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
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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
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The old Mitchell Library Reading Room, now the Friends’ Room. 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
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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
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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
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Hello, Editor Des here. I have been in Sydney doing some historical research. 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. It was a bit rainy, so when we
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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
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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
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A MISSION For some time I have been attempting to trace four unidentified sketches by Elizabeth Macquarie. Elizabeth was the wife of Lachlan Macquarie, an early Governor of New South Wales. As a resident of the Blue Mountains, I would like to believe that among the
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Browsing through images of paintings relating to early Sydney at the city’s Mitchell Library, I came across a striking portrait of an Aborigine. His eyes seemed to reflect all the pride and sorrow of his people. He was
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