The Fryer Library's collections of Queensland political organisations and student activists groups are supported by a growing collection of 'ephemera', which is library-speak for written or printed material that is usually created for a short-term purpose.

Political ephemera collected by Fryer ranges from how to vote cards, posters, buttons, bumper stickers, and t-shirts, to a newly acquired Kevin Rudd tote bag. These collections are still referred to as the 'Fryer Vertical Files' (FVFs), a reference to the filing cabinets they were once stored in.

FVFs cover all levels of politics, including federal, state, local, student as well as referenda, and also represent a wide range of organisations across the political spectrum. A selection of early ephemera has been digitised and is available to view on UQ eSpace.

In particular, Fryer's tradition of collecting material from student politics and campus groups provides unique insights into the fundamental - sometimes controversial - political issues of each generation. Many files capture the reaction of young people and students to the Vietnam War, women's rights, the Springbok tour during apartheid, Aboriginal land rights, and Queensland political figures, such as Joh Bjelke Petersen.

This year, we are continuing the tradition by collecting ephemera from the recent student and federal elections. Who knows what future researchers will make of this material?

-- Amanda Winters & Elizabeth Alvey.

During September 1967, Archdeacon Edward Leo Hayes made the arrangements which saw his vast collection of books, manuscripts, documents, anthropological and geological specimens and assorted realia sent to the University of Queensland. The collection left an invaluable legacy to UQ's Fryer Library and anthropology museum.

In the fiftieth anniversary of UQ's RD Milns Antiquities Museum, Senior Museum Officer James Donaldson outlines Father Hayes' contribution to the Antiquities Museum's collection of ancient coins.

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The Hayes collection of ancient coins consists of fifty one individual coins. In 1979, when first added to the museum collection, they represented a significant increase to the number and range of the museum's coin holdings; the donation remains the largest single coin donation in the museum's history.

In particular, the Hayes coins represent a substantial part of the museum's late Roman collection. Of the twenty emperors represented in the Hayes coins (from Hadrian to Justinian), ten of these, including notable figures such as Commodus, are not represented by any other coin in the collection.

The oldest coin in the collection is a bronze Tetradrachm from Alexandria, minted in 112 AD by the Emperor Trajan, while the youngest coin dates to 602 AD and was minted in Byzantium by the emperor Justinian I (pictured).

One of the most interesting coins from the Hayes collection is a small Roman coin called a Follis, depicting on the front, the goddess Roma wearing a helmet and cloak and on the back, the Roman she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus (below). This type was minted by the emperor Constantine the Great around 330-331 AD and matched issues commemorating the foundation of Constantinople (modern Istanbul) as the capital of the eastern Roman Empire.

Coins from the Hayes collection have been used in teaching activities for the last 35 years. Countless school students from Brisbane and many generations of undergraduate students have used these coins in their studies of the ancient world.

- James Donaldson.

The R.D. Milns Antiquites Museum is open to the public 9 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday and is located on Level 2 of UQ's Michie Building. The current exhibition Then and Now: Fifty years of antiquities 1963 to 2013 explores the history of the museum and the people who have shaped its collection. For more information visit the museum's new website.

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:

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.

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.

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.