Lavishly illustrated travel books had long been popular in Europe and North America when the same American team that produced Picturesque Canada established the Picturesque Atlas Publishing Company in Wynyard Square, Sydney, on Gadigal Country, in 1885.

Our rich and varied Pictures collection focuses on Australian people, places and events, from early European exploration of the South Pacific to contemporary events.

About 440 books published by William Pickering between 1820 and 1854 including reprints of classics and seventeenth-century Anglican religious works, plus contemporary writers of his time.

Around 830 books mainly relating to Buddhism, but also to Hinduism, Indian history and Western philosophy, in German, French and English and mostly published 1870–1945.

About 15,000 books and pamphlets. The great strength of the collection is in Pacific voyages and early Australiana with many very rare items. Also manuscripts including papers of Joseph Banks, maps and pictures.

Topic

The Picturesque Atlas of Australasia and its principal Sydney-based artists - Julian Ashton, A. Henry Fullwood and Frank Mahony - transformed the way settler colonial Australia was seen both here and around the world.

The Library is unable to provide specialist advice about how to care for personal or family archives, but there are a number of resources which can help.

We hold one of Australia’s largest collections of performing arts materials.

Topic

Sydney’s first theatre was said to be opened in 1796 and was managed by Robert Sidaway.

Oral history interviews with people involved in all aspects of forest and around photographs depicting various aspects of forests and forestry work.