The Smith Trams and Trains Collection
Buildings & streets, Photography, Such was life:
The Library has recently digitised hundreds of images of Victorian trams and trains captured by a visiting enthusiast in the 1960s.
Buildings & streets
The Crossley Building: past, present and future
Buildings & streets, People & professions, Such was life:
The Crossley Building on Bourke Street holds the history of one of Melbourne’s earliest, pre gold-rush retail and residential developments. For 60 years it was home to the iconic haberdashery business, Job Warehouse, which closed in 2012. Untenanted ever since and significantly run-down, where to next for this important piece of Melbourne’s built heritage?
Discovering Diener’s Ice Works: part two
Buildings & streets, People & professions, Research guides, Research tips & tricks, Social life & customs, Such was life, War:
The second and final part of a blog about flâneurs and research in the time of covid-19 As you can read in part one, this blog was inspired by daily… Read More ›
Time travelling with Sands & McDougall
Buildings & streets, People & professions, Such was life:
Bell hangers and nightmen, leech merchants and lightermen; these are just some of the nineteenth century characters you may find lurking within the pages of a Sands & McDougall directory.
Discovering Diener’s Ice Works: part one
Buildings & streets, People & professions, Research guides, Research tips & tricks, Social life & customs, Such was life, War:
This is the first of a two-part blog about flâneurs and research in the time of covid-19 A daily walk has become an essential part of many people’s routines in… Read More ›
On the ‘shick’ in Little Lon
Buildings & streets, Social life & customs, Such was life:
Of all the slums in inner Melbourne, ‘Little Lon’, was the most notorious. But there was more to the precinct than met the eye…
Walking the blue lake
Buildings & streets, Cities & towns, Our stories:
Dr David Sornig ponders the history of West Melbourne’s lost wetlands, and takes us on a collective journey around the area.
Melbourne’s lost department stores
Buildings & streets, Our stories, Social life & customs:
Melbourne and shopping have been hand in glove since the 1880s, and at its peak the city flaunted more than a dozen department stores.
The old tin shed
Buildings & streets, Such was life:
‘The Elizabeth Street blot’, ‘unsightly’, ‘deplorable’, ‘an ancient eyesore’. Few buildings in our city’s history excited as much controversy as ‘the old tin shed’.
The erasure of Melbourne’s wetlands
Buildings & streets, Cities & towns, Such was life:
Creative fellow and author, Dr David Sornig, shows us how the library’s maps and manuscripts chart the demise of West Melbourne’s wetlands in his special guest blog this week. Welcome David.
