State Library Victoria: open for 160 years
Cities & towns, Such was life:
On the Library’s 160th birthday we look at events which have shaped Victoria since 1856.
State Library celebrates 160 years of serving Victoria
News:
Today State Library Victoria celebrates 160 years since first opening to the public on 11 February 1856. It is Australia’s oldest free public library and the nation’s busiest with nearly 1.8 million visitors a year.
Melbourne to commemorate Ireland’s 1916 Easter Rising
News:
State Library Victoria and the University of Melbourne partner to commemorate the centenary of Ireland’s historic 1916 Easter Rising and its effect on Australia during a time of war.
Warhol & Weiwei, together at last
Rare Books & Arts, Visual arts:
Andy Warhol and Ai Weiwei, strange bedfellows? Maybe not……
Colour our collections
News:
This week, libraries, galleries and museums across the world will be sharing some of their favourite collections for you to get colourful with on Instagram.
Call for 2016 Fellowship applications
News:
Artists, performers, writers, historians, filmmakers, scholars and thinkers are encouraged to apply for a prestigious State Library Victoria Fellowship.
Melbourne’s Joan of Arc
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.
The trial and execution of a King
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.
Kids’ big book spectacular coming soon
News:
There are just two weeks to go until the inaugural Kids’ big book spectacular at the Library, a day of free family fun to celebrate the wonderful world of children’s literature and illustration.
Our women
Social life & customs, Such was life:
Our women was a magazine in the 1950s and ’60s which focused on the social issues, contributions and opinions of women in Australia.
Such was life
Online Collection Spotlight: Trench journals and unit magazines of the First World War.
This Online Collection Spotlight examines WWI trench journals created by units from several combatant nation between 1914 and 1919. Produced in camps and battle zones, these handmade publications reveal humour, creativity, and resilience through poems, sketches, notes and stories.
Arts
Ailsa O’Connor: highlights of a life of socialist activism, feminism and art
Ailsa O’Connor (1921-1980) was a political activist, painter, sculptor, author and teacher. Throughout her art career she was a member of the Communist Party and associated with the Socialist Realist Group.
