Author Archives: Simon Farley Back

A Night in the JOL

Posted on 30 Apr 2013| by Simon Farley |

Our monthly Night in the JOL evening talk held in the John Oxley Library Reading Room was a sell out affair on the eve of ANZAC Day 2013.

ABC Radio National’s Dr Kate Evans led a fascinating discussion with panelists Lieutenant-General Mark Evans (retired) AO, DSC, Chair of the Queensland Advisory Committee for the Commemoration of the ANZAC Centenary (2014-2018), and Kate Walton, PhD candidate at The University of Queensland specialising in Australian Prisoners of War in Turkey, as they explored the impact of World War One on Queenslanders and the enduring legacy of that devastating conflict.

Kate Evans in conversation with Lieutenant-General Mark Evans (retired) AO, DSC and Ph.D candidate Kate Walton.

Kate Walton

Kate talks about her research into Australian prisoners of the Turks.

Night in the JOL audience.

Treasures from the John Oxley Library were on show, including photographs, medals, and personal letters and diaries of Queensland service men and women and their families documenting their first hand experiences. Many were intrigued to discover a piece of the Red Baron’s Plane in one of the archival boxes.

Of particular relevance in this display, given Kate Walton’s research, was 28115: Maurice George Delpratt Correspondence 1915-1920 consisting of letters and postcards written by Maurice George Delpratt while held as a prisoner of war in Turkey during World War One. This collection also contains other letters written by Maurice’s family and friends. Delpratt House at the Southport School in named after Maurice who was an early student and a teacher at the school. It was wonderful to see the Delpratt Family in attendance, as well as everybody who came to this very special Night in the JOL.

If you couldn’t be with us on the 24th and would like to listen to the conversation the webcast is available on our website.

Simon Farley - Manager, Arts Portfolio, State Library of Queensland

Students Experience ANZAC Collections in the John Oxley Library

Posted on 29 Apr 2013| by Simon Farley |

In the lead up to ANZAC Day 2013 a number of student groups from Brisbane State High School and St Rita’s were able to examine original letters, diaries, photographs and medals held in the John Oxley Library.

Simon Farley displays a portrait of WWI soldier Sgt Roy Proctor.

Displaying a portrait of WWI soldier Sgt Roy Proctor.

WWI White Gloves talk and display in the Fox Family White Gloves Room.

WWI collections including 2nd Light Horse Association Records.

The John Oxley Library holds hundreds of publications relevant to Queenslanders and our experience of WWI including army regimental and battalion histories. Also included are rare books such as Owen Wildman’s Queenslanders Who Fought in the Great War and more recently Raymond Evans’ classic study of the social and political context of period, Loyalty and Disloyalty: social conflict on the Queensland homefront, 1914-1918. Manuscript collections include letters and diaries of soldiers from all over Queensland including next of kin memorial medals, newspaper clippings, service medals and photographs.

Students were particularly interested in Rev George Green’s diary. Rev Green was a chaplain with the 2nd Light Horse Regiment. On 19 May, 1915 one of his diary entries records the death of John Simpson Kirkpatrick: “During this day 19th May the famous “Donkey man” was killed. A hero indeed Since the landing he had plied his heroic & merciful trade carrying wounded men on his ‘donk’ (“Queen Lizzie by Dreadnought” was the breed according to him) from Quinns & neighbourhood back to the beach Ambulance. His energy, cheery wit & nonchalence were an inspiration to us all.”

Never Failing Springs…a visit to some of the world’s great libraries.

Posted on 14 Jan 2013| by Simon Farley |

“If you have a garden and a library you have everything you need” Cicero

Wherever you are the library gives you access to something you can’t obtain on your own – collective wisdom, recorded experience, knowledge, facts. It provides a space in the town or city with collections that generate an atmosphere, fecund and numinous, that connect you to the living world of the mind.

A place of revery, or honed concentration, in the library you can grow and become greater than you were before you entered…that is the promise and potential of every library. As Andrew Carnegie remarked, “A library outranks any other thing a community can do to benefit its people. It is a never failing spring in the desert.”

Entrance NYPL Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. November 2012.

Heading out into the world of the Americas I experienced the beauty of some of the great libraries…places every person interested in the life of the mind should visit…if only once.
In New York, Denise Hibay, Susan & Douglas Dillan Head of Collection Development, provided a wonderful tour from the stacks to the reading rooms of the New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue. In that big city of dreams the NYPL is an icon where the stone lions, Patience and Fortitude, guard her bounty of treasures. The library marked her 100th anniversary in 2011 with the publication of the book Know the Past, Find the Future in which some famous library lovers talk about their favourite collection items. I had finished reading the copy Denise gave me by the time we reached Washington.

I now recall fondly, with a mixture of memory and desire, the experience of seeing with my own eyes in the Berg Collection of English and American Literature the original typescript of T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland”. I remember too an old friend who could recite the poem by heart…she would have had trouble if Pound hadn’t pared it down to size.

Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress, Washington.

Great Hall, Thomas Jefferson building, Library of Congress.

Main Reading Room, Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress.

Great Hall, Thomas Jefferson Building, Nov 2012.

Mosaic of Minerva, guardian of civilization. Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress.

With my newly acquired readers ticket I entered the grandeur of the main reading room of the Library of Congress in the Thomas Jefferson building…indescribably beautiful. The largest library in the world is breathtaking inside and out with 1, 349 km of bookshelves and 147 million items. The Library makes millions of digital objects, comprising tens of petabytes, available at its American Memory site.

The Library of Congress is a Mecca for librarians and researchers from all over the world. Beneath the main reading room a rabbit warren of corridors leads you to various specialized readings rooms. At one point I took a lift down to this area, like Alice tumbling into Wonderland, and had to admit I was lost in the maze…secretly I didn’t want to be found…not for a while anyway…A librarian from the Hispanic Reading Room pointed me in the right direction. “Oh, you’re a librarian from Australia…you shelve books upside down there don’t you?” Very amusing.

Before entering the main reading room I had taken in an exhibition on the American Civil War and the original library of Thomas Jefferson which is permanently on display. Earlier on that same crisp cold morning I had been standing at the feet of the 16th and greatest President of the United States of America at the Lincoln Memorial. Lincoln himself had said, “My best friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read.”

In Colombia, South America, fine libraries and bookshops are numerous. 2012 was the 30th anniversary of Gabriel Garcia Marquez being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. In his acceptance speech he had said that the world thought of South America as a man with a moustache and a gun. Now, for those of us who admire fine writing, we think of it as a man with a moustache and a pen.

In the pages of the main daily El Tiempo I was heartened by the number of articles about writers and artists. The librarian feels at home in Colombia provided he or she is prepared to develop Spanish language ability.

Complete set of the Royal Botanical Expedition to New Granada, 1783-1816. Biblioteca del Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española, Cartagena, Colombia.

Cledemia Capitellata

In the old city of Cartagena de Indias there are almost as many libraries as there are churches. At the Biblioteca del Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española a librarian showed me their complete set of illustrations from the Royal Botanical Expedition to New Granada (at that time this territory included present day Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela, Peru and northern Brazil and western Guyana) 1783-1816. I was interested as we are planning an exhibition of botanical artworks published in books held in our Australian Library of Art collection.

All of the plates, maps, correspondence, notes and manuscripts from the expedition, as well as 24,000 dried plants, 5,000 drawings, and a collection of woods, shells, resins, minerals, and skins, were sent to Spain were they were inventoried and classified on arrival to Madrid, ending up at the Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid where they have remained since, except for a small part that was sent in 1889 to the Real Academia de la Historia.

Luis-Angel Arango Library, Bogota

Music Room Entrance, Luis-Angel Arango Library.

Piano Practice Room, Luis-Angel Arango Library.

At the Luis Angel Arango Library in Bogota, one of the most important libraries in Latin America, a librarian named Andrea showed me through the entire building, including galleries and concert halls, taking the time to show her colleague from Australia everything of interest and introducing me to staff on all levels. The library, founded in 1923, is named after the lawyer and business man Dr. Luis Angel Arango, who occupied the general manager position of the “Banco de la Republica” in Colombia, and who was an advocate for culture and literature.

Lemon Tree, Garden, Villeta.

Hammock, garden, Villeta

Citrus Garden, Villeta.

In the little town of Villeta, outside of Bogota, at the house of my wife’s father we relaxed in the surroundings of a garden in which all manner of fruit trees grew. I thought at the time that there isn’t much you need to be happy and fulfilled in life. I would distill it down to family, a library, a garden, a hammock…and a friend to bring you a book you have not yet read.

Simon Farley
Manager, Arts Portfolio
Queensland Memory – State Library of Queensland

Two Gems for the John Oxley Library

Posted on 20 Sep 2012| by Simon Farley |

Recent functions at the State Library celebrated the acquisition of two rare first-edition publications relating to Captain James Cook’s voyage of discovery on HMS Endeavour 1768–1771 and early Queensland history. The first involved an evening viewing and talk in the John Oxley Library Reading Room for Queensland Library Foundation Partners , whose generosity made the acquisition possible.

Queensland Library Foundation Partners celebrate the new acquisitions.

Celebrating by the Talbot Family Treasures Wall outside the John Oxley Library. Pictured from left are Queensland Library Foundation Partner Dr Cathryn Mittelheuser, SLQ's Executive Manager of Queensland Memory Ms Louise Denoon, Mr James McCourt, and Ms Dianne Byrne, John Oxley Library's curator of artworks.

State Librarian, Janette Wright thanks Foundation Partners

James McCourt talks about the new acquisitions in the context of other rare publications about Cook's Endeavour voyage.

SLQ's Brian Randall talks about the rivalry between the French and the English in the Pacific in the 18th Century.

Simon Farley displays James Basire's engraving of the East Coast of New Holland in William Wales' Astronomical Observations.

Queensland Library Foundation President Neil Roberts

The next day our wonderful Foundation Donors attended a morning tea, talk and viewing in the State Library’s Board Room. These events were the culmination of many months of work, especially by Queensland Memory’s rare book experts Helen Cole and Christene Drewe and the Queensland Library Foundation’s team of Sheila Collins, Kate Hall and Kylie Strudwick.

Thanks went to Brian Randall and Dianne Byrne for placing the acquisitions in context and explaining their historical significance to guests, Leif Ekstrom who has handsomely photographed the books, and David Ashe who has designed a series of postcards and bookmarks using Leif’s images. A special thank you also to rare book collector and historian James McCourt who spoke about these acquisitions in the context of the other key publications relating to the Endeavour voyage.

Two new gems for the John Oxley Library

Astronomical Observations title page

Cook's chart of the East Coast of New Holland. Engraved for Astronomical Observations by James Basire.

Journal of a Voyage Round the World...

Dedication page to Sir Joseph Banks and Dr Daniel Solander

Bookplate of Donald H. Graham Jr.

The books acquired are the very first published account of that journey attributed to Midshipman James Magra titled A journal of a voyage round the world, in his Majesty’s ship Endeavour. In the Years 1768,1769,1770 and 1771; undertaken in pursuit of natural knowledge, at the desire of the Royal Society…with a dedication page to Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander. This copy has a fine contemporary binding and was once held in the pacific collection of the Hawaiian property developer Donald H. Graham Jr.

The other is William Wales’ Astronomical Observations made in the voyages which were undertaken by order of his present Majesty, for making discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere, and successively preformed by Commodore Byron, Captain Carteret, Captain Wallis, and Captain Cook, in the Dolphin, Tamer, Swallow, and Endeavour…published in 1788. This is the rarest publication relating to Cook’s Endeavour voyage with only a handful of institutional copies existing in the world. Formerly in the holdings of the Radcliffe Observatory at Oxford University the Wales includes a beautiful map engraved by James Basire of the east coast of Australia where Cook and the crew of the Endeavour spent over 100 days.

This acquisition demonstrates the Queensland Library Foundation’s important role in securing invaluable collections for the State Library of Queensland. A heartfelt thank you to our generous benefactors for these two beautiful rare gems.

Simon Farley

Manager, Arts Portfolio – Queensland Memory – State Library of Queensland

Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame Induction Dinner 2012

Posted on 20 Aug 2012| by Simon Farley |

On Thursday 2 August I had the pleasure of attending the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame 2012 Induction Dinner at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.

This was a wonderful event and a real pleasure to be a part of. The 2012 inductees are outstanding and the digital stories created to document their lives and achievements are very well done.

2012 Inductees

It was great to hear the Clare Hansson Trio playing. Coincidently we had just recently recorded a digital story with Clare and Tony Ashby, both legends of the Brisbane jazz scene, that will be incorporated into our Queensland Bands exhibition that will go on display at the Library from May to September 2013.

Over 800 guests attend QBLHF Induction Dinner 2012

If you would like to find out more about the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame and this year’s inductees please visit the QBLHF website. You can also experience the Hall of Fame in person in the State Library’s John Oxley Library Reading Room on level 4.

Simon Farley

Manager, Arts Portfolio – State Library of Queensland

OSCAR FRISTROM AND HIS ABORIGINAL PAINTINGS

Posted on 25 Jun 2012| by Simon Farley |

‘Oscar who?’, I hear you ask.

Carl Magnus Oscar Friström (commonly known as Oscar) was born in Sweden in 1856; he now rests in the South Brisbane cemetery (he died 1918). He settled in Brisbane about 1884 where he became first a photographer and then a successful painter. In particular he was a noted portrait painter, of eminences like the Governor of Queensland, Sir Henry Wylie Norman – a painting now held by the John Oxley Library.

What is particularly interesting about Fristrom is that he did a number of Aboriginal portraits and paintings. So far I have located seventy-two such works – which is surprising because this was a time in our history when Australians were ignoring, indeed removing and decimating, the first peoples of this land.

One of his favourite subjects was Catchpenny, an Aboriginal woman from Bribie Island well-known around Brisbane town and environs. So far I have located fourteen representations of Catchpenny that Oscar painted. The first representation was in 1887, when he showed two works on Catchpenny in the annual exhibition of the Queensland National Association; one was already sold, the other available for five guineas. Unfortunately we do not know the whereabouts of either of those Catchpennies.

Oil painting on board by Carl Magnus Oscar Fristrom depicting Catchpenny or GWAI-A of the Moreton Bay district. In original frame.

A fortnight ago I went with Dianne Byrne, Curator of Original Materials in the John Oxley Library, to the Redcliffe Library to talk about Fristrom and some of his paintings. The John Oxley holds three such portraits – 1889, 1915, 1916. The reason for visiting Redcliffe was that they hold a Catchpenny, dated 1910. This had been purchased by the then Caboolture Shire from an auction in 2006; after the amalgamation process of local government areas this painting went into the collection of the Moreton Bay Regional Council.

Other Catchpennies are held by: the Museum of Brisbane (1898); the Mitchell Library (1898); the Etnografiska Museet, Stockholm (1910); Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery (1915). Sadly, we do not know the whereabouts of the other six Catchpenny portraits; this includes the 1897 painting which was shown in the Queensland International Exhibition of that year. Also missing is the 1899 version he sent to the Greater Britain Exhibition of that year, held in Earls Court, London.

Maybe your great-aunt has, unbeknowns, a Fristrom painting amouldering in the attic; maybe you have some information about Fristrom or Catchpenny. If so, we would dearly love to hear from you at the State Library of Queensland – so that we may make more complete our knowledge of this person, his work and this state’s Memory.

There will be an exhibition of ‘Oscar Fristrom and his Aboriginal paintings’ in the Philip Bacon Gallery, John Oxley Library, in October next year.

W. Ross Johnston – historian

Darcy Howe visits the John Oxley Library

Posted on 11 May 2012| by Simon Farley |

It was a great pleasure to meet Mr Darcy Howe yesterday when he came up to level 4 with the Australian Active Artists group. The group were looking at a selection of artists’ books held in the Australian Library of Art Collection. While chatting with one of the group’s members, Mrs Joan Cooper, about the Essence of Australia From Desert to Sea exhibition she and her husband Len have on out at Roma I said that I had passed through Roma many times on the way to Blackall where I have family connections. Sue said I might like to meet the accomplished painter Darcy Howe who was also from Blackall and a grandson of the legendary blade shearer Jackie Howe. Jackie Howe famously set the record for the most sheep shorn in one day with 321 sheep completed in 7 hours and 40 minutes at Alice Downs Station on the 10th October 1892.

With Mr Darcy Howe in the Fox Family White Gloves Room.

As a child I would stay with my Grandparents in Blackall who lived next to Darcy’s cousin in Rose Street. When talking with Darcy about Blackall I remembered we have a collection item that he would be interested in…TR2001: Jack Howe Scrapbook which contains clippings relating to Jackie Howe’s career and other items. Also included in the scrapbook is a letter written in 1910 to Jack Howe from his son’s boarding master at Nudgee College telling him how well regarded his son was among teachers and students. Darcy was intrigued to find employee references written for his father John in the 1940s and other items of great personal interest to him. Darcy spent some more time after lunch in the John Oxley Library Reading Room looking at the scrapbook and also chatting with Senior Family History Librarian, Stephanie Ryan who had already carried out a lot of research into the famous Howe Family.

Looking at the photo of Darcy and I it is interesting to note in the background Anthony Alder’s beautiful painting Homeward Laddie from 1895. A work which depicts a flock of sheep at Glengallen Station on the Darling Downs and a time, 3 years after Jackie Howe’s record, when Queensland’s economy rode on the sheep’s back.

Simon Farley

Manager, Arts Portfolio

State Library of Queensland

Innovation + Invention: Amazing Stories from the Archives

Posted on 09 May 2012| by Simon Farley |

On Wednesday 9 May staff from National Archives of Australia, State Library and Queensland State Archives delved into thier vast collections to source information about innovations and inventions in Queensland and more broadly Australian history. This event formed part of the National Trust of Queensland’s Heritage Festival for 2012. Each of the talks were interesting and greatly appreciated by those in attendance.

Greg Cope from NAA commences his presentation.

Greg discusses the Jenyns Patent Corset.

Advert for Jenyns Patent Corset.

Greg with Ken and Ron Jenyns and Simon Farley from the John Oxley Library.

Jane Wassell from the Queensland State Archives.

Libby Fielding from the John Oxley Library.

Special thanks to Greg Cope, Assistant Director, Access and Communication, at the National Archives of Australia’s Brisbane Office, Jane Wassell, Senior Reference Archivist, from the Queensland State Archives and the John Oxley Library’s Libby Fielding, Coordinator of Legal Deposit Collections, for their presentations. Thanks also to everyone who attended including Ken and Ron Jenyns, grandsons of Ebenezer and Sarah Ann Jenyns who invented the famous Jenyns Patent Corset that Greg spoke about in his talk.

It really is amazing how inventive Australians have been on the world stage…from pineapple peelers and pacemakers to the Hills Rotary Clothes Hoist and the black box flight recorder.

Simon Farley

Manager, Arts Portfolio

State Library of Queensland