#mitchell library

[arthistoryanimalia]

#WatercolorWednesday:

Frontispiece [Peaceable Kingdom - landscape with birds and animals] of The Naturalists Companion... by Kenelm Henry Digby (Irish, 1800-1880), c.1812-6.

This intriguing 544-page manuscript, including 440 watercolors (!), was recently digitized by Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales: https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/nM7lWAVY

Full title: The Naturalists Companion containing drawings with suitable descriptions of a vast variety of Quadrupeds, Birds, Fishes, Serpent and Insects; & accurately copied either from Living Animals or from the stuffed Specimens in the Museums of the College and Dublin Society, to which is added drawings of several antiquities, natural productions &c containd in those Museums -- illustrated manuscript by Kenelm Henry Digby

[petsincollections]

Photographs taken at the Zoological Gardens, Sydney, and in the Northern Territory, from Exhibition of unique photographic pictures taken during the Australasian Antarctic Expedition and other photographic studies by Frank Hurley

[PXD 162/120-129/nmQaORon]

Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

[weeglasasian]

People often pay more attention to the front elevation of the Mitchell Library (yes it's gorgeous!) and tend to forget the majestic rear elevation. Today it's shine bright like a gold thanks to the evening sun ☀️☀️

[amfiedler]

[statelibrarynsw]

The Great Strike of 1917

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the Great Strike, which began 2nd August 1917 in Australia.

 As the Great War continued into 1917, work in essential industries at home, such as the railways, increased due to the demands of goods to support the war. This reached breaking point for the workers when the NSW government attempted to introduce a card system from the USA that closely monitored each worker’s daily performance. On top of this, it was becoming increasingly harder to support families with wages falling and the stresses of dealing with the human cost of the war. Railway workers at the Eveleigh rail yards downed tools on August 2nd, 1917 to protest these changes, beginning one of the longest and largest strikes in Australia’s history. Soon, other unions joined the strike and at its peak over 97,000 workers across many trades were involved. Unions raised funds to help the strikers and marches were held throughout Australia; a group of women even tried to storm NSW parliament to speak to the Premier. The strike became known as the Great or Big Strike and entered Australian industrial history.

The Holman government fought back hard, stripping workers of their jobs and entitlements and deregistering unions. Free labourers were recruited, many from rural areas, and even private school boys were enlisted to try and keep industry running. One worker was even shot outside Camperdown Hospital. Eventually these harsh measures took their toll and the strike was called off after 82 days on September 8th, leaving many workers unemployed and even blacklisted, and many families in dire need. Many workers did not get their railway jobs back until the Lang government was elected in 1925. 

Two sacked workers went on to greatness: Ben Chifley was sacked from the railways and later became Australia’s prime minister, and J J Cahill, another sacked worker later became a popular NSW premier.

The State Library of New South Wales holds a variety of materials relating to the Great Strike and its aftermath. Journalist Voltaire Molesworth kept a scrapbook of the strike.  The library also holds many photographs of both the workers and the volunteers that worked during the strike. Printed items include essays by Socialists (What means this strike? by Daniel De Leon and an Annual Report published by the Labour Council that lists donations to the Relief Fund.

Photographs: 

Voltaire Molesworth - papers, 1901-1931  scrapbook

Sitting in the funnel – a rare bit of strike humour

Railway strike, 1917 : report and balance sheet together with statement of receipts and disbursements of the Defence and Relief Fund to December 31st, 1917.

[1staif]

Preparing for the push, enemy aircraft, railway line

Private Diary and Journal of a Light Horseman Sgt William Peterson
 2nd Australian Light Horse Regiment
 EL-ARISH, SINAI PENINSULAR 6th JANUARY 1917 Mounted troops about one Brigade have just arrived from somewhere. They are making down to the South probably going to make their camp there ready for the "Push". I felt very feverish last night and my temperature was over 100 ° Feel a little better this morning. Fresh meat for breakfast welcome change. Part of the line washed away during recent rains and a supply train fell off the line the other day. 2.30 pm – Just had a Taube scare. A Taube flying at about 10,000 feet passed over here and was making for some of the places back along the line. He always has a great "set" on railhead, he can see the line plainly and he knows that at the end of the line there must necessarily be a construction gang at work, so whenever possible he bombs that place. Two of our planes were well after him and they disappeared at a high rate of speed through the clouds. 6 Signallers for outpost duty tonight Lovely and warm all day. Sgt Parker has charge of the culinary arrangements for Signallers.

[statelibrarynsw]

The State Library of New South Wales holds Australia’s only copy of Earth Platinum -  the world’s largest atlas.

This mammoth book standing at almost two metres tall will be on public display in the Mitchell Library Reading Room from Friday 7 April until 1 May 2017.

Come and visit the Mitchell Library and have your picture taken with this Guinness World Record holder.

Only 31 copies of the 150 kilo, limited edition atlas were released by publisher Millennium House (Sydney) in 2012.

More than 100 international cartographers, geographers and photographers from across the globe were involved in the production.

The atlas’s 128 pages contain 61 pages of maps, 27 images of famous locations (including St.Peter’s Basilica, the Antarctic and Machu Picchu) and a double-page spread of the world’s national flags. Many of the images were made from stitching together 1,000 individual photos, and the largest image has 12,000 photos joined together. It was printed in Italy and bound in Hong Kong.

The atlas is on public display again now, during the Easter school holidays.

[statelibrarynsw]

The Mitchell Library Reading Room turns 75 today.

On this day 22nd June, 1942   the Mitchell Library Reading Room was opened but the official opening ceremony was postponed until November 1943 due to wartime restrictions on large public gatherings.                                                   

It opened as the main reading room for the Public Library of New South Wales which had relocated from the old Bent Street Building across the road.  The Reading Room was part of a major extension to the original 1910 Mitchell Library building . The official opening ceremony was postponed until November 1943 due to wartime restrictions on large public gatherings. It was also too difficult to blackout the large roof skylight for an evening event.

The Reading Room floor space covers 25 x 50 metres and is surrounded by three tiers of Tasmanian blackwood bookshelves, with the upper levels accessed by balconies of brass and timber. There are 1700 metres of shelving which can hold 50,000 books. The panelling, door and window frames, and facings of the book galleries are made of cream Travertine (limestone). 

The Bentwood chairs remain from the original 1942 fit-out and many of the teak tables date back to the very first Mitchell Library Reading Room, dating from 1910. 

The glass ceiling provides the chief source of light and is made of shatter-proof glass with an outer roof of heat-resistant glass. The natural light diffused through the glass ceiling is supplemented on cloudy days by lights between the outer and inner panelling. The lights are turned on when a sensor is activated.

The Southern wall of the Reading Room features two griffins above the central clock with a Greek inscription which reads  'In books flows the fountain of wisdom'.  

Photographs taken in 1943. - From Blog - written by Maggie Patton, Research and Discovery.