Photographs | National Library of Australia (NLA)
Search

What can we help you find?

Not sure where to start or need help? Ask a Librarian

Photographs

Showing 1 - 12 of 67 results
Sort by:
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
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
Collection guide
Chinnery Collection

Papers, maps and a large collection of photographs related to Papua New Guinea mainly from the period 1910-1940.

Collection guide
Collection guide
Callen Collection

Photographs of Australian steamships, nine paintings and an unpublished manuscript 'Dictionary of Australian steamships' by Terence Callen.

Collection guide
Collection guide
Burke Collection

Papers, photographs, ephemera, books and journals from Europe, Asia, America and Australia ranging from 1850-1950 collected by Eric Keast Burke.

Collection guide
Collection guide
Sculthorpe Collection

Personal papers, manuscript scores, literary manuscripts, sound recordings and family photographs of Peter Sculthorpe, plus videos of films for which he wrote the music and television interviews.

Collection guide
Collection guide
Mabo Collection

Personal papers and legal material that record of one of the most important and controversial legal cases in Australian history and the life of the man who is chiefly associated with the case.

Collection guide
First Australians
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
Four men posing in dress suits holding musical instruments.

Benvenuti Family (l to r - Victorio Guiseppi, Luigi Antonio, Italo Angelo and Antonio Giovanni), 1890, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-143662956

Benvenuti Collection

Memorabilia of musical, theatrical, social events in Queensland collected by the Benvenuti family musicians.

Collection guide
Print showing an early plan for Canberra

Detail of a black and white foolscap offprint of 'City and Environs, a plan of Canberra' from the papers of Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony collected by Eric Nicholls, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3210431032

Griffin and early Canberra Collection

Papers, maps, plans, photographs, paintings and other material related to early Canberra and the work of architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin.

Collection guide

Need help?

Our librarians are here to guide you.

Ask a librarian