Category: #collectionfishing

Collection spotlight: Brisbane City Hall

Published: Wed, 2013-04-10 10:45 by Amanda Winters

Brisbane City Hall is now open again, after three years of restoration work. The Museum of Brisbane has opened several new exhibitions on Level 3 of the building, and guided tours and rides to the top of the clock tower are once again possible.

City Hall was originally constructed between 1925 and 1930, at a cost of £1,000,000. The Fryer Library holds an album of photographs taken by Bertha Mobsby which beautifully charts the building's progress. We've compiled the photos into a short video, so you can literally watch the building grow:

Construction of Brisbane City Hall 1925-1930: Photographs by Bertha Mobsby

Bertha Mobsby was the daughter of photographer Henry William Mobsby, and was one of Queensland's early female photographers and cinematographers. Her album is part of the Daphne Mayo Collection (UQFL119). Mayo was a sculptor who created many works art located around Brisbane, including the tympanum and concert hall frieze in Brisbane City Hall.

To consult any of the Fryer's research collections, simply contact fryer@library.uq.edu.au or visit the Fryer reading room on the fourth floor of the Duhig Tower (building 2), St Lucia Campus.

Harmony Day, March 21

Published: Thu, 2013-03-21 10:44 by Elizabeth Alvey

The theme for this year's Harmony Day is Many Stories - One Australia.

The Department of Immigration and Citizenship, who organises the celebrations of Harmony day each year on the 21st of March, describes the importance of sharing stories in celebrating Australia's diversity:

Let's go beyond the cover of the book and wander through the pages of each other's story. It's a way we can learn and understand.

With this year's emphasis on sharing stories, we wanted to share some Fryer materials which contain stories of diversity in Australia:

A new addition to our collection, A Norwegian waltz explores the stories of Norwegian immigrants in Queensland from 1870-1914 (also available online).
The collections of Elaine Smith and Julian Burnside & Kate Durham shed light on the experiences of people seeking refuge in Australia.
Daisy Marchisotti's papers reflect her activism, particularly regarding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and racism issues.
The Queensland Experience (edited by Maximilian Brandle) documents the life and work of 14 migrants to our state.

International Women's Day

Published: Fri, 2013-03-08 13:20 by Elizabeth Alvey

Friday, the 8th of March is International Women's Day. Celebrated internationally on this date since 1913, Women's Day recognises women for their achievements, reflects on past struggles and accomplishments, and looks forward "to the opportunities that await future generations of women".

Women rally during 1912 strike, Brisbane
Papers of Constance Healy, UQFL 191, Box 12, Folder 9.

Women and gender studies is a key collecting area for Fryer Library. You can view an overview of Fryer collections related to International Women's Day at our online exhibition or discover specfic collections in our Guide to manuscripts on Women in Politics and History.

UQ undergraduates in 1922

Published: Tue, 2013-02-19 15:23 by Elizabeth Alvey

As the 2013 academic year commences and UQ campuses welcome new students this week, here is the 'undergraduate look' from ninety-one years ago, courtesy of the Fryer Library University of Queensland photograph collection.

Day students, University of Queensland 1922. More information about this photo is included in its UQ eSpace record.

You can browse a selection of digitised images from this photograph collection on UQ eSpace. Enjoy market day!

Happy Birthday, Bram Stoker

Published: Thu, 2012-11-08 13:56 by Elizabeth Alvey

8 November marks 165 years since author Bram Stoker was born in Dublin, Ireland. Fryer Library holds two letters written by Stoker. The first dates from December 1884 and was sent to Edmund Hodgson Yates; the other dates from July 1903 and was sent to Edmund's son, Edmund Smedley Yates.

Shown here is a portion of the 1884 letter. Stoker and Yates knew each other through the theatrical business; at this point in his life, Stoker was working as personal assistant for English actor/manager Sir Henry Irving and as business manager of the Lyceum Theatre, owned by Irving. Irving was in America between September 1894 and April 1895, and Stoker sent this letter from the Bellevue Hotel in Philadelphia. Correspondence with Irving is also held in the Yates collection.

These two documents are part of a collection of over 600 letters held in the Edmund Yates collection (UQFL314). A print guide to the papers was compiled by Peter Edwards and Andrew Dowling and is available in the Fryer reference collection as well as via UQ eSpace. The Stoker/Irving correspondence is part of a wider collection of theatre-related correspondence within the collection.

Another significant set of letters covers journalism (Yates was co-founder of weekly newspaper The World); further information on the journalistic side of the collection can be found in the article by Peter Edwards published in Found in Fryer: stories from the Fryer Library collection.

- Penelope Whiteway.

Melbourne Cup Day

Published: Tue, 2012-11-06 09:14 by Elizabeth Alvey

For this week's #collectionfishing theme of horses, we discovered a volume of Melbourne Cup stories "from grave to gay, from lively to severe". Shimmer of Silk, by Robert P Whitworth and W A Windus, was purportedly the book of the season in 1893!