Records for much of the Rare Books Collection are in our catalogue, but if you do not find the item you are looking for, please ask for help: the item may not yet be catalogued, or an alternative version may be available

About 260 books and pamphlets on American history, as well as papers of the Woodriff family and Tilghman, including about 380 of Tilghman's photographs of the Northern Territory 1925-1927 and Queensland 1931-1933.

The Library has recently acquired a journal recording the first Russian Antarctic expedition in 1819-21.

Learn about one of our largest manuscripts collections.

About 280 paintings and drawings by William Strutt dating from 1837-1900, produced in France, Australia, New Zealand, Africa and England, as well as 2 typescripts of stories by Strutt.

Manuscripts of poems and stories and letters from over 70 writers that Stephens assembled in the years in which he was editing the ‘Red Page’ of the Bulletin and later the Bookfellow.

Papers of Christina Stead including diaries, manuscripts of her works, correspondence, personal documents, cuttings and photographs as well as papers of her biographers.

Explore handwritten diaries that can now be read online.

The Library has recently digitised the speeches of Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue AC CBE DSG.

The microfilm collection includes 78 manuscripts copied by the South Pacific Commission, created by missionaries, anthropologists, and linguists between 1900 and 1956. 

About 15,500 items of sheet music and about 700 music albums from the late eighteenth century to the 1980s, as well as the personal papers of Snell.

A comprehensive collection of manuscript pencil scores, drafts of compositions, and fair copies of Sitsky's music dating from 1958 onwards.