The University of Queensland

The Daphne Mayo Collection, housed in the Fryer Library, includes personal and professional correspondence, manuscripts, artworks, sculptures, tools, photographs, photographic albums, books, art exhibition catalogues, newspaper clippings, minutes, financial files, hand-written notes and ephemera.

Sculptor, born in Sydney in 1895, created in Brisbane the Tattersall’s Club frieze (1926), the tympanum and concert hall frieze of the new City Hall (1927-30), tympanum and Stations of the Cross for the Church of the Holy Spirit, New Farm (1929-30), Queensland Women’s War Memorial, Anzac Square (1929-32) and the relief panels for the chapel of the Mt Thompson Crematorium (1934).

In 1940-42 she completed the bronze doors for the Public Library of New South Wales. In collaboration with her close friend Vida Lahey, Mayo raised awareness of the arts in Queensland and was a co-founder of the Queensland Art Fund in 1929. She died in Brisbane in 1982.

The Daphne Mayo Collection greatly enhances the manuscript collection in the Fryer Library and is considered one of its great treasures.

The Fryer Library welcomes researchers, art historians, staff, students and the general public to view the collection to appreciate Daphne Mayo’s tremendous artistic output and her strong committment to the Queenlsand art scene. The collection also highlights the very close and loving relationship between Mayo and her parents and their active support of her career.

The Daphne Mayo Collection also holds certificates and permits including permission for Daphne Mayo to attend European galleries during her tour of Italy and France as a Royal Academy travelling scholar 1924-1925. This permit is dated 1924 and has an original stamp.

  Rear view of permit