People & professions, Such was life:
Melbourne in the 1850s had a small but ambitious scientific community. One particularly idiosyncratic member of that community was William Blandowski, a man often at odds with the scientific establishment. He found himself embroiled in controversy with his choice of names for newly described Murray River fish.
On 27 May 1967, Australians voted in record numbers to alter two sections of the Constitution so it no longer discriminated against Aboriginal people. The landslide ‘yes’ vote was seen as a watershed moment in Australian political history.
Herbert Swire was 22 years old when he joined a scientific voyage to Antarctica on board the ship, HMS Challenger. He captured what he saw in two delicate watercolours that have recently been donated to the library.
People & professions, Such was life:
In 1903 the Australian ornithologist Robert Hall (1867-1949) embarked on his major expedition to Siberia (via Japan and Korea), to collect specimens and eggs of Siberian birds known to migrate… Read More ›
People & professions, Such was life:
The Fred Boyle Photographic Collection portrays Echuca in the 1950s and ’60s as a town driven by community spirit.
Arts & literature, Our stories:
What do Athena’s little owl, an unashamedly unmarried Chicago heiress, and the Heide School of modernist Australian artists have in common? A book in our collection, as it turns out… Recently I… Read More ›
Arts & literature, Such was life:
Melbourne’s Princess Theatre has been host to many fine performers over the years, but the most famous performance of all belongs to its ghost, Federici.
People & professions, Such was life:
David Wilkinson joined Victoria’s first whaling expedition, aboard the ship Japan under the command of Frederick Barker. On 5 March 1869 Japan weighed anchor in Hobson’s Bay and commenced a voyage from which she would never return.
On Wednesday 23 March, 1895 a large crowd gathered at the East Melbourne cricket ground for an unusual event – a ladies’ cricket match. The ladies had been practising in secret and speculation was rife over what they would wear…
People & professions, Such was life:
Children in detention. Stopping the boats. You’d be forgiven for thinking it was recent times but in fact, it was the 19th century.
