Guide to the Papers of the Australian Lebanese Historical Society Inc. (1999-2015) Deposited with the National Library of Australia Canberra Paul Convy Australian Lebanese Historical Society Inc. Coogee NSW April 2017 0 Introduction The Australian Lebanese Historical Society Inc. was formed in 1999 and incorporated in New South Wales in June 2006. The Society aims to encourage scholarship in the study of the history of Lebanese settlement in Australia, highlight the contributions those of Lebanese heritage have made to Australian society and to promote the establishment of archives relating to this history. The Society first envisaged that it could act as conduit for people who wished to deposit historically important material to public collections. This, however, proved to be impractical because private citizens tend not to have historical papers arranged in a fashion where they can be transferred to an archive without much cost and staff resources. Even large public archives tend not have the resources to accept unarranged, unsorted papers into their collections. Moreover, the Society needed to lobby public collection managers for them to understand the historical importance of what is on offer. The material the Society acquired was often donated by members and supporters who saw the value of the material they held but could not find a repository. It was also acquired as a result of research undertaken for various Society activities, exhibitions and publications. Over the last 17 years Society volunteers led by Paul Convy as honorary librarian have built on what was at first just an accumulation of papers into a working library and archives collection with finding aids and access points to allow the collection to be used by researchers. The collection provides a good overview of this history of Lebanese settlement in Australia; of use to academic and other researchers as well as family and local historians. The material includes of published works, photographs, press clippings, memorial and obituary cards, and ephemera. It includes the images of the 1st and 2nd waves of Lebanese migration to Australia (analogous to having the images of 1st and 2nd Fleeter of 18th century settlers). It shows the transnational nature of Lebanese migration with closely related members of families in the United States and Canada and other parts of the world. It shows Australian Lebanese in a non-stereotypical picture of settlement in a new community. It has biographical treatment of many Australian Lebanese including pioneering business people and hawkers, commercial leaders, political figures and others from the arts, literature and other endeavours. The Society has only limited resources and there is no guarantee that this historically important collection can be maintained forever, or that the current custodians will be able to maintain it in the long term or give access to researchers. It was felt by the Board of the Society that the best course would be to lodge the society’s archive collection with a publicly accessible institution. In 2015 the National Library of Australia accepted the offer of the Society to lodge the collection within their manuscripts collection. This will not only safeguard collection for future generations but also provide a central point in the national capital where researchers are able to easily access material during library hours. The papers are stored under in the manuscript section of the Library with the call number MS 10162. Over the last year since the papers have been prepared and dispatched to the Library, a small amount of addition material has been donated to the collection and described, indexed and arranged will likely fill another type 1 archive box, which can be added to the collection in Canberra. There are still opportunities for additional material to be added as it is acquired. DIGITISED COLLECTION STILL IN SOCIETY’S HANDS The vast majority of the collection has been digitized, including all of the photographs and is stored on the Society’s computer hard drive – and is available for use by the Society at any time. The Treasurer has a backup copy on another separate hard disc. 1 1920s Passport of Alexander Alam and his wife Therese from the collection of the Australian Lebanese Historical Society Inc. The passport is an important item in the collection because it demonstates something of the life and career of the Alams, Alexander Alam was a significant political figure in New South Wales and Therese Alam was an import figure in the social and community life of of the Australian Lebanese and general community from the 1920s through to the 1970s. The passport is also historically interesting because it is a “British” passport issued to the children of Lebanese (then called “Syrian”) immigrants and because Therese, an important person in her own right, was included on her husband’s documentation. 2 Boxes 1 to 9: Research Files under Subject Headings The first nine boxes of material consisted of material arranged in subject order from the research files of the Society, and were originally housed in a filing cabinet. This material was acquired as a result of research undertaken for various activities and publications of the Society and other material donated to the collection by members and others that related to the history of Lebanese settlement in Australia. Formats included press and magazine clippings, journal articles, postcards, business letterheads, memorial and obituary cards and other types of ephemera. Other than the subject headings there were no other indexes to this material. The headings relate mainly to the surnames adopted in Australia by Lebanese settlers, and the towns and places they settled as well as a number of broad heading relating to the history and sociology of that settlement. Because the transliteration of names from Arabic to English could produce many variations, even within the same families, single headings based on surnames covered included the spelling variations. For instance, material about the Batros and Betros families were included under the one heading for “Batros, Betros”. BOX 1 1. 1908 (including visit of USA Great White Fleet, “Syrian” fund raising for the celebrations) 2. Abdoo – see also Manning Valley Region 3. Abdulnour 4. Abdulla, Abdullah, Abdallah, etc. 5. Abicair 6. Abi-Saad 7. Abood - Aboud Includes History: Abraham Daher Aboud, published by the Australian Lebanese Chamber of Commerce, 1986. 1 page. 8. Aboody 9. Abraham , Abrahams– see also Cooma 10. Adelong NSW – see also Barraket family 11. Ajaka 12. Alam 13. Albury, NSW – (see also Abicair, Corban) – includes article about Lebanese in Albury from Albury & District Historical Society Bulletin by Eddy Batrouney, and guide to Albury Botanical Gardens, site of a Cedar of Lebanon. Ambassador – see Consulate & Ambassador 14. Anthony 15. Antiochian Orthodox Church – see also St George Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral 16. Arab Council of Australia 17. Arida 18. Armed Forces of Australia 19. Art and Historical Exhibitions relating to the Lebanese in Australia. Includes: 3 Let’s Have a Cup of Tea seminar, RAHS 2004 Bankstown Live featuring - Michael Mohammed Ahmad and his book The Tribe Financial Times (London) article from 2014 relating to Baalbeck Festival Mahjar Exhibition at National Maritime Museum Australian Lebanese Heritage Committee of Victoria, c200 20. Atallah 21. Ataya 22. Aueb, Sherwin – See also Braidwood 23. Australian Lebanese Association (NSW Branch) 24. Australian Lebanese Chamber of Commerce 25. Australian Lebanese Historical Society Australian Lebanese Historical Society of Victoria – see Victoria 26. Authors: a) Abdel-Fattah, Randa b) Annar, Nazam c) Estaphan, Kennedy d) Hage, Rawi 27. Awards, Social Contests and Beauty pageants. 28. Azar BOX 2 29. Backes, Freda Baptisms and birth ceremonies – see Rituals 30. Barakate – see also Adelong, NSW 31. Basha 32. Bashir 33. Bathurst NSW 34. Batros, Betros, etc. 35. Batrouney Includes articles by Trevor Batrouney; “A Cradle for Orthodoxy: St Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Church in Melbourne, Victoria”, Chronos, No. 7 2003 “Australian – Lebanese: Return Visits to Lebanon Aad [sic] of Identity. Chapter, 12 pp. 291 – 317 [publication unknown] “The Lebanese in Australia 1880-1989, pp. 413-442, chapter from publication The Lebanese in the World. “Cherishing the Faith: the Antiochian Orthodox Church in Victoria 1889-2006” – short book review and author profile. 4 “Case Study of and Immigrant Family; 1889-1934” pp, 309 – 320., from De Lacey, Phillips (ed.), Mosaic or Melting Pot, Sydney 1979. 36. Baynie 37. Baz Beauty contests - see Awards, Social Contests and Beauty pageants. 38. Bechhare and Bechhare Village Association. Betros see Batros, Betros 39. Birbara 40. Biography – file of biographical profiles without separate subject headings. 41. Bitar, Bittar, etc. 42. Blind Institute of Lebanon Appeal, 1955 (This appeal was conducted among members of the Australian Lebanese community for this Beirut based charity. Includes promotional booklet and list of donors, their location and amounts given. 43. Bookallil – see also Cooma Includes two articles relating to Dr Bookallil of Newcastle who arranged a photographic exhibition in Sydney in 2001 of his photographs from 1950s – including views of relatives at Cronulla Beach. 44. Bowmore, William – art collector, philanthropist, originally William Yared. 45. Braidwood NSW - see also Aueb, Moses, Taffa, Wehby. Includes material relating to ALHS September 2005 History Week Events and material about Lebanese families including, Moses, Aueb and Wehby. Buildcorp – see Sukkar 46. Businesses & Business people BOX 3 47. Carlton Vic. 48. Cedars of Lebanon (Magazine of ALA, NSW) 49. Chidiac Citizenship – see Immigration and Citizenship 50. Consulate & Ambassador Cooking, Cookery – see Restaurants & Food 51. Cooma, NSW – See also Abraham, Bookallil, Taffa 52. Coorey, Corrie, etc. see also Koorey, Khoury etc. (includes Phillip Coorey’s 2007 essay) 53. Cootamundra – see also Batros, Deeps 54. Corban 5 55. Crime 56. Cronulla Riots 57. Customs Prosecutions Case of 1897 58. Dadour (includes material on Vivienne Dadour’s art exhibitions) 59. Dahdah 60. Dan 61.