Exhibitions
The State Library Galleries will be closed for essential building work from 9 November 2009, and will re-open in March 2010 with our landmark exhibition - ONE hundred - to celebrate the centenary of the Mitchell Library.
The Nelson Meers Heritage Collection will be reinstated in the Dixson Galleries in July 2010, when we present The Governor: Lachlan Macquarie, 1810 to 1821. The Nelson Meers Foundation supports the State Library of New South Wales in presenting its outstanding collection of rare and historic items to the Australian public through the Heritage Collection.
Explore the Heritage Collection online.
![Queen [Cora] Gooseberry's rum mug](../../images/exhibitions/2009/stranger_than_fiction/strangerthan_a1557001.jpg)
Stranger than fiction
- Open:
- 28 November 2009 – 17 December 2010
- 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.
Caption: artisan unknown, Queen [Cora] Gooseberry’s rum mug, c. 1800, bronze, R252,DS Mitchell bequest item
