Art – State Library and Tasmanian Archives Blog

Recently Digitised Material 2023

Read more to explore some of the newly digitised highlights from the Tasmanian Archives and State Library Heritage collections. To discover even more, you can also search our catalogue and Tasmanian Names Index or visit us on Flickr, YouTube and Instagram.

In this blog:

From my camera: Masterton photo album Launceston, 1908
Austin’s Ferry by George Boyes, c1830-40
Glass Plate Negatives and Lantern Slides of Bridport and north east Tasmania c1900 (Ref: NS787)
Photographs taken by T R G Williams of Scottsdale and north east Tasmania c1900 (Ref: NS786)
The Mount Bischoff Mail 1881
Photographs of ‘Tornado’ at Queenstown, 1918 (Ref: NS7240/1/1-11)
Rough sketches in V D Land by J W Mansfield, 1844
Aerial view of Sandy Bay and University of Tasmania 1962 (Ref: PH40/1/1093)
Lantern Slides of Neilson Alonso’s voyages to the Antarctic in 1927 and 1930 (Ref: CRO75/1/1-69)
Photographic albums of Beattie Jordan’s dance school (c1920-40). (Ref: NS648)
Album of Photographs of Tasmania compiled by RC Coulter, 1860-1920
Map including DEntrecasteaux Channel and Derwent River 1897. (Ref: MAP1/1/101)
Locket including hand-coloured photographs of W and L Arnold (Ref: NS7404/1/1)
Album of Tasmania (Ref: PH20/1/66)
Images of blankets and woollen cloth manufacture in Launceston, 1950-60. (Ref: ED330)
Lithograph of the trial of Jones of Pont-y-pool
Scrapbook of Henrietta Maria Garrett.
Plans, Architectural Drawings, Elevations and Sections of Public Buildings (PWD266)
Hobart from Knocklofty (aka Hobart seen from the west) / Melvin Vaniman (Ref: NS7407/1/1)
Photographs from the Launceston Manuscript Collection (Ref: LMSS726)
Photographs Taken by Ebenezer Cumings (1900-1904) (Ref: LMSS725)
Launceston Collection of Photographs of Ships (Ref: LMSS761)
Diary of Alexander Laing 1868] (Ref: NS906/1/1-3)
Laura’s Brookville diaries (1819-1894).
Prisoners Barracks, Hobart – Registers of Rations issued to Prisoners (1841-51) (Ref: CON96)
Letterbooks of Correspondence addressed to the Commandant, Launceston (1826-41) – (Ref: CSO36)
Report on Parochial Schools within Archdeaconry of Hobart Town by Arthur Davenport, 1849 (Ref: MM83/1/1)
Logs and other journals of ships on whaling and trading voyages (Ref: CRO82)
Oversize Chart of Convict Department Task Work of Female Convicts, 1852 (Ref: GO33/1/100)
Plan of cemetery, St James Colebrook, 1850 (Ref: NS6504/1/1)
Master Set of Burial Plot Maps, Cornelian Bay Cemetery, 1915-16 (Ref: AF86/1/1-2)

Tasmanian Textiles and Clothing in Film

For the moving visual addition to the Duck Trousers, Straw Bonnets, and Bluey exhibition now showing in the State Library Reading Room, we were able to find a few gems from the late Tasmanian Film Corporation. The Tasmanian Film Corporation was the last incarnation of the Tasmanian Government film unit, which was established in 1946 by the Lands and Surveys Department. It would evolve into the Department of Film Production in 1960 to oversee the full range of film production in the state before being transformed into the government owned commercial business model in the guise of The Tasmanian Film Corporation in 1977. If it moves, we’ll shoot it was a witty commercial made in 1968 by the Department of Film Production about their services.

Tasmania Reads: Sir John Franklin and his Expedition of 1845 (Part Two: The Answer and Historical Background)

The State Library and Archive Service is issuing a challenge to Tasmanians to read five different examples of nineteenth century handwriting from our Heritage Collections, each featuring a different set of records held in the State Archives.

Recently Digitised Material: October-December 2021

This blog features some of the recently digitised items from the Tasmanian Archives and the State Library of Tasmania.

Read on to find out more about our new additions to our digital collections! To discover even more, you can also search our catalogue and Tasmanian Names Index or visit us on Flickr, YouTube and Instagram.

In this blog:

Photographs of Tasmanian Cricket Teams – Ref: PH40/1/3625-27
Photographs of Launceston and Perth– Ref: NS7193/1/5-8
Artwork of Launceston Mechanics Institute – Ref: LPIC41/1/1
Artwork of Hobart Town, on the River Derwent, Van Diemen’s Land by W.J. Huggins (Allport)
Photograph of Twin Ferry Kangaroo, Hobart – Ref: PH30/1/3269
Advertisement for Weaver and Co, Wellington Bridge Hobart by T Midwood – Ref: NS6760/1/7
Glass Plate Negatives by A Rollings of Sorell Area – Ref: NS1553/1/1010-1099
Register of Convicts B, M-Z 1835-47 – Ref: CON22/1/4
Register of payment of salaries to officers of the police, 1855-57 – Ref: AUD45/1/1-3
Journal of a voyage from Liverpool to VDL, 1833 – Ref: NS5739/1/1
Copies of Wills Recording Granting of Probate – Ref: AD960/1/6, AD960/1/7
Film of opening of Launceston library after refit – Ref: AG279/1/2
Film of the Launceston children’s library – Ref: AG279/1/1

Hidden figures: Tom Midwood, caricatures and Tasmanian Railway Records

Sometime in the 1990s it came to the attention of the National Archives (then responsible for Tasmanian railway records) that a large collection of railway plans was languishing in haphazard storage at the Inveresk Railyards in Launceston. Archivists were dispatched to investigate and encountered a chaotic situation. Records had been stored anywhere and everywhere, including stuck up a disused chimney! Many had been badly affected by the 1929 floods and by the incursion of soot from coal-fired steam engines. However, the collection was one of marvellous significance, documenting Tasmania’s railway infrastructure. The archivists made a case for the preservation of this collection and secured funding to perform the mammoth task of cleaning, organising and properly storing the recovered hoard. In the process they found something quite unexpected.

Banks’ Florilegium Society Islands 1769

Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts exhibition – closes 31 July 2021.

Leisha Owen – Curator

Banks’ Florilegium – Society Islands, 1769 comprises framed botanical prints individually colour-printed in the 1980s, from the 18th century copperplate engravings of Sydney Parkinson’s drawings. Parkinson was the artist who drew the fresh plants collected in the Society Islands by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, as part of Captain James Cook’s first voyage round the world.

Charles Gould’s Mythical Monsters

Research is not a straight path. It is a trail that twists through mountains and valleys. There are forks in the road and enticing sights that lay off the beaten track. These distractions can be the most treacherous aspects of the journey. Often they can be so alluring that one can forget where one was going in the first place. I stumbled across one of these tangents recently while researching the life and work of Charles Gould (1834-1893), a journey that took me from Tasmania’s wild west coast to mainland China, from giant freshwater crayfish to dragons, and from natural history to the realms of myth.

Tales of the Unexpected

We’ve just finished celebrating Family History Month, which offered us an opportunity to reflect on some of the unexpected connections to be found in Libraries Tasmania’s archival and heritage collections. In this post, we explore four ‘rare books’ that were not written here, not published here, not about Tasmania in any way, but which unfold extraordinary Tasmanian stories through the history of their ownership and use. From a 17^th century Bible once held in royal hands, to a 19th century tanner’s technical manual, here are some tales of the unexpected uncovered in the State Library of Tasmania.

Continue reading “Tales of the Unexpected”

A convict portrayal: The Lewis family portraits by Thomas Bock

Nothing said ‘I’m important’ in 19th century Van Diemen’s Land more than having your portrait done.

The convict artist Thomas Bock was Hobart’s most fashionable portrait painter in the 1840s. The Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts has possibly the largest collection of Bock’s works, and it has just expanded to include an extensive range of portraits of the Lewis family, made between 1835 and 1854.

Continue reading “A convict portrayal: The Lewis family portraits by Thomas Bock”

Life at The Steppes

A stop at The Steppes was once essential for every traveller in Tasmania’s Central Highlands. On our list of recently digitised materials is a sketchbook of birds and plants by Marjorie (Madge) Wilson, who was the last resident of the house at The Steppes.

Continue reading “Life at The Steppes”