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Manuscripts and personal papers

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Collection guide
South Pacific Commission

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

Collection guide
Collection guide
Williamson Collection

The J.C. Williamson Ltd archives include a wide range of materials, such as business records, playscripts, libretti, music, programs, magazines, books, costume designs, and photographs. It also contains personal papers from Williamson's business partners, the Tait family and George Tallis.

Collection guide
A silver polished kettle with ornate cutouts and inscription and printed crest. It has a tealight underneath.

Charlotte & Edward Barnard, Rebecca Emes, Silver kettle and spirit lamp given by Queen Charlotte to Sir Joseph Banks, 1813, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-138405433

Joseph Banks Collection

Sir Joseph Banks was a pioneering botanist and explorer whose travels with Captain Cook helped shape our understanding of the natural world and influenced scientific exploration in Australia.

Collection guide
Collection guide
German colonies in the Pacific

Papers and microfilm of original records relating to the German colonies in the Pacific from 1884-1914, and a selection of other books on this topic.

Collection guide
Collection guide
French Revolutionary Pamphlet Collection

Explore how the 'Age of Pamphlets' ignited a fervor for free expression during the French Revolution, transforming the streets of Paris into a battleground of ideas - until fear turned the tide.

Collection guide
A black and white drawing depicting a very large crowed of people inside an ornate building watching a parade of people and flags entering the building.

Papers of Sir Anthony Musgrave, Microform, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1126183854

Federation of Australia

A comprehensive collection of original records of the Federation movement plus books, pictures, music and other material related to Federation.

Collection guide
Map of Antarctica showing territories and dependencies.

Australia. Department of the Interior. Property and Survey Branch. & E. P. Bayliss, J. S. & Cumpston, Antarctica, 1939, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-236895938

Australian explorations in the Antarctic

Diaries, papers, photographs, maps and other material related to Australia's involvement in the Antarctic

Collection guide
A calm river snakes into the distance, with green grass on one side and trees on the other

George French Angas (artist) and James William Giles (lithographer), The River Murray, near Lake Alexandrina, 1847, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135637342

Angas Collection

Paintings, drawings, sketchbooks and manuscripts by George French Angas.

Collection guide
Hand-drawn historical map of a coastal city with detailed streets, waterways, and buildings. Various ships are shown in the harbor, including sailing ships with multiple masts. The map contains handwritten labels in an East Asian script, with buildings and city layout depicted in a bird's-eye view.

Shinsen Nagasaki no zu, 1801, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-230571001

London Missionary Society Collection

722 books, pamphlets, leaflets, manuscripts, newspapers and maps, mostly written in Chinese. Mainly Christian works, plus works on the Chinese language, reprints of classical writings and works relating to the Taiping Rebellion of 1850-64.

Collection guide
Dr Jo Langdon standing and leaning on a table in the Special Collections Reading Room with a Royal Perth Hospital Nurses uniform worn including a red cape and two pilot's helmets and goggles on it

Dr Jo Langdon with Royal Perth Hospital Nurses uniform worn including a red cape from the Papers of Robin Miller Dicks, 1943-1978, nla.cat-vn4456021, and Air pilot's cap and goggles owned by Freda Thompson, c. 1934, nla.obj-139636320

Re-presenting Australian female pilots through poetry

Hear from Dr Jo Langdon about her research and experience as a 2024 Creative Arts Fellow.

Blog
1904 camera

Harold Cazneaux's first camera, 1904, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-141166704

Harold Cazneaux (1878–1953) was perhaps Australia's best-known photographer of the early twentieth century. He purchased this camera in 1904, shortly after moving from Adelaide to Sydney, and made photographs of Sydney's streets and waterways.

In 1909 he became the first Australian photographer to exhibit his works in a solo show.

Cazneaux was a master of the pictorialist style of photography, using soft focus to capture scenes that were - and remain - familiar to many Australians in a new light. He was able to find a timeless, extraordinary beauty in the everyday.

Cazneaux collection

A large collection of glass negatives, papers and photographs dating mostly from 1904 to 1940 depicting many aspects of Australian life and architecture.

Collection guide
A handwritten diary entry in an old fashioned script.

George Thomson, Diary entry for Tuesday 26 May 1868, Diary of George Thomson, 1868-1869, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3308197449

Indigenous Australian cricket team touring England in the 1860s

Australians have often gone to great lengths to see their favourite sporting teams, even back in the 1860s!

First Australians
News article

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