The JC 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.

139 pencil drawings and watercolour paintings produced by Westall, all but 2 from the voyage of HMS Investigator (1801-03).  Capturing landscapes, coastal profiles, and Indigenous peoples, these works offer a vivid, accurate record of early Australian encounters. As one of the first professional artists to visit Australia, Westall’s collection is a significant historical and cultural treasure.

Explore Philippa Webb's vibrant artist’s travel diaries and learn about her artistic style.

Wendy Cooper

About 280 paintings and drawings by William Strutt dating from 1837-1900, produced in France, Australia, New Zealand, Africa and England, as well as 2 typescripts of stories by Strutt.

Dr Caren Florance presented a lecture on her 2024 National Library Fellowship research into artists' books (books made by artists as art).

More than 1,000 comics, mostly published in Australia and including some overseas titles reprinted in Australia, from the 1940s to 1970s, as well as fanzines and personal papers.

Ten signed stencil prints by Pablo Picasso. 54 sketchbooks of John Power, a small group of personal papers of Power, and 262 books relating to art and architecture.

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

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.

See some of the many talented bird artists from the 19th and 20th centuries in our collection.

Topic

The publication of the Picturesque Atlas was situated within a ‘golden age’ of illustration: the great global explosion of mass-produced images that occurred between 1850 and 1900 with the rise of the illustrated press.