We hold one of Australia’s largest collections of performing arts materials.

The Library is unable to provide specialist advice about how to care for personal or family archives, but there are a number of resources which can help.

Topic

The Picturesque Atlas of Australasia and its principal Sydney-based artists - Julian Ashton, A. Henry Fullwood and Frank Mahony - transformed the way settler colonial Australia was seen both here and around the world.

80 oral history interviews with musicians, dancers and others, and recordings of songs and performances, as well as sheet music, imprints and personal papers.

About 15,000 books and pamphlets. The great strength of the collection is in Pacific voyages and early Australiana with many very rare items. Also manuscripts including papers of Joseph Banks, maps and pictures.

Facilities, staff support and additional privileges for readers who are undertaking advanced research.

Around 830 books mainly relating to Buddhism, but also to Hinduism, Indian history and Western philosophy, in German, French and English and mostly published 1870–1945.

About 350 photographs, including glass negatives, and a small number of pencil sketches, majority depicting paddle steamers sailing or moored on the Murray or Darling rivers.

Kathy Weeden, illustrated by Kim Drane

Four photographs of the 2022 Pacifica Youth Rugby Cup have recently been added to our collection.