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Photographs

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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 collection

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
Photograph of employees at BHP steelworks viewed through a cast steel tilting frame of a slag post.

Frank Hurley, [BHP Steelworks, Newcastle, 1950, 2], 1950, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-159226742

“A symphony in stone that will long be remembered”: Around Australia with Frank Hurley

Learn about iconic photographer and film maker Frank Hurley and explore some of his photographs from around Australia.

Blog
Grey background with white text reading 'Fit to Print: Defining Moments from the Fairfax Archive' and a black and white photo of two men working on a large ship propeller
Fit to Print: Defining Moments from the Fairfax Photo Archive selected by Mike Bowers

Explore the art of photojournalism with highlights from the Fairfax Photo Archive selected by renowned Australian photojournalist Mike Bowers.

Exhibition
Black and white photo of damage to a caravan park about Cyclone Tracy, including several large tree branches on the ground and damaged caravans

Alan Dwyer, Caravan park in Darwin after Cyclone Tracy, December, 1974, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-148903604

Commemorating Cyclone Tracy through images and oral histories

Fifty years on, see how the destruction and impact of Cyclone Tracy in Darwin 1974 is captured in our collection. 

Blog
Collection guide
York Collection

About 140 oral history interviews, the majority for his Maltese-Australian and Polish-Australian folklore and social history projects. Personal papers of York plus papers of the historian Michael Cigler. Also a large quantity of Maltese newspapers, student newspapers, radical pamphlets and ephemera.

Collection guide
Black and white photo of train at Campbelltown Station

John L. Buckland, Pilgrim train E class locomotive 2007 at Campbelltown Station New South Wales, 1937, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-154996700

Buckland Collection

Photographs and papers, memorabilia and books relating to railways collected by John Buckland.

Collection guide
A rock sculpture with 2 figures

Yves Coffin, Coffin collection of photographs of Bali, Cham, Javanese, Khmer and Thai art, architecture and sculpture, (196?), nla.gov.au/nla.obj-140366892

Coffin Collection

Featuring over 4,700 photographs of ancient art and architecture across Southeast Asia is the Coffin Collection. Captured between 1955 and 1972 by Yves Coffin, this collection highlights Khmer monuments at Angkor, Cham sculptures, and Thai temples, alongside the art of Java and Bali. A valuable visual record of Southeast Asia's rich cultural heritage.

Collection guide
Collection guide
Williamson Collection

The J.C. Williamson Ltd archives include a wide range of materials, such as business records, playscripts, libretti, music, programs, magazines, books, costume designs, and photographs. It also contains personal papers from Williamson's business partners, the Tait family and George Tallis.

Collection guide
Collection guide
White Collection

Personal papers of Patrick White, plus letters from White to other Australian writers acquired as part of their papers. Also papers of White's biographer David Marr and those of the artist and theatre designer Desmond Digby who had a long friendship with White.

Collection guide
Black and white photo from inside the National Bank head office. 2 ornate staircases in the middle of the image surrounded by white pillars and desks.

Wolfgang Sievers, Interior of National Bank head office, Collins Street, Melbourne, 1941, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-143527488

Sievers Collection

Wolfgang Sievers' remarkable legacy with about 19,000 prints and 52,000 negatives and transparencies captured from 1938 to 1991. His work offers an extraordinary glimpse into Australian architecture, mining, and industry. 

Collection guide
Map of Antarctica showing territories and dependencies.

Australia. Department of the Interior. Property and Survey Branch. & E. P. Bayliss, J. S. & Cumpston, Antarctica, 1939, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-236895938

Australian explorations in the Antarctic

Diaries, papers, photographs, maps and other material related to Australia's involvement in the Antarctic

Collection guide
Young man, maybe late teens, wearing a grey shirt with a 'Friends of the Earth' armband wearing a gas mask

Soc Hedditch, A youth wearing a gas mask and a Friends of the Earth armband demonstrates against French nuclear testing in the Pacific, Adelaide 1972, nla.obj-146561887

Anti-war protests

Use this guide to help find and access resources in our collection about the Nuclear Disarmament movement, protests against the Vietnam War and protests against the Iraq War.

Research guide

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