Ask a librarian, Collection spotlights, Our stories, Victorian history:
The Library’s Cowen Gallery features some magnificent paintings by Australian artists, whose work sheds light on how the Australian Impressionist movement inspired Australian painters around the turn of the century.
Social life & customs, Such was life:
Maybe you received a Victorian Certificate of Education? Or a Higher School Certificate? A School Tertiary Certificate? Leaving? School graduation requirements have come a long way from having to be ‘sufficiently educated’, as was the case in the 1870s.
A healthy art community relies on figures that move quickly between commissions, code-switch through high and colloquial cultures, and translate between foreign lands. The record of Damian Smith’s career is the archive of one such figure.
Ask a librarian, Collection spotlights:
It’s International Archives Day and what better way to celebrate than to check out our database Archives Unbound! Explore women’s history, LGBTIQ+ activism and even Shakespeare’s plays. You’ll discover a renewed appreciation for archives and their role in history.
Ask a librarian, Collection spotlights, Reference desk:
We take a look at a concert poster from our collection and explore the meaning it holds for one of our Library members
Ask a librarian, Victorian history:
Join us on a journey from the 1920s to now. See what women were wearing across the decades and which trends mark each changing era.
![The Chalet, winter, Mt. Buffalo 9Vic.) [1910]](https://7f10fe.state-library-victoria.quantgovsites.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Chalet-Winter-MtBuffalo-ca-1908-1910-or-later-120x120.jpg)
Ask a librarian, Victorian history:
Over 110 years old, picturesque Mount Buffalo Chalet sits atop a plateau in the Mount Buffalo National Park. This grand old lady has provided a leisurely holiday escape for almost one hundred years. Little wonder that for decades, Victorians made the chalet their favourite winter and summer retreat.
Family matters, Research guides:
Explore these primary source documents for your family history research.
Within months of our Library opening in 1856 gas lighting was installed to allow the Library to stay open in the evenings. However, there were some unforeseen problems, and the gas lights were later replaced by electricity.
Ask a librarian, Collection spotlights, Victorian history:
To mark the 150th anniversary of public education in Victoria, we take a look at school papers and Victorian school readers. What insights can these texts offer into the social, political and cultural environments of their day?
In 1965, some older Victorians wrote short essays for a competition, recalling their early lives.
Ailsa O’Connor (1921-1980) was a political activist, painter, sculptor, author and teacher. Throughout her art career she was a member of the Communist Party and associated with the Socialist Realist Group.
