New History of Cockatoo Island

Professional historian and Mitchell Library regular Sue Castrique has written a history of Cockatoo Island, focusing on the convict period.

An article about the book and its launch appears on the Professional Historians Association NSW blog.

We have requested copies for Australian Reference and stack.


Under the Colony's Eye: Gentlemen and Convicts on Cockatoo Island, 1839-1869

The Heritage of Parramatta Road

Interesting article on Leichhardt Council's project to record and to preserve the heritage of Parramatta Road (or Leichhardt Council's chunk of it anyway)!

http://localnotes.net.au/?p=3701

City of Sydney’s Oral History Collection

Take a look at the City of Sydney's Oral History Collection. This is a fabulous collection of interviews that are available as sound files (mp3) and transcripts. There are even some video interviews. Many aspects of life in Sydney are covered, including housing, arts and religion. Well worth a look.

                                                 http://www.sydneyoralhistories.com.au/

Our Pinterest Board on the Sydney Mail's World War I Covers

For the duration of the Life Interrupted exhibition, we are highlighting the front covers of the Sydney Mail during World War I. All covers produced during World War I have been digitised. We are choosing our favourites, and pinning a new one to the World War I in the Sydney Mail Pinterest board each weekday.



Sydney Mail, 28 October 1914.

Please let me know if you'd like to assist!

Andy.

Pat Sullivan and fan mail

Those of us with fond memories of our Dear Colleague Judy Nelson and her love of Felix the Cat will be interested to hear the Dreamworks Animation Studios are planning a new adaption of the cat and his bag of tricks.






http://www.thewrap.com/dreamworks-animation-acquires-felix-the-cat/

New App from the State Library of Victoria

Please see this interesting report from the ABC News website about a State Library of Victoria app that provides an historic walking tour of Melbourne.

Wonder if we should consider doing something similar for Sydney?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-03/melbournes-historic-buildings-on-show-with-new-app/5566632

Life Interrupted

Elise, Tim Fisher and co and the launch

On Monday night I was lucky enough to go to the launch of Life Interrupted curated by our former I& A colleague Elise Edmonds. Elise make a great speech about the huge effort that went in to the making of the exhibition and was sure to thank all the Library staff who contributed to it. Tim Fisher was as entertaining and animated as usual.

The exhibition is very moving so take your tissues. The Library's companion site is here: http://ww1.sl.nsw.gov.au/

Felix is back!

Felix the Cat cartoon strips / drawn by Pat Sullivan, ca. 1925-PXD 946

Some of you will remember our colleague Judy Nelson and her fascination with Felix the cat and the debate over his origins. She curated an exhibition called "Reclaiming Felix" based on material in our collections. It will be interesting to see with the news of Dreamworks animation studio buying the rights to a big screen adaptation what fun the feline still has in his bag of tricks. 

By the way, the picture of two children taking tea with a Felix doll in our work area is from the exhibition. Interestingly, the children are the actress Kate Fitzpatrick and her brother. The toy Felix was a gift from Mo himself Roy Rene!

Read the article about new film here:http://www.thewrap.com/dreamworks-animation-acquires-felix-the-cat/

Five Minutes with ... Michelle Richmond

From the Professional Historians Association NSW website, an interview with another one of our regulars!

http://www.phansw.org.au/five-minutes-with-michelle-richmond/

Five Minutes with ... Rosemary Kerr

From the Professional Historians Association NSW website, an interview with one of our regulars!

Five minutes with ... Rosemary Kerr

Solomon Islands Historical Encyclopaedia

This new resource on the history of the Solomon Islands might be worth a look!

This online encyclopedia 'has 280,000 words and 703 entries, some small and others covering five thousand words. The 312 general entries cover the years from the declaration of the British Protectorate until independence in 1978. There are also 391 biographical entries, mainly centred on the Protectorate years, although some entries, particularly those on current political and religious leaders, extend to the present.'

http://www.solomonencyclopaedia.net/index.html

Who Am I?

Here is an interesting use of data from the Australian Dictionary of Biography website.

Wragge Labs have created a game called Who Am I?

An Australian from the ADB is selected at random, and you have to guess who it is based on a set of clues.

It's very basic, but a lot of fun and even a bit addictive.

Enjoy!

Egon Pollack and the Palestine Football Team of 1939

Palestine Soccer Team, 10 July 1939.
Back row: G.Arazi (manager), S.Ginzburg, L.Fuks, A.Schneider, F.Neufeld, S.Viner, G.Machlis, E.Pollak (coach).
2nd row: A.Alembik, A.Resnik (captain), M.Mirimovitz, L.Werner, A.Greenberg, J.Lieberman.
Front row: J.Sidi, B.Mizrahi
PXE 789, vol. 45, no. 65.

I have been trying to find out more about this photo of a Palestine football (soccer) team that played in Australia in 1939. The photo is part of our incredible Sam Hood collection. It's an awesome collection, but often the details are very sketchy.

Seems this team was detained in Australia at the outbreak of World War II. The coach, Egon Pollak, had played in the legendary Hakoah team from Vienna, and later played for the New York Giants soccer team in the American Soccer League. Egon is in the back row, far right in this photo.

Using Trove Newspapers, I found a terrific article about Egon’s enforced stay in Australia (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article78976051). He was an esteemed singer, and he refused to sing any songs in German after the war broke out. Later he became coach of the first Israeli national team. 

Definitely worthy of more research!

Copying from the Marie Byles Papers

Just thought I would put this one down before it escapes my memory.

You may occasionally receive requests for copying from the various collections of Marie Byles papers in the Library. In Marie's will (a copy of which is on the correspondence file), she made the National Trust (NSW) her residual beneficiary. This means that any requests for copying material in which Marie owns copyright - along with any requests for permission to reproduce - need to go to the National Trust (NSW).

The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka

News from the Professional Historians Association NSW blog:

Professional historian Claire Wright has won the 2014 Stella Prize for her book, The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka. Focusing on the women of the Victorian goldfields, this book provides a very different perspective on the Eureka Stockade. Sounds like a fascinating read!

We have a copy at H 2013/5713.

Welcome aboard!

Thanks for visiting.

This blog will share information of interest to staff in the Australasian Team.

Please feel free to contribute!

John Arrowsmith, Map of Australia, 1839.
Dixson Library: Ce 83/1
http://library.sl.nsw.gov.au/record=b2939826