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      Fryer Library Treasure of the Month
    
 
 

Discovering Daphne : The Daphne Mayo Collection

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.
Daphne Mayo

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

"Most precious infant"   
This very small sample of the correspondence between Daphne Mayo and her parents highlights their closeness and, despite ill-health in their latter years, their committment to Daphne's artistic and professional career which demanded much of her time spent overseas and in Sydney.

Daphne Mayo modelling the kangaroo at Lone Pine, 13 August 1935 (Photo - Queensland Newspapers)

You can discover more about Daphne Mayo by viewing the small display at the Fryer Library

Venue: F.W. Robinson Reading Room, Fryer Library, Level 4, Duhig Building, University of Queensland
Date: March 2009, open daily except Sundays

  Or view a selected gallery of images online
Cassie Doyle, Fryer Library
Fryer Library is the special collections branch of The University of Queensland Library, containing rare books, theses, manuscripts, pictorial collections and many other 'treasures' - with particular strengths in:
  • Australian literature
  • Australian history and political culture
  • Australian theatre
  • Australian art and architecture