MUSSE

The University’s Collections are truly exceptional, and include a number of rare, special collections that include:

The Poynton Collection of Rare Books comprises some 15,000 volumes and includes books that cover the history of printing from the 15th to 19th centuries, major English writers and a large collection of private press books. These were the gift of the late Dr. John Orde Poynton and his donation forms the core of the University Library’s rare book collection which has progressively been added to over the years since the original donation was made in 1959.

The Malcolm Fraser Collection at the University of Melbourne comprises documents, photographs, books and other material relating to the life, family and career of the Rt Hon. Malcolm Fraser, Prime Minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983. The collection complements the official records held at the National Archives of Australia as well as a number of other personal and political collections at the University of Melbourne. The collection spans Mr. Fraser’s life and interests.

The McLaren Collection of Australiana now comprises some 50,000 volumes of Australiana. It is particularly strong in the area of Australian literature and also has extensive holdings of very rare pamphlets and other ephemeral material. The collection reflects the wide range of collecting areas pursued by Dr. Ian McLaren during his many years as a book collector. His donation added great depth to the Library’s holdings of Australiana.

The Grimwade Collection, belonging to Sir Russell and Lady Grimwade, was bequeathed to the University in 1973 as part of the larger bequest of the Miegunyah estate. Numbering about 1 000 volumes, the collection consists mainly of works of history, voyages, exploration, anthropology and natural history relating to Australia. It also includes significant late 18th- to early 19th-century editions of fine early plate books.

The Morgan Collection, an extensive collection of children’s books and literature is based around the collection donated by Mr Frederick Morgan in 1954. The collection comprises mainly English works published before 1940 and is being actively developed. The Kingston Collection (a virtually complete set of novels by the author WHG Kingston) forms an adjunct to the Morgan Collection.

The Print Collection comprises some 7 000 individual prints and volumes, dating from the 16th to the early 20th centuries. It is based on a gift of some 3,000 prints made to the Baillieu Library by Dr John Orde Poynton in the 1950s. This has since been augmented by many other gifts and purchases. The collection covers many printmaking techniques including woodcuts, wood engravings, engravings, etchings, mezzotints, aquatints, lithographs and chromolithographs. Artists represented include Dürer, Aldegrever, Rembrandt, the Sadeler family, Claude Lorraine, Hogarth, Goya and Lionel Lindsay.

The Greig Smith Social Work History Collection consists of early works on social welfare and social work. It includes books, journals and pamphlets published from the 1890s to the 1950s, as well as bound sets of serials such as Charity Organisation Review and The Family.

Taylor Collection of pulp and popular fiction is a collection of nearly five thousand paperbacks and pulp digests published in Australia between the 1940s and the 1980s. The collection ranges across all genres of popular fiction and sensationalised non-fiction, including crime, war, science fiction, westerns, romance, and erotica.

The Joyce Thorpe Nicholson Collection is a major collection of books by and about Australian women. It includes rare nineteenth-century material, as well as scarce twentieth-century political ephemera.

The Lonely Planet Collection comprises a complete set of all publications by Lonely Planet, the Australian travel publishers. Consisting of some 1,300 volumes in total, the collection includes every edition of every item published from 1973 until 2006, commencing with Across Asia on the Cheap (1973) and including the various sub-series: city guides and maps, food guides, language guides and phrase books, travellers’ tales etc. Most items are in mint condition and some include annotations for projected revised editions. The collection has considerable research value, particularly for the growth of tourism since the 1970s. Individual volumes are also of interest in researching changes in political and social structure since publication.