Photographs | National Library of Australia (NLA)

Photographs

Showing 1 - 12 of 70 results
Painting of chrysanthemums

Ellis Rowan, Chrysanthemums, ca. 1890, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-138089294

Australian artist Ellis Rowan primarily worked in watercolour and gouache, and is best known for painting Australian native flowers. She caused a stir at the 1888–89 Centennial International Exhibition in Melbourne when her painting Chrysanthemums won First Order of Merit and Gold Medal. This similar painting, depicting the same type of flower, is a more recent addition to the Library's vast Rowan Collection, the bulk of which was acquired for the nation for £5,000 in 1923.

Pictures

Our rich and varied Pictures collection focuses on Australian people, places and events, from early European exploration of the South Pacific to contemporary events.

Information article
Collection guide
Humphery Collection

About 6500 lantern slides, glass negatives and photographs, mostly of Australian ships, especially sailing ships.

Collection guide
Natasha Maimbo, a young woman of colour, standing in a mechanical engineering lab with pictures of telescopes behind her.
Celebrating women in STEM

New collection material online reveals stories of Australia’s women scientists.

Blog
A group of people at dusk standing beside small telescopes and pointing at the sky.

Philip Gostelow, Amateur astronomers gazing through telescopes into the night sky during the Murchison Astrofest, Western Australia, 17 August 2013, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-153314469 

Exploring the universe: Australia’s history with astronomy

Look to the stars with stories and collections that tell Australia's role in space exploration.

Blog
Collection guide
Hertz Collection

Books, pamphlets, photographs, posters and a small number of maps relating to war and aviation.

Collection guide
Collection guide
Ledgar Collection

421 photographs taken in the period 1858–1910 in Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania and South Australia, mostly of public buildings, street scenes, rural scenes and events.

Collection guide
Photo of women from the dance group Bollydance Dipti in pink costumes taking a selfie in a crowd

Aishah Kenton, Bollydance Dipti dancers taking a selfie at the Indian Film Festival in Federation Square, Melbourne, Victoria, 17 August, 2024, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3428627828

Indian Diaspora in Australia documented through photography and oral histories

We asked Australians with Indian heritage to help us build our collection and these materials are now online. 

News article
Collection guide
Groom Collection

About 200 books and 260 pamphlets, plus personal papers and photographs mainly related to Australian history, politics, law, literature and religion from Sir Ernest Littleton Groom.

Collection guide
a coloured map of British North Borneo

http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-742754582

Loke Wan Tho Collection

A large number of photographs and negatives taken by Loke Wan Tho on his ornithological expeditions to the Pacific, Asia and Europe in the 1950s and early 1960s, as well as papers, books and maps.

Collection guide
Man in a leather jacket and cap seated in an old biplane

JL Turner, Mr WE Hart, the first Australian aviator in his biplane, [seated at controls, 1911?], nla.gov.au/nla.obj-144639799

Crome Collection

The Crome Collection includes papers, photographs, ephemera, aero-philatelic material, objects, books and pamphlets relating to Australian aviation collected by Ernest Alfred Crome.

Collection guide
Woman looking a large colourful colourful illustration of two birds in a tree

Ellis Rowan, Rothschild's Bird-of-Paradise, or Rothschild's Astrapia (Astrapia rothschildi), Papua New Guinea, 1917, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-138748166

Using the Pictures collection

How to find and use items in the Pictures collection.

Information article
Library services
Photo close up of a European honey bees on the honeycomb of a beehive

Mark Jesser, European honey bees on a brood frame containing capped and uncapped cells at an apiary near Griffith, New South Wales, 2025, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3668129443

Picturing beekeeping in Australia

The latest buzz at the Library is that 50 new photos of beekeeping in Australia are now available online. 

News article

Need help?

Our librarians are here to guide you.

Ask a librarian