Focus on...
Aspects of the Library, our collections and staff are featured in these articles reproduced from State Library of Victoria News. Revealing the stories behind the collections and the inner workings of the Library, these articles offer new perspectives and new information.
The National Gallery of Australia has added to the Library's collection of the work of portrait photographer Ruth Hollick.
A new exhibition provides a window into the Library's extraordinary breadth of material, with an ever-changing display of pictures, manuscripts, maps and objects ranging from key historical artefacts.
Gardenesque: A celebration of Australian gardening presents a lively, entertaining and occasionally whimsical look at gardening in Australia.
State Library’s Creative Fellow Robyn Annear has been researching a book on the wreckers’ history.
For Redmond Barry, the Melbourne Public Library (later the State Library of Victoria) was a great civilising institution - one that could embrace art and museum collections as well as more and more books.
Many of the hundreds of Stephenson & Turner buildings which still stand today are very much part of the everyday lives of Victorians.
Charles Joseph La Trobe, the visionary administrator of Victoria from 1839 to 1854, had much to do with the establishment of so many of the cultural institutions we take for granted today.
A unique collection of historical Victorian works of art - many before never exhibited - are on permanent display in a new gallery. The paintings and portrait sculpture in this exhibition are drawn from the Library's Pictures Collection.
When the Domed Reading Room opened in 1913, the Library's enormous reinforced concrete vault was regarded as a triumph of engineering skill, being the largest such structure in the world at the time.
The Phillip Doak Collection reveals the amazing underwater world of Victoria's 'Shipwreck Coast' - the natural treasures of the Southern Ocean and remnants of tragic shipwrecks.
In September 2001, the State Library began a two-stage process to conserve and clean the Queen's Hall murals by Septimus Power and Napier Waller.
The Library now holds Ned Kelly's helmet, breastplate and backplates, one of his shoulderplates and an unidentified lappet (or apron), the most accurate and complete assemblage of his armour to date.
As part of its program of documenting Victoria’s cultural and historical heritage, the Library collects pop music, political badges, menus, junk mail, comics, posters, wine labels and much more.
A collection of rare photographs dating from the early 1860s are featured in American on the Goldfields, a book that illustrates the growth of Bendigo from a rambling canvas town to a thriving and prosperous city.
In January, the Melbourne Public Library closed its gates and drew the blinds in mourning for Queen Victoria. Four months later the drapes were gone and the Library literally shone.
The Library's extensive poster collection covers the development of the poster in Victoria from 19th century letterpress text to brightly coloured contemporary street posters.
The Coles Myer Archive - company and business records and a rich array of artefacts dating back to the 1840s - is the largest complete collection ever donated to the Library.
Australians are great travellers and they have left paper trails in most of the collections of the State Library. The Rare Books, Australian Manuscripts, Pictures and Arts collections all hold material that documents travel within Australia and abroad.
In 1946 the Library acquired a fine collection of illustrations and photographs of sailing ships, many of which visited Melbourne during the 19th and 20th centuries.
When magician Will Alma donated his magicana collection to the Library, he stipulated that access to the tricks of his trade be limited to magicians and researchers.
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