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Stories from our exhibitions

Stories from our exhibitions

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Current exhibitions Living Language ▪ Stories in the Sun

Living language: Aboriginal languages in New South Wales

by Damien Webb, Melissa Jackson, Marika Duczynski and Ronald Briggs

A major exhibition opening in July at the Library will celebrate UNESCO’s International Year of Indigenous Languages.

Two women, lit up by projected words.

Stories in the sun

by Maria Savvidis

The Library holds vast collections on Australian children’s book publishing in the ‘golden age’ of the 1970s and 80s.

Illustration of a dense thicket of plants and the animals among it.

Reclaiming our story

by Callum Clayton-Dixon

A contributor to the Library’s Living Language exhibition reflects on Indigenous resistance, survival, and the New England linguicide.

Young man sits at a wooden desk, surrounded by shelves of boxes and jars.

Paintings from the Collection More than 300 original artworks from the Library’s unique collection of landscape and portrait paintings on permanent public display.

Conrad Martens and George Edwards Peacock: Sydney artists

Artists have always been attracted to the natural beauty of Sydney Harbour and its foreshores.

Convict artists in the time of Governor Macquarie

Many used their art to record and interpret the landscape and people of the early settlement.

Arresting gaze

by Helen Casey

A compelling portrait of a young colonial woman has been given new life. 

Julia Sharp, Conservation Manager, David Stein & Co, works on the painting

‘A degree of neatness & regularity’: part of the 10 Works in Focus series

by Richard Neville

Sydney — Capital New South Wales was painted around 1800 — its solid buildings and carefully laid out gardens refute the idea that it was a cesspit of depravity at a time when the city was associated with 'the awful depravity of human nature'.

Sydney - Capital New South Wales, ca.1800

An unknown warrior: mysterious portrait of an unknown, handsome young Aboriginal man

by Ronald Briggs

This mysterious portrait of an unknown, handsome young Aboriginal man is believed to have belonged to Governor Lachlan Macquarie, described as ‘One of the NSW Aborigines befriended by Governor Macquarie’. Part of the 10 Works in Focus series.

Americans on campus: part of the 10 Works in Focus series

by Elise Edmonds

Sydney Teacher’s College was co-located on the grounds of Sydney University where American Military Police units were billeted, describing the impact of the Americans on campus. Part of the 10 Works in Focus series.

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A hint of eccentricity: a beautifully rendered, somewhat playful portrait

by Louise Anemaat

One of Australia’s most influential artists, George Washington Lambert (1873–1930), as part of the 10 Works in Focus series.

Man with rabbit, ca. 1910 / by George Washington Lambert

AMAZE Gallery An ever-changing display of remarkable items from the Library’s collection.

Electric image: 1980s poster art and one Sydney band

by Margot Riley

An eye-catching poster got the message out for an emerging Sydney band in 1980.

A screenprinted poster depicting an industrial fan, the words "Electric Fanz" and the band members.

The Treaty of Waitangi, 1840

by Geoff Barker

On 6 February 1840, after discussion with chiefs on the lawns of the British Resident’s house in Waitangi, some 45 chiefs signed a treaty of cession, now known as the Treaty of Waitangi.

A view of the storming of John Heki's pah, New Zealand, on the 8th. of May 1845.

Miles Franklin

by Rachel Franks

‘Heaven could be no more magical and mystical than unspoiled Australia' - the brilliant career of Miles Franklin.

Mythical country: Vietnam in 1950s posters

by Sheila Ngoc Pham

Looking through Vietnamese art posters collected in the 1950s elicits complicated feelings all these years later.

A woman stands in front of a wall of Vietnamese art posters, smiling.
See what's on display now

Past exhibitions Dead Central ▪ UNESCO Six ▪ The Magic Pudding: Celebrating 100 years

Dead Central: the Devonshire Street cemetery

by Elise Edmonds

Established in 1820, this cemetery became the final resting place for many Sydney-siders throughout the 19th century. The land was finally cleared in 1901 to make way for Sydney's new Central Station.

A black-and-white photograph depicting a smattering of gravestones in a grass field.

Memories on glass: extraordinary images of late 19th and early 20th century Sydney

by Margot Riley

In the days before digital and film photography, images were often taken on glass. But from the 1880s, development of ready-to-use 'dry plate' negatives and simpler cameras saw the rise of amateur photography.

Box 04: Glass negatives of Sydney and Manly areas, ca 1890-1910

The Holtermann Collection: photographic documentation of goldfields life in Australia

In 1951, a hoard of 3,500 glass plate negatives from the nineteenth century was discovered in a garden shed in Chatswood.

Horse and cart struggling through muddy street as men watch

Henry Beaufoy Merlin: Australian showman and photographer

by Geoff Barker

In 1951 one of Australia’s most significant collections of nineteenth-century photographs was found in a garden shed in Chatswood, Sydney.

Photographer Mr Merlin

Reconstructing the Holtermann: the world's largest collodion glass-plate negatives

What do you do when one of the world’s largest wet-plate glass negatives, weighing over 30 kilos, smashes into hundreds of pieces?

The thickness of the trays allowed the weight of the glass to be supported without bowing, which in previous tests, had resulted in distortion patterns.

The Magic Pudding

by Sarah Morley

In October 1918 Angus & Robertson published what would become one of Australia’s best known children’s stories: The Magic Pudding.

Armistice and peace: 'now that the war is over we realise what we’ve been through'

by Elise Edmonds

‘The Armistice – agreeing to cease hostilities’ was signed between Germany, France and Britain at 5 am on the morning of 11 November.

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Internee collections: diaries of ‘enemy aliens’

by Anna Corkhill

During the First World War nearly 7000 ‘enemy aliens’, mainly of German and Austro-Hungarian origin, were interned in camps in Australia. The Library’s collection of papers of ‘enemy aliens’ interned in Australia during WW1 contains around 40 handwritten diaries written by internees.

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Writing at Gallipoli

by Elise Edmonds

First hand accounts of the ANZAC landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915.

Photograph of leather bound journals and diaries

World War I diaries

by Peter Cochrane

The Library's collection of World War I diaries offers a glimpse into the life of Australians at war. 

Wesley Choat, prisoner of war

Wesley Choat and his two brothers enlisted in 1915.

George Bell, prisoner of war

George Bell was a bank officer from Port Headland, Western Australia.

Dorothea Mackellar's My Country

"I love a sunburnt country": Learn the history of one of Australia's best loved poems.

Stories from our migrant and refugee communities

The interviews delve into the personal stories of recently arrived migrants and their new lives in New South Wales, starting from birth and childhood and covering the (often harrowing) reasons they were compelled to leave their homes and seek safety in another country.

A family posed for a photo in a park at sundown.

Quick march! The children of World War I

by Elise Edmonds

To mark the centenary of the peace year, 1919, we take an intimate look at the lives of children during the ‘war to end all wars’.

A sepia photograph of a boy wearing an oversized army cap, standing and saluting.