MHNSW goes live on the Internet Archive
Keen to share its rare collections and historic research resources, Museums of History NSW is uploading its digitised trade catalogues and sheet music onto one of the world’s largest digital repositories.
The richness of the printed collections at Museums of History NSW lies in the unique interplay between meticulous curatorial selection, such as at MHNSW’s library, and the haphazardness of extant family collections contained within some of our house museums. These differently formed collections enable MHNSW to share with the public material that is not only of considerable rarity, but also contexualised and representative of day-to-day life in 19th- and 20th-century Australia.
The Internet Archive offers a high-profile platform upon which MHSNW is distributing digitised publications from its collections via its library, The Caroline Simpson Library (CSL). These publications are searchable and MHNSW’s subject specialties sit alongside those of institutions and individuals with similar interests around the globe. Each record is linked to extended bibliographic descriptions in the CSL’s library catalogue and some of the sheet music is linked to performance examples created in collaboration with the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
The CSL specialises in the history of houses, interiors and gardens and has a significant printed collection that includes trade catalogues, architectural and furniture pattern books, paint charts, nursery plant catalogues, domestic manuals and sheet music. Since the library’s foundation in 1984, this material has been collected for both MHNSW staff and the public to access the best contemporary and historical sources available. The MHNSW Foundation has assisted the library in purchasing several of the rare trade catalogues digitised, and is encouraging donors to consider supporting a program to raise funds for the expanded digitisation of MHNSW's rare sheet music collections. If you would like to help us to digitise our important music collections, you can contact Head of Development & Fundraising, Joy England 02 8239 2433.
MHNSW curators have also acquired printed material to support the interpretation of those houses that do not have surviving collections. Although now museums, these properties remain dynamic interpretative spaces and the recent reinstating at Elizabeth Bay House of a lost collection of books, once belonging to the original family who built the house, is an example of how a historic domestic space can benefit from the acquisition of provenanced printed works.
The printed material in house museums with pre-existing collections, such as Rouse Hill Estate and Meroogal, consists of a cornucopia of subjects and formats including novels, non-fiction, trade catalogues, travel books, cookery books, magazines and sheet music.
The size and fragility of MHNSW’s printed collection requires an incremental approach to digitisation. The CSL has uploaded 200 publications onto the Internet Archive with a focus on some of MHNSW’s rarest trade catalogue material and highlights from MHNSW’s domestic sheet music collections. At this stage, only items from the CSL and Rouse Hill Estate are represented on the database but material from some of the other properties may be added as the project progresses.
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Dr Matthew Stephens
Research Librarian
Matthew Stephens is research librarian at the Caroline Simpson Library & Collection. He is particularly fascinated by early book, musical instrument and sheet music collections in NSW and the stories they tell. Addicted to the historical research process, Matthew has reframed the biography of the eighteenth-century British cross-dressing soldier, Hannah Snell, rediscovered the lost library of explorer Ludwig Leichhardt, and completed a PhD on the early history of the Australian Museum Library and the origins and use of scientific literature in nineteenth-century New South Wales. More recently, Matthew has led the interpretation of the history of domestic music in MHNSW house museums. Since 2015 he has been MHNSW’s representative in the Sound Heritage network (UK) and is co-author and co-editor of Sound Heritage: Making Music Matter in Historic Houses (Routledge, 2022). In 2019, Matthew curated the Songs of Home exhibition at the Museum of Sydney, which examined the musical landscape of NSW during the first 70 years of European settlement. He has collaborated with the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, on numerous projects including as Partner Investigator on the Australian Research Council Discovery Project ‘Hearing the Music of Early NSW, 1788-1860’ (2021-23). Two research projects led by Matthew on the reinstatement of part of the dispersed Macleay family library at Elizabeth Bay House and the Dowling Songbook Project have received National Trust Heritage Awards.
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