Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Palimpsest 2 - State Library Visit

It was exciting. It was after hours! The lovely Tim Hogan took us on a Mythish Melbourne-ised personal tour of the State Library of Victoria's collections. We saw cannonballs and muskets, read the diary entries of 'mashing' 'smooging' gal-about-town May Stewart, learned the story behind the acquisition of Ned Kelly's Jerilderie Letter and went behind the scenes to see (but not always touch) some realia including stabby hat-pins, the illustrated diary of Edward Snell, the first newspaper published in Melbourne, a Gunner's helmet and the compass used to find Burke and Wills. (Lisa subsequently found out that the 'term' Berk does not derive from the aforementioned packhorse explorer.) We were also intrigued to learn about Anne Drysdale and Caroline Newcomb, who sustained a farm without men! And we were entertained by Garryowen's Chronicles of Early Melbourne. To finish the visit Tim talked us through how to research using the Library collections. I went home with the story-hum in my head.

Links:
Kaz Cooke's blog (Kaz Cooke is a creative fellow of the State Library blogging about frockery and finery from the collections.

Edward Snell - Diary



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