Current News - May 2009

Transfer of Stock Exchange records

The Noel Butlin Archives Centre recently received a donation of over 300 metres of records from the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). They are records of the State exchanges in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth and Hobart dating from the 1870s up to 1987 when they merged to become the national body. The donation, made under the Cultural Gifts Program, also included master sets of ASX publications up to 2000. An extensive finding aid prepared by the ASX archivist Pam Spies accompanied the donation. The records will not be immediately accessible as it will take some time to unpack the 19 pallets of records but should prove a popular source for future research.

Image: Pam Spies, ASX Archivist with Vic Elliott, Director, Scholarly Information Services signing the Deed of Gift

Pacific health exhibition

Pacific Archivist Karina Taylor prepared an exhibition on Pacific Health with the assistance of Pacific Manuscripts Bureau archivists Ewan Maidment and Kylie Moloney, opening for Asia-Pacific Week in January. It is located in the foyer of the Menzies Building and in the Reading Room of the ANU Archives. Material is drawn from several collections in the Pacific Research Archives including Sir John Gunther’s papers as Administrator and Director for Public Health in Papua New Guinea, dietitian Nancy Hitchcock’s slides of food preparation in Papua New Guinea, and posters collected by Professor John Ballard and Dr Richard Eves, both at one time at the University of Papua New Guinea and now in the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific.

Topics include the prevention and treatment of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and nutrition and maternal health programs. The exhibition includes reproductions of 1960s posters by Jean Chambers with messages such as ‘Clean water for good health’ and ‘Feeding baby at 2 weeks, 6 weeks ...’ which are displayed outside the McDonald Room.

New acquisitions

…Noel Butlin Archives Centre

Grand United Order of Oddfellows records from Australian Unity, previously held in the Centre for Fraternal Studies located at the Newcastle Museum.

Further deposits from the Institute of Public Affairs including Executive Committee minutes 1985-1989, press clippings from the 1950s to the 1990s and a complete run of the IPA Review.

Industrial files from the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union and research files from the United Mine Workers National Research Unit, part of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.

Small collections of records donated include:

• Motor Transport & Chauffeurs Association donated by Owen McKenna
• Bundure Station donated by Ian Hutchings
• Clerk of Works Institute of Australia from Jack Roberts, a former president, including records relating to his position as Clerk of Works for the construction of the Sydney Opera House
• slides of New Zealand and Australian Land Company properties from Ted Lowe.

Image: Peter and Elise Padreny of the Castlemaine Historical Society present University Archivist Maggie Shapley with the index they prepared to records of the Castlemaine lodges of the Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows.

…Pacific Research Archives

Dr Tom Dutton: notebooks and photographs from linguistic field work in Papua New Guinea

Sir John Gunther: papers as Administrator and Director for Public Health in Papua New Guinea

Dr William Clarke: papers relating to research in Papua New Guinea

…University Archives

The Australian Dictionary of Biography has transferred its files about people whose biographies appear in volumes 1 to 17 of the series. The files in over 800 boxes contain research notes, drafts, copies of birth, death and marriage certificates, correspondence between authors and editors, and corrigenda.

Earlier this year University Archivist Maggie Shapley visited Plumwood Mountain via Braidwood to collect records of the late Dr Val Plumwood, philosopher and environmentalist, donated by her literary executors. Dr Plumwood was a Research Fellow at the Fenner School for Environment and Society at the time of her death.

The Archives recently received over 150 bound volumes of examination papers from the ANU Library. They cover undergraduate examinations for the period 1955–1997, including those of the Canberra University College before it became part of the Australian National University.

Smaller transfers include:

• School of Art library records including National Institute of the Arts minutes, posters and catalogues of student exhibitions.
• Teaching materials of Professor Ken Campbell, Department of Geology and article reprints and photographs from Professor Des Brown, Research School of Chemistry
• Minutes of the ANU Students Association 1959-2006
• Records of the ANU Labor Club 1963-1967.

Volunteer program

Our volunteer program is underway for this year with co-ordinator Amalijah Thompson (second from the right) ready to match potential volunteers with interesting projects working with our collections. Contact her at amalijah.thompson@anu.edu.au or on 02 6125 0143, Monday to Wednesday, if you are interested.

Image: Archivists Sarah Lethbridge, Pennie Pemberton, Margaret Avard, Amalijah Thompson and Karina Taylor taking a break during our pre-Christmas working bee in the repository]

Business Archives Taskforce

In collaboration with the University of Melbourne Archives, we are developing a proposal to encourage the retention of Australian business archives. We will be developing a website which outlines the benefits of keeping business archives as corporate assets and provides the advice and tools that businesses need to manage their records. If you’d like to know more about this project as our planning progresses, please contact University Archivist Maggie Shapley at maggie.shapley@anu.edu.au or at 02 6125 9602.

Past news

For past news of the Archives please follow these links: October 2008,  May 2008, October 2007, March 2007 and 2004-2006.