Displays
Current displays
![Caption: artisan unknown, Queen [Cora] Gooseberry’s rum mug, c. 1800, bronze, R252,DS Mitchell bequest item a1557001](../../images/displays/2009/strangerthan_a1557001.jpg)
Stranger than fiction
- Venue:
- Macquarie Cases, Macquarie Wing
The Library isn’t just about books. It is also about bones and baubles, old boxes and buttons. The Library didn’t plan to collect these strange objects but they arrived along with the cartons of corporate records, family papers, literary manuscripts, pictures, photographs and books that have accumulated in the Mitchell Library over the last 100 years.
This display is just a small selection of the hundreds of objects that form the Mitchell Library realia collection. Realia is a curious library term. It describes those real and tangible objects that speak of past lives and historic events. These objects add an unexpected richness and intimacy to the collections.
View selections from the Stranger than fiction display
Caption: artisan unknown, Queen [Cora] Gooseberry’s rum mug, c. 1800, bronze, R252,DS Mitchell bequest item a1557001
Who is the real Lachlan Macquarie?
- Venue:
- Vestibule, Mitchell Wing
The Mitchell Library holds several portraits with credible claims to represent Lachlan Macquarie. However the men in each portrait bear only a passing resemblance to one another. For many years there has been debate as to which portrait can be regarded as an authentic likeness of the governor. This debate has yet to be conclusively resolved.
Caption: John Opie?, Lachlan Macquarie?, undated (ca.1805-1824), oil, ML 37 a128471
