On May 7 1927 a strange story appeared in the Newcastle Sun. It said that a Mr George Bressington had been walking along a beach at Tuggerah, on the NSW Central Coast, when he unearthed a half buried wine bottle. On one side there was an etching
Read more →
What could be more wonderful than working at Sydney’s Mitchell Library then popping up to the roof for a drink….or two? 🍸🍹 The space was once used by library staff as a canteen and recreation area, but then just forgotten about. Apparently the young women are playing
Read more →
Isn’t this a striking, full length portrait? The subject is Tasmanian born artist Florence Rodway. It was completed by her friend and fellow artist Norman Carter (1875-1963), in 1910. Unfortunately no colour version exists. The first mention of the portrait in the press was in 1911; Mr
Read more →
Libraries (well in my opinion) are the most exciting places in the world. That’s because I was born curious. How right Eleanor Roosevelt was when she said; ‘I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most
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 of
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, 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. AN ARMED ROBBER INTRUDES In 1923 an armed man entered the building on Macquarie
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 →