2008 2008 S T A T E L I B R A R Y O F N E W S O U T H W A L E S State Library of New South Wales Macquarie Street Sydney NSW 2000 Telephone (02) 9273 1414 Facsimile (02) 9273 1255 TTY (02) 9273 1541 Email [email protected] www.sl.nsw.gov.au Exhibition opening hours: Monday to Thursday 9 am to 8 pm Friday 9 am to 5 pm Weekends 10 am to 5 pm Gallery space created by Jon Hawley Project Manager: Phil Verner Coordinating Curator: Stephen Martin Curators: Ron Briggs, Andy Carr, Suzanne Churm, Arthur Easton, Emma Gray, Barbara Hancock, Melissa Jackson, Gwenda Johnston, Allison Kingscote, Maryanne Larkin, Meredith Lawn, Stephen Martin, Jennifer O’Callaghan, Maggie Patton, Margot Riley, Ed Vesterberg, Colin Warner Editor: Theresa Willsteed Graphic Designer: Simon Leong Preservation Project Leader: Lang Ngo All photographic/imaging work is by Andrew LaMoreaux, Huu Phong Nguyen and Scott Wajon, Imaging Services, State Library of New South Wales. Printer: Blue Star Print – Australia Paper: Spicers Impress Matt 300 gsm and 130 gsm. Australian made from elemental chlorine free pulp derived from sustainable plantation forests. Australian Paper is an ISO 14001 certified mill. Print run: 10,000 P&D-2409-3/2008 ISBN 0 7313 7181 X ISSN 1449-1001 © State Library of New South Wales, April 2008 The State Library of New South Wales is a statutory authority of, and principally funded by, the NSW State Government. Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders of exhibited and published material. We apologise if, through inability to trace owners, material has been included for which permission has not been specifically sought. If you believe you are the copyright holder of material published in this guide, please contact the Library’s Intellectual Property and Copyright section. For further information on the Heritage Collection and an online version of this exhibition, please see <www.sl.nsw.gov.au/events/exhibitions/2008/ heritage>. Note: This guide lists all items that will be on display at various times throughout 2008. All information was correct at the time of printing. Foreword The Nelson Meers For many years the H. L. White stamp collection Foundation Heritage has been a focus of interest for stamp collectors Collection is now in its worldwide. Several frames of the stamp slides sixth year. The exhibition will be displayed throughout the year. was established to show some of history’s greatest Also on display this year are beautiful nineteenth­ individual endeavours and century works relating to Egyptology, maps of highest achievements. Sydney land subdivisions and the gold sample­ This year the Library also celebrates the individual box of surveyor and explorer Sir Thomas achievements of people who have made Livingstone Mitchell. contributions to our cultural development. The Library continues its commitment to the Established with the aim of displaying a selection digitisation and display of its material in its of the State Library’s finest material, the Heritage online program of exhibitions that showcase Collection is now a respected part of Sydney life. current and past items from the Heritage As in previous years, a quarterly series of item Collection. We have recently implemented a changes and page turnings maintains exhibition new technology platform and launched our vitality. Page turnings ensure that significant new website. Heritage Collection items can journals and publications are revealed in greater be seen at <http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/events/ depth. Regular changes will continue throughout exhibitions/2008/heritage>. 2008, and visitors will experience the richness I am continually thankful for the support and of the Library’s collection of manuscripts, maps, friendship of Samantha Meers, Director of the rare books, paintings, photographs and realia. Nelson Meers Foundation. The Foundation’s Over the life of the Heritage Collection, the Library generosity has enabled us to provide even has shown items from the collections of people broader access to the treasures of our Library. who have made a difference to the way we see I look forward to seeing you in the Heritage ourselves as a society. Collection gallery throughout 2008. In 1977 ABBA visited Australia, and Frances Rand Regina A Sutton made it her mission to record the group’s tour by NSW State Librarian & Chief Executive collecting everything she could about them. Her collection includes lucid and clever commentary on ABBA’s performances and personal reviews of the shows. Now the collection remains as a rich source of social history. 2008 marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of the first book written, illustrated, printed and bound in Antarctica. Printed at ‘The Sign of the Penguins’, Aurora Australis is a fascinating product of the expeditioners’ experiences of Antarctica. NELSON MEERS FOUNDATION HERITAGE COLLECTION 2008 iii Nelson Meers Foundation 2008 is another This year’s Heritage Collection will also see the remarkable year for exhibition of the Library’s collection of Aboriginal the Heritage Collection, breastplates, a system of merit conceived by now in its sixth year. The Governor Lachlan Macquarie in the early Nelson Meers Foundation nineteenth century in an attempt to bring about is proud to continue its peaceful relations between the British colonists support of this seminal and Indigenous Australians. exhibition, which demonstrates the continuing importance of the In an era which sees Australia engaged in a State Library of New South Wales as a place continued struggle to reconcile its treatment of of learning and imagination, and as a custodian and relationship with its Indigenous people, and of our cultural heritage. in which our relationship with the Antarctic is at its most precarious, these two items in particular — As with previous years, this year’s Heritage two among many of the treasures to be displayed Collection includes items as diverse as they are in this year’s Heritage Collection — are powerful fascinating: from the Library’s extensive collection reminders of the enduring nature of history, and of ABBA memorabilia, to the significant stamp the important lessons revealed by our past. collection of pastoralist and philanthropist Henry Luke White, patriarch of one of Australia’s most This introduction would not be complete without influential farming families and uncle to Patrick a tribute to Stephen Martin, the Coordinating White, whose Nobel Prize for Literature was Curator of the Heritage Collection, and to the exhibited as part of the Heritage Collection many Library staff who are involved with the in 2004. exhibition. I continue to be inspired not only by their erudition, but by their commitment to sharing One particular item in this year’s Heritage their knowledge, and the Library’s treasures, Collection which has inspired me personally is with us all. Aurora Australis, the first book created entirely in the Antarctic, which is being exhibited to mark the For those of you who have visited the Heritage 100th anniversary of its publication. Conceived by Collection many times over the past few years, expedition leader Ernest Shackleton to maintain and for those of you who are new to this morale within his small team of intrepid explorers, wonderful exhibition, I encourage you to enjoy the approximately 100 copies of Aurora Australis were many fascinating stories which form part of this produced. The production of the book was a year’s Heritage Collection. remarkable exercise in teamwork, resilience and Samantha Meers determination. The working conditions in the Executive Director expedition’s cramped hut — which measured Nelson Meers Foundation six feet by seven — were, not surprisingly, problematic. For example, to prevent the ink from freezing, a candle had to be held under the printing plate; and the expedition’s artist, George Marston, was forced to create his lithographs in the middle of the night to alleviate the problems of vibration and noise! iv NELSON MEERS FOUNDATION HERITAGE COLLECTION 2008 Contents The Rimini Antiphonal 2 Joan Blaeu’s Grand Atlas 4 Pieces of the Pacific 6 Napoleon’s Egypt 8 Breastplates 10 Les Roses, Pierre-Joseph Redouté 12 H. L. White 14 Sir Thomas Mitchell’s gold 16 Sydney’s model suburbs 18 Friendship albums: For Auld Lang Syne 20 Aurora Australis 22 Boxing Day battle 24 Ida Rentoul Outhwaite 26 Cigarette cards 28 Message in a bottle 30 ‘Strike me lucky’ it’s Mo 32 ABBAlanche down-under 34 Artists’ books 36 Item list 38 Australia’s greatest comedian on the screen! ‘Strike me lucky’ it’s Mo (detail), Julian Rose, c. 1934, printed billboard poster, POSTERS 1073/1– 5 NELSON MEERS FOUNDATION HERITAGE COLLECTION 2008 v The Rimini Antiphonal Joan Blaeu’s ‘Grand Atlas’ Pieces of the Pacific Napoleon’s Egypt Breastplates ‘Les Roses’, Pierre-Joseph Redouté H. L. White Sir Thomas Mitchell’s gold Sydney’s model suburbs Friendship albums: For Auld Lang Syne ‘Aurora Australis’ Boxing Day battle Ida Rentoul Outhwaite Cigarette cards Message in a bottle ‘Strike me lucky’ Geographia Blaviana (detail), Frontispiece, Vol. I, Atlas Maior or Le Grand Atlas, ov Cosmographie Blaviane en laquelle est it’s Moexactement descritte laABBAlanche terre, la mer, et le ciel, Joan Blaeu, 1667, copper engraving in bound volume, handcoloured, RB/RF912/61–72 down-undervI NELSON MEERS FOUNDATION HERITAGE Artists’ COLLECTION 2008 books NELSON MEERS FOUNDATION HERITAGE COLLECTION 2008 1 The Rimini Antiphonal 1328 On display: April 2007 – March 2008 The Rimini Antiphonal is one of the State Library’s previously believed.2 Furthermore, an examination greatest musical treasures. It was bequeathed to under ultraviolet light of a faint inscription at the the Library in 1928 by Nelson Moore Richardson, base of the first folio revealed the exact date of who acquired it from a London bookdealer in the completion of the manuscript: 1328.