Recipients of our Summer Scholarships, funded through the generosity of the family of the late Norman McCann (a former National Library Council Member), Dr John and Dr Heather Seymour, Carol Moya Mills, Emeritus Professor Janice Reid AC and an anonymous donor. Since 2002, more than 50 Australian scholars have been supported to undertake six weeks of immersive postgraduate research, with special access to the Library’s collections.
Date Time
Robert Smith Collection on show for first time 30 July
The inaugural exhibition featuring artworks from the Robert Smith Collection is now on show in the foyer of the Wonthaggi Union Community Arts Centre.
The exhibition, Noel Counihan, Robert Smith and Wonthaggi, will feature 26 works drawn from the Collection by curator Ken Scarlett OAM, an expert in Australian art and sculpture.
The exhibition will be on display from Tuesday, 3 August until Friday, 19 November. The foyer is open Tuesday to Friday, from 10.00am to 4.00pm. Please remember to wear a mask and check in with the QR code, when attending. Density limits will be in place.
Manning Clark had a long association with the Library and much of his research for
A History of Australia was carried out in the Library. In the final volume he wrote, ‘The Petherick Room, the Manuscripts Room, and the Newspaper Room are present in every page of this volume, just as they are always present in my heart’. In 1989 he donated the first instalment of his papers under the Taxation Incentives for the Arts Scheme. Further papers were transferred in 1990–91. He bequeathed his remaining papers to the Library and they were received in 1994–95.
The photographs of Manning Clark and his family were lent for copying by Dymphna Clark in 1995. The papers of Dymphna Clark were donated by her son Sebastian Clark in 2003.
Child Migration and Stolen Generations in Popular Historical Consciousness
In the mid-1990s, harrowing stories emerged of child migrants and Stolen Generations who had been taken from their families. Side-by-side, these narratives produced unprecedented responses in public discourse, yet scholars have struggled to make sense of the cacophony of debate, the millions of marching feet and the mountain of writing inspired by these histories. Tim Calabria’s project will assess the extensive papers left by Sir Ronald Wilson, president of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission during this period, and seek to contribute to the understanding of this profound moment of social change in Australia, as people concurrently engaged in the Reconciliation movement and grappled with the bleak outcomes of child migration for many institutionalised children.