‘I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.’ Eleanor Roosevelt. Dorothy Parker was certainly correct in her quote about curiosity, and thank goodness for that. Such wise words.
Read more →
Sydney’s Mitchell Library recently doubled the size of its exhibition gallery space. In a new initiative, 300 works of art were selected for permanent display. Some have rarely been seen by the general public. As a member of the Library Circle I feel privileged to be sponsoring one
Read more →
MILES FRANKLIN AND HER BRILLIANT IDEA Many literary figures of the day visited Miles Franklin (1879-1954) at her home in the Sydney suburb of Carlton. The author of the beloved book My Brilliant Career, referred to the house as, ‘My old humpy.’ A delightful custom developed
Read more →
New exhibition galleries are due to open at Sydney’s Mitchell Library in October 2018. Here is a little of what is underway; As part of our transformation of
Read more →
As a young woman, Miss Joyce Cocks became an attendant (and later a buyer) at Sydney’s historic Mitchell Library. The Mitchell now forms part of the vast Library of New South Wales complex. In 1923 an armed man entered the building on Macquarie Street and removed three valuable paintings from
Read more →
ONE BLIGH OF THE BOUNTY, TWO OF BLACKHEATH In 1910, Governor Bligh’s grandson, William Russell Wilson Bligh (1827-1914), bought a house called Whiteleaf Cross, in Tourmaline Street, Blackheath (now Park Avenue). By then William was an elderly man. He had arrived in Sydney in 1837 aged ten, under the
Read more →
It is such a privilege to have access to someone’s diaries. I find myself handling them with something akin to reverence. Recently I have been in Sydney’s Mitchell Library reading those of English writer Sylvia Townsend Warner. Sylvia began them in 1927, the year after she
Read more →
Hello, Editor Des here. I have been in Sydney lately doing some historical research on Queen Victoria and her husband Albert. However, my trip turned into a real life drama So here’s what happened. I went into the city on the bus with my guardian, Pauline Conolly.
Read more →
One of the most personal and evocative relics held by the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales is a campaign desk once owned by Governor Lachlan Macquarie. Lachlan Macquarie and his wife Elizabeth disembarked from HMS Dromedary at Sydney Cove on 31 December 1809. They
Read more →
TASMANIAN TREASURES On September 17 1879 the much anticipated Sydney International Exhibition opened in the vast, purpose built Garden Palace. It was located at the south-western end of the Royal Botanic Gardens. On October 27 The
Read more →