–Magazine for members Autumn 2012 SL Lewin’s natural talent Spirit of Conan Doyle Crazy hillbillies Mardi Gras Message Lewin: Wild Art, which opens in early March and is featured in this issue, is the latest of many large-scale exhibitions mounted by the State Library to expose our collections, and inform, educate, inspire and amaze our ontents clients and visitors. Autumn 2012 The effort and skill our curators and designers invest in our exhibitions reflects the significance of revealing the extraordinary items NEWS NEW DAYS OF we hold and the importance of telling their stories, often stories which 4 30 Mapmaker’s 500th eRECORDS have not previously been told. In the case of Lewin: Wild Art, it is the Refreshing the foyer story of John Lewin, his depictions of Australian flora and fauna and 32 NEW ACQUISITIONS the development of illustration and printmaking in the recently Far out! Mission life* established colony of New South Wales. Accompanied by a handsome Caddy for Koons Talking fish book, Mr JW Lewin: Painter and Naturalist, this exhibition helps us Paul Brunton OAM understand how the new arrivals came to know Australia. 34 BUILDING A STRONG Our times It is this bigger story of how we get to know our country, our people FOUNDATION and ourselves which is the focus of our exhibitions program. Tourists, A new journey C 8 ON THIS DAY visitors, students and specialists drop into our galleries and also view SL Rediscovering the exhibitions online. From big shows like Lewin: Wild Art and the EXHIBITION THE MAGAZINE FOR STATE LIBRARY OF NSW 10 Indigenous FOUNDATION MEMBERS, just-closed Finding Antarctica to small displays, pop-ups and online MACQUARIE STREET FRIENDS AND VOLUNTEERS Natural talent: SYDNEY NSW 2000 Languages journeys (including Discover Collections on our website), our IS PUBLISHED QUARTERLY PHONE (02) 9273 1414 John Lewin BY THE LIBRARY COUNCIL On the high seas exhibitions inform and surprise. OF NSW. FAX (02) 9273 1255 As well as appearing onsite in our galleries on Macquarie Street, and AUTUMN 2012 [email protected] 14 FEATURE Foundation welcomes VOL. 5 NO. 1 online, the exhibitions go on tour. Australian Cookbooks, The Governor, ISSN 1835-9787 WWW.SL.NSW.GOV.AU Rolling on the river TAL & Dai-ichi Life One Hundred and Carved Trees were shown in 22 regional locations last P&D-3730-3/2012 OPENING HOURS collection PRINT RUN 2500 MONDAY TO THURSDAY FEATURE year. Beach, Bush and Battlers will begin its regional tour in April 2012. 9 AM TO 8 PM 18 37 VOLUNTEERS The value of sending our exhibitions on tour was underlined when 18,000 FRIDAY 9 AM TO 5 PM Spiritualist adventures EDITOR A vital contribution WEEKENDS 10 AM TO 5 PM of Conan Doyle people visited The Governor in Dubbo and 2000 checked us out online CATHY PERKINS [email protected] EXHIBITION GALLERIES from that city — issuing a challenge to Albury, the show’s next port of call! OPEN TO 5 PM, TUESDAYS 38 FOR OUR FRIENDS DESIGN & PRODUCTION TO 8 PM 22 DICTIONARY OF SYDNEY THE MITCHELL LIBRARY ALEX BYRNE VIRGINIA BUCKINGHAM RECENT HIGHLIGHTS READING ROOM IS CLOSED The rise of Mardi Gras 40 NSW State Librarian & Chief Executive PHOTOGRAPHY ON SUNDAYS. UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED Q&A COVER 24 A LIVING COLLECTION 43 ALL PHOTOGRAPHIC WORK WARTY FACE HONEYSUCKER IS BY DIGITISATION AND Our own hillbilly Cassie Mercer IMAGING SERVICES, STATE [REGENT HONEYEATER] LIBRARY OF NSW. (DETAIL), 1813, JOHN LEWIN magazine SUSTAINABILITY BACK COVER PRINTED IN AUSTRALIA BY 28 PROVENANCE * Aboriginal and Torres Strait PEGASUS USING BJ BALL GIGANTIC LILY Islander readers are warned EVOLVE PAPER. THE PAPER [GYMEA LILY] (DETAIL), Mickey’s corroboree IS MADE FROM 100% C. 1806, JOHN LEWIN that this article may contain RECYCLED FIBRE WITH images of deceased persons. 100% POST CONSUMER RECYCLED WASTE. THE STATE LIBRARY OF NSW IS A STATUTORY AUTHORITY OF, AND PRINCIPALLY FUNDED BY, THE NSW STATE GOVERNMENT’ NEWS MAPMAKER’S 500th In 2012, we celebrate 500 years since the birth of legendary mapmaker Gerardus Mercator. Born Gerhard Cremer in Belgium on 5 March 1512, Mercator later adopted the Latinised form of his surname, which means ‘merchant’. According to the Library’s Head of Maps, Andy Carr, Mercator combined his schooling in mathematics, geography and astronomy with remarkable talents in calligraphy and printing. He pioneered cursive italics for placenames on maps, and was the first to use the word ‘atlas’ for a book of maps. Mercator developed a method, still used today, of projecting the spherical earth onto a rectangular sheet of paper for navigational purposes. A portrait of Mercator (pictured left) with fellow cartographer Hendrik Hondius is on display in the Dalgety Walkway until 19 March. DETAIL FROM ATLAS SIVE COSMOGRAPHICAE MEDITATIONES DE FABRICA MUNDI ET FABRICATI FIGURA, 1630, ML X910/6A 4 / SL MAGAZINE Autumn 2012 State Library of New South Wales SL MAGAZINE Autumn 2012 State Library of New South Wales / 5 Caddy for Koons NEWS A photograph from the Library’s collection has found its way onto a limited edition Bernardaud plate designed by New York artist Jeff Koons. George Caddy’s photo of ‘beachobatics’ at Bondi in 1938 was one of almost 300 negatives found in a shoebox by his son Paul after George’s death in 1983. A selection of these astonishing images was featured in the Library’s Bondi Jitterbug exhibition in 2008. Koons admired the photograph because the acrobats’ pose forms a shape similar to a peace sign. He said: ‘The image is very powerful and references classical beauty through the equilibrium of mind and body.’ The plate is being sold as part of a fundraising effort for the Art Production Fund. Refreshing the foyer Far out! We’re in the final stage of transforming our This autumn the Library is taking landmark Macquarie Street building, with renovation documents of Australia’s history to isolated work under way on the ground floor. The foyer regions of NSW. In a program generously will become a friendly, community-centred sponsored by the Caledonia Foundation, our space for Library users and visitors, with a education team will run activities in schools, Paul Brunton OAM new look for Cafe Trim, the Library Shop, and the Mitchell Library’s Senior Curator, Congratulations to Paul Brunton for his OAM. and our theatre-style auditorium. There will Paul Brunton, will speak at local libraries. Paul was awarded the Medal of the Order be a casual lounge area and express internet Bourke and Cobar are first up in March. of Australia on 26 January for ‘services to terminals. The State Library will remain Among the treasures heading there are Cook’s Australian history through curatorial roles open throughout the renovation, and the handwritten observations of the transit of with the Mitchell Library’. Paul told the State Reference Library, Mitchell Library, Venus from Tahiti in June 1769 — after Australian: ‘I’m honored to be selected for events and exhibitions will operate as normal. which he charted the east coast of Australia. the Order of Australia award because it gives You can visit our temporary shop in the An original letter from Arthur Phillip to recognition to the archivist and librarian’s role Galleries during Lewin: Wild Art, and our Lord Lansdowne, providing evidence on in preserving our valuable Australian history.’ temporary cafe in the McDonald’s Room. why Britain established a colony on the east He will celebrate 40 years at the Library at Our cafe and bookshop will reopen for coast of Australia, will be joined by the first the end of this year. business on 1 May 2012. letter written from Sydney in 1792 by convict PHOTO BELOW BY BRUCE YORK Mary Reibey, in which she demonstrates the Our times determination that made her a successful You can now search a huge range of British businesswoman. Outback residents will have a historical newspapers with Gale NewsVault — chance to see relics such as Cook’s shoe buckles look it up through ‘eResources’ on our website, (pictured). both in the Library and at home if you live in SHOE BUCKLES USED BY CAPTAIN COOK FOR COURT WEAR, NSW and have our Library card. Gale NewsVault R 206 includes such esteemed publications as the Economist (1843–2006), Illustrated London News (1842–2002), Financial Times (1888– 2006) and Times Digital Archive (1785–1985). The papers are digitised so you can see how they appeared on the day they were published. 6 / SL MAGAZINE Autumn 2012 State Library of New South Wales SL MAGAZINE Autumn 2012 State Library of New South Wales / 7 on this 10 March 1794 COMPILED BY Emma Gray, Discover Collections Reverend Samuel Marsden, new assistant to the chaplain DAY of New South Wales, arrives in 20 March 1834 Sydney on the William with his Arthur Orton (AKA Tom Castro, wife and young child. or the butcher from Wagga) — REVEREND SAMUEL MARSDEN, 1833, POSSIBLY BY RICHARD READ JNR later to gain infamy through his ML 29 claim to the identity and fortune of missing heir Sir Roger Tichborne — is born in Wapping, London. MEN OF THE DAY NO. 25 “BARONET OR BUTCHER”, FROM VANITY FAIR, LONDON, 10 JUNE 1871 MSF 20 / 29 29 May 1860 The first race meeting at Randwick Racecourse is held by the Australian Jockey Club and, according to Bell’s Life in Sydney, ‘fell but little short of the sanguine expectations we had entertained’. RANDWICK RACECOURSE, SYDNEY, C. 1860s 13 April 1937 SPF / 338 Singer Gladys Moncrieff with her Pekingese and Pomeranian dogs on her 45th birthday. GLADYS MONCRIEFF ON HER BIRTHDAY, 23 April 1792 12 May 1820 13 APRIL 1937, BY SAM HOOD PXE 789 (V.57) / 18 The French navigator Joseph-Antoine English nurse Florence Nightingale is born Raymond Bruny D’Entrecasteaux lands in in Florence, Italy.