Archived News 2009
November 2009
'Unity is Strength': Symbols of Solidarity
Our current exhibition features photographs, certificates, badges and ribbons from
trade union collections showing the changing imagery of union solidarity and
collective action. The symbols include motifs of clasped hands, classical
buildings and figures, heraldic symbols, and bundles of sticks (one stick can be
broken, but not a bundle), alongside Australian references: the entwined 888 of
the Eight Hour Movement, and indigenous flora and fauna.
The records are drawn from the collections of the Operative Stonemasons' Society
of Australia, the Baking Trades Employees Federation of Australia, the Australian
Boot Trade Employees Federation, the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and
Joiners of Australia, and the Australian Timber Workers Union. The exhibition
continues in the Reading Room in the Menzies Building until the end of January
2010.
Image: Membership certificate, NSW Operative Bakers Association.
Volunteers project on photographs
Our volunteers have been working on photographic collections of Tooth and
Company and of CSR Limited. The Tooth's photographs are almost invariably of
hotels and the tasks undertaken include identifying unlabelled photographs,
sorting and listing miscellaneous collections and rehousing them in archival
albums for easier reference by researchers. The CSR collection documents the
sugar industry in Australia and Fiji and mining in the Pilbara and on Cape York,
and includes the work of a number of famous Australian photographers including
Max Dupain and Gervaise Purcell.
If you would like to join our volunteer program in the new year, please contact
our co-ordinator Amalijah Thompson at amalijah.thompson@anu.edu.au or on 02
6125 0143, Monday to Wednesday.
Image: Bourke's first hotel 1866, Tooth and Company collection.
Davison on The Australian Legend
The 8th Annual Archives lecture was presented by Professor Graeme Davison of
Monash University on 8 September on the topic 'Rethinking The Australian
Legend'. The lecture is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Noel Butlin Archives
Centre. The historian Russel Ward was awarded a PhD in 1957 at the fourth
conferring of degrees at ANU, and his book The Australian Legend, based on his
PhD research work, was published in 1958. It remains a classic text on the iconic
image of the Australian bushman, who features in folksongs and literature, and
more recently in films and advertising. To hear Graeme's lecture by podcast,
listen in at this link.
Image: ANU conferring of degrees 1957, L to R: Sir Leslie Melville, Dr RB Ward,
Dr JA Barnard, Dr HC Coombs.
Map catalogue online
We recently added our Map Catalogue of over 5,000 maps to our website - there's
a link from the Map Collection page and some hints on conducting a search.
Archivist Dr Pennie Pemberton organised the transfer of the original card index to
its spreadsheet format.
Our maps date from the 1820s and cover many parts of Australia and the Pacific.
There are topographical maps of rural properties, street maps of towns and
settlements, hand-drawn maps of exploration, geological maps of mining areas,
and land use maps of Papua New Guinea and Fiji. Many were deposited by
pastoral and land development companies including the Australian Agricultural
Company Limited, Australian Mercantile Land and Finance Company Limited,
CSR Limited, Dalgety and Company, Goldsbrough Mort and Company Limited,
New Zealand and Australian Land Company, and Peel River Land and Mineral
Company Limited.
Image: Cane farming land around Nausori Mill, Fiji, CSR Limited collection.
New acquisitions
…Noel Butlin Archives Centre
The records of the Federation of Automotive Products Manufacturers have been
donated to the Noel Butlin Archives Centre. A last transfer was made in July
when the Canberra office closed down.
Photographs and cartoons used in the Women and Work newsletter produced by
the Women’s Bureau were donated by Maureen Cummuskey. The photos from
the 1980s include women at work in non-traditional trade roles.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions has added circulars from 2000 to 2006 to
their long-running series of circulars to unions. The NSW Nurses Association has
added to their deposit of files, and the records of the South Australian branch of
the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union were transferred by the State
Library of South Australia.
CSR Limited has added a large collection of negatives and slides to its extensive
photographic collection.
…Pacific Research Archives
The papers of Sir Colin Allan on the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Seychelles,
and of Dr Robert Norton and Jai Ram Reddy on Fijian politics have been
transferred to the Pacific Research Archives by the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau.
Ralph Lawton has donated papers relating to his translation of the Bible into the
Papuan New Guinean language Kiriwina, and Dr Marion Ward has donated her
research papers on transport networks in Papua New Guinea.
…University Archives
A large collection of early records has been transferred from a storeroom in
University House to the University Archives. Included were original signed
minutes of the Governing Body from 1953 to 1991, the Master’s correspondence
from 1971 to 1986, and a register of attendance at House dinners, 1974-1989.
Collections of research and teaching records have been donated by Professor Jack
Caldwell (Epidemiology) and Dr Thomas Mautner (Philosophy). Pauline Griffin
has donated a small collection of personal papers relating to her career as
personnel manager at Bradmill Industries Limited, member of the Australian
Industrial Relations Commission, and ANU Pro-Chancellor 1991-1998 and
member of the ANU Council from 1978. Files of the Council of Australian Law
Deans have been transferred by the College of Law.
Audiovisual survey
We are currently surveying the condition of our audiovisual holdings to prioritise
treatment and copying of original material. Archivist Margaret Avard has
gathered information about the formats we hold, and Chesley Engram, a former
conservator at the National Library of Australia, has physically inspected over
1400 items so far in the University Archives. These include audiotapes of lectures,
film and tapes of the openings of buildings including speeches by the Queen and
Prime Minister Menzies, film of the aftermath of Cyclone Tracy taken by staff of
the North Australia Research Unit, and language tapes recorded in the field by
linguist Professor Stephen Wurm and anthropologist Dr Helen Groger-Wurm in
the Northern Territory, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
Next year, the survey will encompass the Noel Butlin Archives Centre collection
where we have already identified valuable material such as advertising and
promotional material from the Ford New Holland farm machinery company,
audiotapes of speeches by ACTU president Bob Hawke, and films produced for
HIV/AIDS educational programs.
Image: The film can containing 16mm colour film of the installation of the first
ANU Chancellor, Lord Bruce, in 1952.
Business Archives
The University Archivist, Maggie Shapley, and colleagues Helen McLaughlin and
Melinda Barrie from the University of Melbourne Archives presented a workshop
on business archives at the annual Records Management Association of
Australasia conference held in Adelaide in September. Sessions covered the
business drivers for retaining archives, collecting and access policies, appraisal of
business archives and legislation affecting the retention and disposal of business
archives. Most attendees were responsible for the records of government
businesses and provided some interesting questions and valuable feedback for
those of us mainly responsible for non-government business archives.
Our planning for a website which provides the advice and tools that businesses
need to manage their records proceeds: a joint proposal for funding has been
submitted to the Australian Research Council, with partners University of
Melbourne, CPA Australia and the National Archives of Australia.
Eric Fry Labour History Research Grant
The Australian Society for the Study of Labour History and the ANU National
Institute for Social Sciences and Law are again offering the Eric Fry Research
Grant for research using the Noel Butlin Archives Centre collection. The
eligibility criteria have been widened to include both honours and postgraduate
students. Applications close 31 January 2010. To find out more, click here.
May 2009
Transfer of Stock Exchange records
The Noel Butlin Archives Centre recently received a donation of over 300 metres
of records from the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). They are records of
the State exchanges in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth and Hobart
dating from the 1870s up to 1987 when they merged to become the national body.
The donation, made under the Cultural Gifts Program, also included master sets
of ASX publications up to 2000. An extensive finding aid prepared by the ASX
archivist Pam Spies accompanied the donation. The records will not be
immediately accessible as it will take some time to unpack the 19 pallets of
records but should prove a popular source for future research.
Image: Pam Spies, ASX Archivist with Vic Elliott, Director, Scholarly
Information Services signing the Deed of Gift
Pacific health exhibition
Pacific Archivist Karina Taylor prepared an exhibition on Pacific Health with the
assistance of Pacific Manuscripts Bureau archivists Ewan Maidment and Kylie
Moloney, opening for Asia-Pacific Week in January. It is located in the foyer of
the Menzies Building and in the Reading Room of the ANU Archives. Material is
drawn from several collections in the Pacific Research Archives including Sir
John Gunther’s papers as Administrator and Director for Public Health in Papua
New Guinea, dietitian Nancy Hitchcock’s slides of food preparation in Papua
New Guinea, and posters collected by Professor John Ballard and Dr Richard
Eves, both at one time at the University of Papua New Guinea and now in the
ANU College of Asia and the Pacific.
Topics include the prevention and treatment of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria,
and nutrition and maternal health programs. The exhibition includes
reproductions of 1960s posters by Jean Chambers with messages such as ‘Clean
water for good health’ and ‘Feeding baby at 2 weeks, 6 weeks ...’ which are
displayed outside the McDonald Room.
New acquisitions
…Noel Butlin Archives Centre
Grand United Order of Oddfellows records from Australian Unity, previously
held in the Centre for Fraternal Studies located at the Newcastle Museum.
Further deposits from the Institute of Public Affairs including Executive
Committee minutes 1985-1989, press clippings from the 1950s to the 1990s and a
complete run of the IPA Review.
Industrial files from the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union
and research files from the United Mine Workers National Research Unit, part of
the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.
Small collections of records donated include:
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Motor Transport & Chauffeurs Association donated by Owen McKenna
Bundure Station donated by Ian Hutchings
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Clerk of Works Institute of Australia from Jack Roberts, a former
president, including records relating to his position as Clerk of Works for
the construction of the Sydney Opera House
slides of New Zealand and Australian Land Company properties from Ted
Lowe.
Image: Peter and Elise Padreny of the Castlemaine Historical Society present
University Archivist Maggie Shapley with the index they prepared to records of
the Castlemaine lodges of the Manchester Unity Independent Order of
Oddfellows.
…Pacific Research Archives
Dr Tom Dutton: notebooks and photographs from linguistic field work in Papua
New Guinea
Sir John Gunther: papers as Administrator and Director for Public Health in
Papua New Guinea
Dr William Clarke: papers relating to research in Papua New Guinea
…University Archives
The Australian Dictionary of Biography has transferred its files about people
whose biographies appear in volumes 1 to 17 of the series. The files in over 800
boxes contain research notes, drafts, copies of birth, death and marriage
certificates, correspondence between authors and editors, and corrigenda.
Earlier this year University Archivist Maggie Shapley visited Plumwood
Mountain via Braidwood to collect records of the late Dr Val Plumwood,
philosopher and environmentalist, donated by her literary executors. Dr
Plumwood was a Research Fellow at the Fenner School for Environment and
Society at the time of her death.
The Archives recently received over 150 bound volumes of examination papers
from the ANU Library. They cover undergraduate examinations for the period
1955–1997, including those of the Canberra University College before it became
part of the Australian National University.
Smaller transfers include:
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School of Art library records including National Institute of the Arts
minutes, posters and catalogues of student exhibitions.
Teaching materials of Professor Ken Campbell, Department of Geology
and article reprints and photographs from Professor Des Brown, Research
School of Chemistry
Minutes of the ANU Students Association 1959-2006
Records of the ANU Labor Club 1963-1967.
Volunteer program
Our volunteer program is underway for this year with co-ordinator Amalijah
Thompson (second from the right) ready to match potential volunteers with
interesting projects working with our collections. Contact her at
amalijah.thompson@anu.edu.au or on 02 6125 0143, Monday to Wednesday, if
you are interested.
Image: Archivists Sarah Lethbridge, Pennie Pemberton, Margaret Avard,
Amalijah Thompson and Karina Taylor taking a break during our pre-Christmas
working bee in the repository]
Business Archives Taskforce
In collaboration with the University of Melbourne Archives, we are developing a
proposal to encourage the retention of Australian business archives. We will be
developing a website which outlines the benefits of keeping business archives as
corporate assets and provides the advice and tools that businesses need to manage
their records. If you’d like to know more about this project as our planning
progresses, please contact University Archivist Maggie Shapley at
maggie.shapley@anu.edu.au or at 02 6125 9602.