Image, above: Trinity College, Melbourne University. Detail of etching by Lionel Lindsay, 1914. Wright Collection, Baillieu Library (Acc. 1964.2411.000.000). Bequest of Mrs L I Wright, 1964.
Your gift to the University Library preserves and enhances the intellectual resources so vital to a great University.
2010 Appeal – Library and Cultural Collections
Digitisation of rare Ned Kelly archives
The University of Melbourne Archives holds a unique collection of 54 letters and documents covering 1859-87 received by and relating to Superintendent Francis Hare, one of Ned Kelly's pursuers and briefly in charge of the first stage of Kelly's capture.
Complementing his published memoir, The Last of the Bushrangers (London, 1892), the collection includes letters by some of the key figures of the Kelly story including the Police Commissioner Frederick Standish, Superintendents Nicholson and Sadleir, Detective M Ward and John Sherritt, as well as items by Hare.
This collection is highly utilised and in demand by historians and researchers. Funds raised in the 2010 Annual Appeal will be used to digitise these unique and fragile letters, thus minimising general wear and tear. An online finding aid will be produced so that we can share these unique historical records with the world.
Conservation of unique works in the Baillieu Library Print Collection
The Library’s Print Collection is one of its most prized treasures, including some 7,000 prints – mostly etchings, engravings, mezzotints, lithographs, woodcuts and wood engravings – that date from the fifteenth century to the twentieth. The collection is used heavily by students and leveraged for curriculum development.
Funds raised in the 2010 Annual Appeal will be used to conserve some of our most precious series in the collection.
Conservation of A rake's progress, a series by William Hogarth
William Hogarth’s A rake's progress (1735) is a set of eight narrative prints depicting the decline of Tom Rakewell and is a moral lesson advising against vice. Hogarth is one of the most popular artists in the Print Collection, and his prints are used in the teaching of the Virtual Print Room subject. The prints require remounting, tear repairs and treatment for water stains.
Conservation of the Jack Koskie collection
Jack Koskie (1914-97) was a print maker and University academic who donated 23 prints which range in content from very early German woodcuts through to examples of his own lithography made in the 20th century. These works are of significance and interest to the teaching curriculum and require remounting and tear repairs.
Remounting the Harold Wright collection of Lionel Lindsay prints
The Harold Wright collection includes 221 works by the Australian printmaker Lionel Lindsay representing the largest and most significant holdings of any one artist in the collection. A number of the works from this collection are used in the teaching of the Virtual Print Room subject. Currently the works are either unmounted or housed in non-archival supports and require mounting to archival standards and additional solander boxes for housing.