out, Family matters:
Interested in researching your Victorian family history? Why not try our free online family history course Branching out.
Illustrated children’s books: Kay Nielsen (1886-1957)
Arts & literature, Our stories:
Kay Nielsen’s delicate illustrations combined the exquisite motifs of the Art Nouveau movement with oriental influences. The elaborate, decorative artworks bring brilliant colour tinged with a hint of eeriness to the pages of children’s fairy tales.
New Sights: Australian classics and much more
Film, Musicals, Performing Arts, Rare Books & Arts:
Some great new arrivals in Arts include classic Australian movies, timeless musical favourites, live rock concerts and opera hits on DVD and Blu-Ray. The Dish. (DVD) They’re a Weird Mob. (DVD)… Read More ›
Beauty spots: from facial flaws to fashion statements
Social life & customs, Such was life, Theatre:
Under the eye or the corner of the mouth? Does the position of your beauty spot mean you are a flirt, engaged or just cheeky? Stars, pigs and horses; from the eighteenth century onward, the beauty spot has an alluring past.
Why can’t I find my ancestor?
When searching for family history records it’s not unusual to encounter ‘brick walls’ or barriers. Learn strategies for dealing with some of the common obstacles you may face when researching Victorian records.
Are you being served?
Step back in time to the old-fashioned servo, where consumer choice was de rigueur, and service was king.
The breaking of the drought: silent movies and photography
Arts & literature, Such was life:
The Library has digitised some wonderful photographs taken during the filming of the 1920 Australian silent movie, ‘The breaking of the drought.’ Melodrama, song, dance, water ballet, seduction, ruin and redemption; this movie has it all. And a happy ending too.
Family History & Newspaper Room temporary closure
Find out which resources will be available while the Family History and Newspaper Reading Room is closed from Friday 24 August to Thursday 20 September.
Australia’s golden age of cycling
Exhibitions, Our stories, People & professions:
Cheering echoed throughout the streets of Sydney in November 1937 as some 60,000 people gathered along the last 80 kilometres of Hubert Opperman’s epic trans-continental ride. Once as famous as cricketer Don Bradman, endurance cyclist ‘Oppy’ is currently featured in the Changing face of Victoria exhibition. Discover objects from his career, loaned to us by Museums Victoria.
Empress Josephine and the last emu
In France, in 1822, the last surviving Australian dwarf emus died. The emus had made the unlikely journey from their their homes on Kangaroo and King Islands to the splendid gardens of Empress Josephine Bonaparte’s Malmaison.
Such was life
On the case: Detective Piggott and the development of forensics
The early 1900s was an exciting time to be a detective. Innovations in science and technology, combined with the popularity of detective stories shifted crime fighting away from the seedy world of informers, which had influenced the early years of policing, towards the detection of crime using scientific methods and forensic evidence. Find out about how one Victorian detective contributed to the development of police forensics.
Arts
Portraits of Melbourne artists in their studios
John Hinds, an artist, photographer and active ROAR member from 1986 to 1992 spent time capturing artists he personally knew and the spaces that they used to create their works. His photographs captured a unique and often unseen time and place, creating an invaluable insight into the art scene in Melbourne.
