Openbook online

A magazine about books, libraries, art & ideas.

Openbook online

The Library's quarterly magazine has had makeover and is now called Openbook. Read a selection of articles here.

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Summer 2020

The lost film of Nellie Stewart

by Graham Shirley

Of all the Australian stage performers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Nellie Stewart was the best known and most universally loved.

Deeper history

by Rebecca Hamilton

Science and history come together in conserving the swamplands of southern Sydney.

Swamp paperbark trees (Melaleuca quinquenervia), Lachlan Swamp, Centennial Park, Sydney, 2019, photo by Rebecca Hamilton

So you want to be a poet

by Penelope Nelson

She found fame as a teenage poet, but Grace Perry’s startling later work and her support for fellow poets are barely remembered.

Grace Perry, c 1960s

Drawing to a close

by Sarah Morley

An artist followed in the inspiring footsteps of a botanist rescued from a tragic expedition in 1848. 

Backscratcher Ginger, drawing by Janet Hauser, 2017

The Art of the Title page

A title page has always told readers what the book is about, but sometimes with an artistic flourish.

Vlyssis Aldrovandi patricii Bononiensis Serpentum, et draconu[m] historiae libri duo, 1640, by Vlyssis Aldrovandi

Six splendid street libraries

Street libraries are boxed shelters for books, managed by passionate local ‘librarians’. These tiny vestibules of literary happiness can be enjoyed, refilled and built by anyone.

Springwood Gumnut Library, front

'Demonstrations were our internet'

by Ashleigh Synnott

Fifty years after the first gay rights organisation was founded in NSW, the activism of the 1970s still resonates.

A writer’s guide: POC edition

by Maryam Azam

Illustration by Amani Haydar

SL Magazine - Spring 2020

Mr Archimedes Moves In

by Sarah Morley

The Library is the new home of award-winning children’s author and illustrator Pamela Allen’s extensive archive.

A man is sitting in a bath with a wombat, goat and kangaroo and the water is overflowing onto the floor

Chalk and church 

by Stephen Jackson

The place of religious instruction in public schools has long been controversial. 

Soundings - Some Views on Religious Education in South Australia

The Diary Files 

by Richard Neville

The Library’s online diary preserves everyday experiences of Australians during the pandemic. 

The Diary Files

The Gatherings Order 

by Elise Edmonds

A behind the scenes look at the new podcast series exploring the last great influenza pandemic in 1919.

A fully rounded masterpiece 

by Robert Holden

In difficult times, Australian expatriate artist George Lambert challenged himself to paint a distorted reflection. 

Probate: a short story

by Tony Birch

Stan didn’t look good at all. I could see him in the garden, through a window. Hunched forward, sucking on a cigarette, mistaking it for a sign of life.

Illustration by Rosie Handley

Singing with the wind

by Emily Gallagher

Sydney writer and naturalist Ella McFadyen combined a love of nature, folklore and poetry. 

two spiky lizards are facing each other

Totems

by Heidi Norman

How can a dialogue between Indigenous ancestors and descendants forge connections to country for all Australians?

An Aboriginal flag is planted in a dry riverbed

In the picture

Photojournalists brave war and crisis to tell their stories in the annual World Press Photo exhibition. 

Southern stars

The first printed European southern star chart joins the Library’s cartography collection.

Imagines coeli meridionales, printed 1781 from blocks created in 1515, by Johannes Stabius, cartographer, Albrecht Dürer, engraver

Marian and May

A lost Sydney theatre and a forgotten American film director come together in a piece of Library ephemera.

Program for Death Defying Acts, 1995 production, Marian Street Theatre records 1965–2002, box 8

Heroic quest

American author and fisherman Zane Grey was a celebrity visitor to the NSW south coast in the 1930s.

Zane Grey with striped marlin and black marlin caught off Bermagui, 14 February 1936, photo by TC Roughley, PXE 1776

SL Magazine - Winter 2020

Peas: a short story

by Heather Rose

It’s just a bag of peas, she told herself. I can order more online. So why was she crying?

Illustration of peas in a wineglass, on a book.

Art of Newcastle: convict artists in Aboriginal Country

by Mark Dunn

An Aboriginal leader’s assistance to the artists of the Newcastle penal settlement led to an unprecedented visual record of the local Indigenous people.

Drawing of a landscape, with small houses visible.

The world in a book: the first atlases

by Maggie Patton

In the Golden Age of Cartography, the first atlases combined the skills of the mapmaker with the ingenuity of the publisher.

These strange days: writers, post COVID-19

by Mireille Juchau

As writers adapt to a vastly altered publishing landscape, how will they remake themselves in a post-pandemic world?

Mireille Juchau.

‘Unprecedented’: the Library through two pandemics

by Elise Edmonds

The extraordinary events of the past few months are unprecedented in our lifetimes, but the response to the Covid-19 pandemic contains echoes of the 1918–19 influenza outbreak. The Library is one of many institutions following the lead of our forebears.

Two different men, one wearing a mask

Letters from Bergen-Belsen

by Louise Anemaat

Australian nurse Muriel Knox Doherty recorded her experiences and insights after the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. 

Letters by Muriel Knox Doherty, August-October, 1945

Curating Eight Days in Kamay

by Damien Webb

In 1770 the Gweagal people of Kamay (Botany Bay) discovered James Cook and the Endeavour. The Library’s new exhibition explores the eight days that followed.

Australian sport collections

A Foundation donor’s generosity and passion have helped open up the Library’s sport collections to everyone.

Adventures of Blue-eyed Patty

A small, ephemeral pamphlet is a superb addition to the Library’s rare books collection.

SL Magazine - Autumn 2020

Ancestry tree: a family’s escape from genocide

by Ashley Kalagian Blunt

A collection of papers traces one family’s escape from the Armenian genocide.

A composite image of photos, certificates, and documents.

A nice little business: NSW’s circulating libraries

by Jane Gibian

Part of daily life in the mid twentieth century, circulating libraries have left charming traces.

Betty Archdale: leading the way

by Margot Riley

The daughter of a courageous suffragette, Betty Archdale excelled in several fields that rarely admitted women.

Head portrait of a woman in military uniform, in six burst shots.

SL Magazine - Summer 2019

The first sugar: James Williams’ story

by Emma Christopher

Sugar and slavery are intertwined in the hidden story of Australia’s early industry.

Drawing depicting slaves planting sugar canes.

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.

Love is all: Myles Dunphy and romance

by Anna Corkhill

The well-known conservationist Myles Dunphy’s romantic side is beautifully illustrated in a new acquisition.

A spread of various crafts and booklets by Myles Dunphy.

Peace with pestilence: the 1918–19 influenza

by Alison Wishart

After four years of war, ‘normal life’ ceased again in early 1919 as an influenza epidemic spread through the country.

Collection of condolence letters.

SL Magazine - Spring 2019

150 years ago: the Free Public Library

by Richard Neville

In 2019, we celebrate the 150th anniversary of a vital public institution.

An illustration depicting a lavish gathering of gentlemen.

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 real secret river: exploring Dyarubbin

by Grace Karskens

A list of Aboriginal placenames was a trigger for seeking the ‘real secret river’.

A landscape photograph depicting a misty river as viewed through a break in tree cover.

Daidee and Eric: the first Mrs Dark

by Margo Beasley

Intimate letters from 100 years ago paint a detailed self-portrait of a young Australian woman.

A sepia photograph of a woman framed by dried wattle sprig and a lock of hair.

SL Magazine - Winter 2019

The cabin in the woods

by Dr James Dunk

The madness of a free settler and a convict found expression on the outskirts of the new colony.

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.

Everything: a 1980s anarchist-feminist magazine

by Helen Cumming

A feminist newspaper from the early 1980s brings back memories of lively co-op meetings, nutritious sandwiches and high ideals.

A two-colour illustration of a woman working on one side and with housework on another, with the words "A woman's work is never done".

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.

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.

River dreams

by Ian Tyrrell

Bold plans to transform the Cooks River in Sydney are reflected in the Library's collection.

SL Magazine - Autumn 2019

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.

Endgame

by Maggie Patton

Hundreds of delightful and intriguing endpapers can be found in the State Library of NSW collection.

An assortment of four endpapers in various styles and colours.

SL Magazine - Spring 2018

Claiming space

by Dr Breda Carty

The histories of people with disability in Australia can be found if you read ‘against the grain’.

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.

Behind the scenes in our new galleries

by Cathy Perkins

We’ve almost doubled our gallery space to show more of the Library’s collection and give exhibition visitors a chance to make their own connections.

Curator Anna Corkhill researching picture collections, photo by Joy Lai

SL Magazine - Winter 2018

Working for the Weekend

by Ryan Cropp

Donald Horne’s unlikely editorship of the mass-market Weekend magazine was a crucial stage in the Lucky Country author’s development as a public intellectual.

An old magazine cover, featuring a woman wearing a swimsuit and a cone-shaped, bamboo hat and the headline: "Bigameist confesses 'I had six wives'".

Underground albums

by Vanessa Berry

The optimism of a city imagining its future is captured in photographs, plans and sketches.

vanessa barry

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

Toulgra

by Ronald Briggs

An 1802 portrait of a young Eora man, by French artist Nicolas-Martin Petit, is remarkable for its attention to detail.

Toulgra

SL Magazine - Autumn 2018

Keeping company

by Bridget Griffen-Foley

A historian shares her delight in the recently acquired Fairfax Media Business Archive.

Tiles from the Sun Newspapers Ltd building, Sydney, c 1929, designed by Donald Bain

Love letters

by Alison Wishart

In the current era of instant digital communication, letters between long-distance lovers have a particular poignancy.

Image of letters

SL Magazine - 2017

The book that Joseph Banks burned

by Matthew Fishburn

An eccentric French nobleman, a letter about Cook’s Endeavour voyage and an enduring bibliographic mystery come together in the Library’s Banks collection. 

Portrait of Mr Banks

How Australia builds

by Margot Riley

The recently digitised Building magazine is a trove of information about twentieth century construction. 

Image of Florence Taylor, Editor, Building magazine

Recipes for country living

by Mark Dunn

Among the papers of the Scott brothers, who settled in the Hunter Valley in the 1820s, is a manual for frontier living.

Painting

Family business

by Tanya Evans

The continuing boom in family history research is having a far-reaching impact on how people understand themselves and the world. 

Maria Linders’ family photographs

A French sailor-artist on the South Seas

by Anna Corkhill

An enquiry from France brings to light a gem of nineteenth century travel illustration.

L’extrémité des alamedas à Lima

Under the sun: 15 artists respond to Dupain's Sunbaker

by Claire Monneraye

Max Dupain’s Sunbaker has inspired an exhibition of contemporary and thought-provoking artworks. 

Max Dupain Sunbaker image

Record catch: 80 years of east coast fishing

by Dr Ruth Thurstan

Merging history and science, a Library fellowship tracked 80 years of fishing off the east coast of Australia.

Ulladulla snapper fisherman, 1959, by Jeff Carter, PXD 1070

Red Cross under the Southern Cross

by Melanie Oppenheimer

The Australian Red Cross NSW Division archive spans over 100 years of humanitarian aid.

Junior Red Cross, Port Macquarie

SL Magazine - 2016

The modern garden

by Howard Tanner

Outstanding gardens are revealed by leading photographers in a new exhibition.

A photograph of a garden of low bushes with mountains in the distance.

Slide show

by Richard Aitken

The quirky and obscure Hallams slide collection is a curator’s dream, revealing ordinary Australian gardens in the 1960s and 70s.

A 60s Kodak colour slide showing people walking down a path with flower beds on either side.

Eternally yours

by Margot Riley

Buried deep down in the cool darkness of the Library’s framed picture store hangs a beautiful portrait of the young Mrs F O’Brien. It was painted in mid-1841 by naval surgeon-turned artist Maurice Felton from a death mask.

Sophia O'Brien, 1841 / Maurice Felton

Big things grow: the Gurindji’s struggle for land rights

by Christine Jennett

The Gurindji’s struggle sparked a national network of support organisations and became a symbol of the land rights movement.

Hannah Middleton and Shirley Warin Gilgi at Daguragu, c. 1970, photographer unknown

SL Magazine - 2015

Buddhist modernism

by Peggy James

Bushwalker, feminist and pacifist Marie Byles helped to shape Buddhism in Australia.

A black and white photograph of an older woman standing next to a hut, resting her hand on the banister.

Mitchell or burn: the Thompson family papers

by Penny Russell

Sifting through the ‘glorious clutter’ of the Thompson family papers offers a sense of early Sydney life and insights into several significant local families.

Hands holding a lit match to a burning piece of paper.

We tell the world: signwriting, decorating and Althouse & Geiger

by Michael Bogle

The Library’s collection offers glimpses into Sydney signwriting and decorating firm Althouse & Geiger that once boasted, 'We tell the world everything it wants to know'.

asda

Catching a cab

by Dr Rachel Franks

A surprise bestseller in 1886, Fergus Hume’s The Mystery of a Hansom Cab continues to intrigue.

Two books placed on top of each other

Architect of the screen: Eric Thompson as architect, artist and filmmaker

by Erica Aronsten

Eric Thompson’s career as an architect, artist and filmmaker highlights the close connection between architecture and design in the development of the film industry.

Several men in white coats sketching a young woman modelling

Hitting the slopes: a young woman’s alpine adventure in the 1930s

by Margot Riley

Thoroughly modern Miss Emily Chambers of Burwood, NSW, was always eager to try the latest fad.

Emily Chambers on ski slopes

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

SL Magazine - Previous years

Australia and the bomb

by Kyle Harvey

Peace activism in Australia has a rich and complex history.

Boy oh boy!

by Cathy Perkins

In 25 years at the State Library, our Curator of Photographs has seen four people cry.

A sepia photograph of a man lying on a beach, covered in droplets of water

Contact prints

by Nicola Teffer

Portrait of Gumbaynggirr and Bundjalung people from the 1870s show how photography shaped race relationships in the nineteenth century. 

Members of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are advised that this story contains names and images of deceased people.

'Portrait Gallery' c. 1870, from the Earngey album [Photographic scenes and portraits of Fijian natives, Aborigines of Queensland and Clarence River NSW, British Royalty and the Exhibition Building at Prince Alfred park, 1870-1875]

A remote drama

by Angela Dunstan

A Library fellowship uncovered an archive of emotion in the correspondence of Henry Parkes and Thomas Woolner.

Image of parkes letters

A distant paradise for Dickens

by Warwick Hirst

Charles Dickens saw Australia as a utopia for the working class — and his wayward sons.

Image of Pickwick papers- Charles Dickens

Through Darwin's eyes

by Paul Brunton

Australia played an important role in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Power and influence on the Cumberland Plain

by Elizabeth Ellis

Sydney’s colonial gentry built mansions, held lavish parties and amassed fortunes beyond the imagination of their English relations.

An illustration of a social hall, with ladies in dresses accompanied by men in tailcoats.