The Mathews Collection contains approximately 5,000 books, pamphlets, reprints and journals published between about 1760 and 1940. They include works in:

• English
• French
• German
• Italian
• Russian.

They relate to all aspects of ornithology in all parts of the world, with a special focus on Australian birds. In addition to publications dealing exclusively with birds, there are general works on natural history and zoology and also histories, voyages and travels.

Among the many notable ornithologists and zoologists represented in the collection are:

• John Audobon
• Arthur Bent
• Hans von Boetticher
• Charles Bonaparte
• Frank Chapman
• Frederick Chasen
• Elliott Couer
• Georges Cuvier
• Thomas Eyton
• Joseph Grinnell
• Sir William Jardine
• John Latham
• Carl Linneus
• William Macgillvray
• Ernst Mayr
• Alden Miller
• Alfred Newton
• Eduard Oort
• Thomas Pennant
• Franz Poche
• Leonid Portenko
• Heinrich Reichenbach
• Lionel Rothschild
• Tommaso Salvadori
• Henry Seebohm
• William Swainson
• Percy Taverner.

Australian ornithologists and naturalists include:

• George Bennett
• Gracius Broinowski
• Archibald Campbell
• Neville Cayley
• Alex Chisholm
• Silvester Diggles
• John Gould
• Keith Hindwood
• Tom Iredale
• John Lewin
• Alfred North
• Edward Ramsay.

Among the many rare books in the collection are the following:

• Johann Bechstein, Getreue Abbildungen naturhistorischer Gegenstände in Hinsicht auf Bechsteins Kurzgefasste gemeinnützige Naturgesschichte des In–und Auslandes (8 vols, 1793–1809)
• Pieter Boddaert, Table des planches enluminéez d’Histoire naturelle de M. d’Aubenton (1783)
• Morten Brünnich, , Ornithologia borealis, sistens collectionem avium ex omnibus (1764)
• Walter Buller, A History of the Birds of New Zealand (1873)
• Silvester Diggles, The Ornithology of Australia (21 parts, 1866–1870)
• Henry Dresser, A History of the Birds of Europe (8 vols, 1871–1881)
• John Gould, The Birds of Australia (36 parts, 1840–1848)
• John Latham, , A General History of Birds (10 vols, 1821–1824)
• Pierre Latreille, Natürliche Familien des Thierreichs (1827)
• John Lewin, Birds of New Holland with their Natural History (1808)
• John Lewin, Birds of New South Wales, With their Natural History (1813)
• Constantine Rafinesque, Analyse de la nature (1815)
• George Shaw, Zoology of New Holland (1794)
• Adrian Vroeg, Catalogue raisonne d’une collection supérieurement belle d’oiseaux, tant exotiques qu’Europe’ens, de quadrepedes at d’insectes (1764).

Mathews assembled a strong collection of Pacific voyages, including first or early editions of the voyages of:

• Louis Antoine de Bougainville
• James Cook
• William Dampier
• LI Duperrey
• Matthew Flinders
• Louis de Freycinet
• Johann Forster
• John Grant
• Phillip Parker King
• Jacques-Julien Labillardière
• Per Osbeck
• Sydney Parkinson
• Pierre Sonnerat
• George Vancouver.

His collection includes the foundation Australian texts by:

• Arthur Phillip
• Watkin Tench
• John White
• John Hunter
• David Collins

as well as the published accounts of most of the principal Australian land explorers.

A remarkable feature of the collection are the long runs of ornithological and zoological journals. They include:

• Transactions of the Linnean Society of London (1791–1835)
• Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London (1837–1916)
• Journal für Ornithologie (1853–1932)
• Ibis (1859–1938)
• Transactions of the Philosophical Society of New South Wales (1862–1865)
• Zoological Record (1870–1933)
• Novitates Zoologicae (1894–1937)
• Emu (1901–1938)

The collection contains extensive manuscripts of books, articles and unpublished writings by Mathews. They include:

• the manuscripts of:
  • The Handbook of the Birds of Australia
  • The Birds of Norfolk & Lord Howe Islands
  • Systema Avium Australasianarum
• notes on bird genera
• manuscripts
• notes on petrels.

In addition, there are manuscripts collected by Mathews, such as:

• a letterbook of Silvester Diggles (1871–1877)
• a manuscript on petrels by R Bowdler Sharpe
• the Norfolk Island journal of Roy Bell (1912–1913)
• notebooks and notes of:
  • George Gray
  • Thomas Bowyer-Bower
  • Tom Iredale
• copies of letters of:
  • John Gilbert
  • John and Elizabeth Gould (1838–1869).

The principal pictorial items in the collection are:

• a portrait of Mathews by Basil Otto (1929)
• 70 watercolours of Australian and New Zealand birds by Lilian Medland
• watercolours of:
  • JK Keulemans
  • Neville Cayley
  • A Stahl
  • F Jaques
  • R Kemp
  • others.

A few collections acquired from other sources were added to the Mathews Collection, such as:

• 122 watercolours of Neville Cayley
• 820 watercolours of EE Gostelow
• 155 photographs on ornithological subjects by HM Whittell.

The personal papers of Mathews are not extensive, but they include some personal letters, correspondence with ornithologists such as Tom Iredale, Alex Chisholm and Keith Hindwood, newspaper cutting books, photographs and an illuminated testimonial presented to Mathews by the Library (1941).

Mathews first discussed the possible sale of his ornithological library in 1925. In 1938 he offered the library to the Commonwealth Government as a gift and it was gratefully accepted by JA Lyons, the Prime Minister.

The collection reached Canberra in August 1939. Mathews himself arrived in Australia 6 months later and in 1940–1941 he spent a good deal of time in Canberra assisting with the cataloguing of the collection.

Following his death in 1949, his son Alister presented a portrait of Mathews, as well as manuscripts, personal papers and watercolours by Lilian Medland.

A number of items were also purchased in 1949, including:

• pattern plates to Gould's Birds of Australia
• a letterbook of Silvester Diggles. 

Further items, including Mathews' CBE medal, were donated by Germaine Mathews in 1991.

From 1942 onwards a number of Australian ornithologists donated books and other material on the understanding that they would be added to the Mathews Collection. They included:

• Neville Cayley
• EE Gostelow
• Tom Iredale
• SW Jackson
• HM Whittell.

The books, pamphlets and journals in the Mathews Collection have been kept together as a formed collection within the Australian Collections. They have been catalogued individually and the call numbers have the prefix 'GMM'. In addition, they are described in a 309-page handlist published by the Library in 1966.

With a few exceptions, the manuscripts and personal papers are held in the Manuscripts Collection. Some of the pictures are also filed with the papers. Use the finding aid. 

The letterbook of Silvester Diggles and the typescript of Mathews' My life story are also held in the Manuscripts Collection.

Most of the paintings and photographs are held at various locations within the Pictures Collection. The following items have been individually catalogued and digitised:

• portrait of Mathews
• the watercolours of Lilian Medland
• the photographs of HM Whittell
• several photographs of Mathews and other ornithologists.

The paintings of Neville Cayley and EE Gostelow have been catalogued and digitised selectively.

Mathews sold his collection of 30 000 bird skins to Lord Rothschild in the 1920s. It is now in the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

This guide was prepared using these references:

• Checklist to the Mathews Ornithological Collection, National Library of Australia, Canberra, 1966 (with introduction by DL Serventy).
• Tess Kloot, Mathews, Gregory Macalister (1876–1949), Australian Dictionary of Biography online
• Gregory Mathews, Birds and Books: The Story of the Mathews Ornithological Library, Verity Hewitt Bookshop, Canberra, 1942.
• Obituary of Gregory Mathews, Ibis, vol 91 (3), 1949, pp 521–4.
• DL Serventy, Taxonomic Trends in Australian Ornithology: With Special Reference to the Work of Gregory Mathews, Emu, vol 49 (4), April 1950, pp 257–67.