Home and family life
Scope of collection
Home and family life encompasses facets of domestic and household management
including cookery, childcare, sewing, household budgeting, cleaning and domestic
appliances. It includes the structure and function of the Australian family with an
emphasis on families within New South Wales.
Collecting aims and intentions
The Library aims to collect current and historical material to document home and family life, with a particular focus on New South Wales. This material offers a mirror to domestic life in New South Wales since European settlement and shows the influences of social change and advancing technology.
A related aim is to collect a broad range of contemporary resources to support clients seeking information about child development, childcare, family economics, family law, housing, family health policies and services as well as social issues such as child abuse, counselling and therapy, minority families, marriage and divorce and sexual attitudes and behaviours.
The collection also provides resources for clients wishing to further their knowledge of, and develop skills in the domestic arts. Of particular interest is the recent increase in the amount of community language material on the domestic arts reflecting the culturally diverse structure of our society.
The Library aims to provide researchers with original material which offers historical perspectives on matters relating to household management and family structure. Information that details the economic aspects of home management is collected in order to provide an understanding of changes in the cost of living for families and financial aspects of household management.
The collection aims to provide reliable reference material on household appliances and the domestic arts to assist in the re-creation of period details or the repair and reproduction of historical artefacts. Brochures, instruction manuals and retail information are collected to illustrate the development of household products such as refrigerators, electric and gas cookers and household appliances.
A related aim is to support research into domestic trends and their influence on life and culture in New South Wales. The changing popularity of specific domestic arts and the prominence of particular family-related social issues, such as the balance of work and family, childcare and models of family life, are reflected in the collection.
The Library aims to provide an understanding of the influence of the growth and development of the service economy and the increasing reliance on domestic services in areas such as cleaning, childcare and care of aging parents. Another key collecting area is the documentation of food preparation, including catering for special occasions and the development and growth of restaurants. A related aim is to document and describe trends which have influenced and continue to affect household management. These include imports of international goods and the increasing variety of home products, food and appliances.
Existing collection
- To reflect the growing demand for electronic access, online databases facilitating access to source documents including journal articles, conference papers, government publications, research reports, statistical documents, annual reports and theses are acquired. (Link to http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/databases/) Internet resources are identified and access to these is provided by the creation of links on the Library's Internet Resources web pages (Link to http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/links/social.cfm)
- New South Wales newspapers that chronicle life events of local communities as well as carrying society, women's and children's pages and more recently features reflecting family living and the accoutrements of the middle class in affluent times.
- Printed material such as calendars, menus, invitations, posters, packaging and retail catalogues, greeting cards, real estate promotions and ration books.
- Brochures, instructions and cookery books which relate to the development of household equipment such as refrigeration, electric and gas cookery.
- Household management manuals, dictionaries and encyclopaedias of the domestic arts and works considering the family unit and household management from a historical and/or economic perspective.
- Australian women's magazines devoted to household management, the domestic arts and domestic interiors from the 1880s to the present day.
- Australian cookery books, including manuscript and early printed books, community cookbooks, special occasion recipe books, works on the history of cooking in Australia and cookery books in community languages.
- Images from the mid-nineteenth century to the present illustrating clothing, family activities, domestic interiors and appliances.
- Original manuscripts and diaries relating to family life from European settlement to the present day.
- Fictional and literary accounts of domestic life in Australia.
Some examples of unique or significant items
- The book of household management: also sanitary, medical, and legal memoranda; with a history of the origin, properties, and uses of all things connected with home life and comfort by Isabella Beeton. A popular encyclopaedia widely used by colonial settlers. London: S.O. Beeton, 1861. First edition.
SRL RB/995 - John Hoyle Cookery Collection including:
- The cook's guide, and housekeeper's & butler's assistant, 1884.
- Mrs Maclurcan's cookery book: a collection of practical recipes specially suitable for Australia, 1898.
ML641.5/434 - How to reduce the cost of living, 1914.
ML Printed Books Card Catalogue 641.55/H - Quick recipes for wartime meals, 1945.
- The Pinnaroo soldiers' memorial cookery book, 1920-1925.
ML641.50994/ 70
- The Mary Payne Cookery Book Collection including:
- Art of the table: table laying and decoration, etiquette and entertaining, wines and glasses, menus and service at table by D. Tompkins, H.C. Finch and A. Heath.
ML 642.7/2 - Cooking craft: a practical handbook for students in training for cookery and for the homeworker by S. Elizabeth Nash.
ML 641.5/ 725
- Art of the table: table laying and decoration, etiquette and entertaining, wines and glasses, menus and service at table by D. Tompkins, H.C. Finch and A. Heath.
- Cookery books including:
- The Margaret Fulton cookbook.
SRL NQ641.5/46
ML Q641.5/91 - The 200 years history of Australian cooking.
ML Q641.5994/6
SRL N641.5994/9 (kitchen edition) - Calendar of luncheon & tea dishes including soups, savouries, salads and what to do with cold meat: a recipe for each day of the year.
- Country Women's Association of New South Wales, 1932.
ML Q641.5994/18
- The Margaret Fulton cookbook.
- Manuscripts including:
- Mrs Mitchell's Recipes, 1827.
Mitchell Library: C83, CY 1561 - Household expense books of Mrs E.B. Down, 1944-72.
Mitchell Library MSS 5241 - Diaries and correspondence of Una Caroline Falkiner, 1913-1948.
Mitchell Library MSS423 (Manuscripts, Oral History & Pictures Catalogue)
- Mrs Mitchell's Recipes, 1827.
- Women's magazines including:
- The Home : an Australian quarterly, 1920-1942
ML REF 1/MAV/FM4/10614 - Australian Home Journal, 1894-1983
ML Q640.5/9 - Australian Woman's Mirror, 1924-1961
ML Q640.5/10 - The Dawn: a journal for Australian women, 1888-1905
ML Ref. 1/MAV/FM4/6799-6801 - Australian Family Circle, 1973-
ML Q059/190 - The Australian Women's Weekly, 1933 to present.
SRL RAV/FM4/229RR - Australian House and Garden, 1948-
ML Q640.5/2
- The Home : an Australian quarterly, 1920-1942
- Ephemera collection under headings "children" or "consumer goods" or "initiations" or "menus" or "household ephemera":
- Pictorial material including:
- Studio Portraits, 1874-1908, from Freeman Studio, Sydney. Prints made from the original Freeman Studio negatives portraying prominent Australians and families as well as less well-known people.
Mitchell Library - Australian Photographic Agency 1953-73, a freelance news and commercial studio, documented industry, popular culture, politics, sport, advertising, armed services, transportation, fashion and social activities.
Mitchell Library - Personal photographic records including the Allen family albums, intimately documenting family life in Sydney from 1890 to 1930.
Mitchell Library.
- Studio Portraits, 1874-1908, from Freeman Studio, Sydney. Prints made from the original Freeman Studio negatives portraying prominent Australians and families as well as less well-known people.
