In February 2021 the Tasmanian Libraries launched a major project – the Preservation Digitisation Project – across Digitisation Services, the Government Archives, and the Community Archives teams. The aim of this project is to preserve our Tasmanian film, sound and video collections for long-term preservation and access by the public. Our priority is the magnetic tape collection which is at great risk of being lost forever if not digitised before 2025.
Continue reading “Preservation Digitisation Project”Category: Tasmanian wilderness
Recently Digitised Material: October-December 2020
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that this post contains images and voices of deceased persons.
This blog features some of the recently digitised items from the Tasmanian Archives and the State Library of Tasmania. Each year, we place items online to help promote and preserve our rare and special collections. These images and films are just a tiny sample of an amazing treasure trove of Tasmania’s heritage. From colonial artwork to convict records, fragile glass plate negatives to rare films, private letters to government records, our collections (including the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts and the W L Crowther Collection) tell millions of stories from Tasmania and around the world.
Read on to find out more about our new additions to our digital collections! To discover even more, you can also search our catalogue or visit us on Flickr and YouTube.
In this blog:
- Peter Laurie Reid Carte-De-Visite Collection, c1860 – Ref: NS1442/1/1 to 53
- Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914 – Ref: NS6607/1/1 to 14
- Stereoscopic Photographs of Emu Bay Burnie, c1890 – Ref: NS6664/1/1 to 5
- Stereoscopic photographs taken by George Benjamin Davies for submission to the Postal Stereoscopic Society of Australia, c1921 – Ref: NS6538/1/1 to 33
- Tasmanian Government Tourist Bureau photographs – AA375
- Photograph of Fanny Cochrane Smith and Horace Watson recording Tasmanian Aboriginal Songs: NS1553/1/1798
- Illustrated Travelogue July 1919 – Ref: NS6853
- Fountain in Governor’s garden, Port Arthur – Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts
- Drawing of George Meredith, Senior – Ref: LMSS12/1/72
- Photographs from the Trustees of the Tasmanian Public Library – Ref: SLT23
- Wills Image Replacement Project: AD960/1/1
- Diary of Police Duties kept by Charles H. Brown, District Constable, Coal Mines, Tasman Peninsula 1853 – Ref: CON129/1/1
- Index to General Correspondence, 1836-7 – Ref: CSO4
Continue reading “Recently Digitised Material: October-December 2020”
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.
Continue reading “Charles Gould’s Mythical Monsters”Island Life: The Volunteer Work and Photographs of Trauti and David Reynolds
At the end of National Volunteers Week, we wanted to take a moment both to thank our volunteers, and to highlight a new collection that tells stories of volunteering in Tasmania’s historic and wild places. These are the photograph albums of Trauti and David Reynolds, which document their volunteer and conservation work around Tasmania over many years. Thanks to their generous donation, these albums are now digitized and available to everyone.
Continue reading “Island Life: The Volunteer Work and Photographs of Trauti and David Reynolds”
Jewelled Nights: The Surprising Story of Two Tasmanian Women and their Lost Silent Film
Almost a century ago, two Tasmanian women wrote and produced a lost classic of Australian cinema. Set in the osmiridium mining fields of Tasmania’s Western Wilderness, Jewelled Nights was one of the first productions of its kind, created by the novelist Marie Bjelke Petersen and the silent film actress Louise Lovely in 1924.
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.
Explore Tasmania’s wilderness
Browse photographs, letters and diaries from some wilderness pioneers.
