The Gutenberg Bible on Exhibit in Melbourne

Next week sees the launch of the third annual Melbourne Rare Book Week (17 to 27 July). Bibliophiles from across Australasia and beyond will descend upon the city and enjoy an array of talks, demonstrations and exhibitions, ending with the Melbourne Rare Book Fair (25 to 27 July). Visitors to this year’s Rare Book Week will also be able to attend a range of events in the university’s biennial Cultural Treasures Festival (26 and 27 July).

The university will once again host the fair in Wilson Hall, but also add something very special to the 2014 Rare Book Week programme: A 10-day exhibition of the Gutenberg Bible.

 

Gutenberg Bible advert banner

 

The Bible, on loan courtesy of The University of Manchester’s John Rylands Library, will be displayed from 18 to 27 July in the Dulcie Hollyock Room located on the ground floor of the Baillieu Library.

Like all Rare Book Week events, the exhibition is free and open to the public. Viewing hours are 11.00am to 5.00pm daily. Bookings not required.

A series of floor talks connected with the exhibition are also taking place. Details and how to book can be found on the Gutenberg Bible exhibition and Cultural Treasures Festival webpages.

A selection of incunabula and later religious texts from Baillieu Special Collections is also on display on the ground floor of the library in support of the Gutenberg Bible exhibit.

Whether you are local to Melbourne or just visiting, a chance to see a copy of the first substantial book printed in the Western world is not to be missed!

An 18th-century French drawing in the Baillieu Library

The most recent issue of University of Melbourne Collections magazine includes a detailed contribution by Marguerite Brown (recent graduate, Master of Art Curatorship) on a red chalk drawing of Prometheus being attacked by an eagle from the Baillieu Library’s Print Collection.[1]

Image: Prometheus being attacked by an eagle

Previously attributed to the Italian engraver Francesco Bartolozzi (1727–1815), Marguerite’s research has overturned this assessment in favour of the French sculptor René-Michel Slodtz (1705–1764). Her full analysis can be read on Marguerite’s blog Visual Pursuits:

http://visualpursuits.org/2014/06/25/an-18th-century-french-drawing-in-the-baillieu-library/

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[1] Marguerite Brown, ‘An 18th-century French drawing in the Baillieu Library’. University of Melbourne Collections, issue 14 (June 2014): 46–50.

Memory, poetry and a good buffet dinner

“I’ve always had a good memory…which is helpful for my poetry though it makes it rather like a buffet dinner with many small dishes all over the bench.”[i]
Birthdays always prompt a level of reflection and earlier this month Melbourne poet Chris Wallace-Crabbe celebrated his 80th. His writing reveals that these years have not been spent idly, indeed the breadth of subject matter traversed through his poetry would put many an upscale dinner buffet to shame. Not only a leading Australian poet but also essayist, librettist, fiction writer, reviewer, academic, literary critic and editor, Wallace-Crabbe has certainly offered readers a full menu.

Professor Chris Wallace-Crabbe, Media and Publications Services Office Photograph Collection, University of Melbourne Archives, UMAIC2949
Professor Chris Wallace-Crabbe, Media and Publications Services Office Photograph Collection, University of Melbourne Archives, UMAIC2949

30 boxes of material sit nonchalantly on their steel shelves at UMA, ranging from a 1951 manuscript to drafts of poems written in 2010. Behind this cardboard façade are the inner workings of this enigmatic man; working diaries & notebooks, journals, sketch books, literary and personal correspondence, manuscripts of poems, essays and an opera, reviews and genealogical documents are neatly packed and listed in the archives catalogue. Correspondence with C.B. Christesen founding editor of Meanjin, is also contained in the Meanjin Editorial records of C.B. Christesen collection.

The human memory however is not as ordered as this.

In an interview with Graham Little, tucked securely within the spread of the archive, the role of memory in writing poetry, and memory as a tool for, and of, language is exposed. Fed “the drug of language”[ii] from an early age, Wallace-Crabbe’s poetry is certainly a lesson in the bond between language and human expression, but also how language affects and is affected by memory. In “Domain Road” he wraps the place of humanity in the enormity of the universe within the memory of his childhood self.[iii]

…and the child knows he is very small in the garden
smaller still in the world
as nothing in the – how do you call it – universe
so that his being here
fragile in a rustling suburban garden among heaving ripples
of green is a kind of miracle
in the end he is grateful

Browsing the journals and notebooks containing Wallace-Crabbe’s musings and cuttings, snippets of conversations and unfinished thoughts, a joyfulness and enthusiasm for life is abundantly clear. A natural humour too is evident, the sense that despite its savageness and spite, life is funny. Musings like “I like to see a priest go shopping”, “ski slope vs cutlery drawer” and “How not to be a bore at 90” intrigue, and his recollection of a dream “riding a motorbike at world record speeds, over steep hills” finished with the thought “That’s something” [iv], provide insight to a creative mind.
For writers, students and lovers of literature, there is much to take from Wallace-Crabbe’s archive, and much to learn from his process of writing, creating and remembering.

 

 

[i] Chris Wallace-Crabbe interviewed by Graham Little [n.d.] pg3, Box 1, Chris Wallace-Crabbe, University of Melbourne Archives, 2011.0093

[ii] Chris Wallace-Crabbe interviewed by Graham Little [n.d.] pg10, Box 1, Chris Wallace-Crabbe, University of Melbourne Archives, 2011.0093

[iii] Chris Wallace-Crabbe interviewed by Graham Little [n.d.], pg9,Box 1, Chris Wallace-Crabbe, University of Melbourne Archives, 2011.0093

[iv] Notebook, 2006, Box 2, Chris Wallace-Crabbe, University of Melbourne Archives, 2011.0093

 

Bright & Hitchcock, Geelong Archives and the Apricot and Blue 19th Century Dress

Bright & Hitchcocks, Geelong (1853-1968) Day dress 1865-1870 Gift of Miss Bell, 1973 D243.a-c-1973, National Gallery of Victoria
Bright & Hitchcocks, Geelong (1853-1968)
Day dress 1865-1870
Gift of Miss Bell, 1973
D243.a-c-1973, National Gallery of Victoria

I found out about the existence of the University Archives because of a dress. That may sound strange, but the full-skirted apricot and blue patterned silk dress, dating from about 1865 to 1870, has a small label stitched to the inside of its waistband. It reads “From Bright & Hitchcocks, Geelong”. The dress is in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria and I came across it when I was curating an exhibition titled “Australian Made: One Hundred Years of Fashion”. It opened at the Ian Potter Centre, NGV Australia in May 2010. This dress was one of the earliest items on display and it is remarkable, not only for its almost pristine condition, but also because it appears to be the oldest surviving garment bearing an Australian label. It was not usual for makers or retailers to stitch labels into garments until the twentieth century. The majority of nineteenth century garments therefore are unlabeled.

Knowing its origins means a context can be provided for the Bright and Hitchcocks dress. Research into the company’s archives, which are held at the University of Melbourne, threw light on the networks of trade and consumption in Australia in the second half of the nineteenth century. As I read through the original hefty volumes of letters from Bright and Hitchcocks’ London agent to the managers in Geelong, I began to get a sense of how items for the Australian market were selected, what sold well, and what the company didn’t find worthwhile stocking. This clearly wasn’t a passive commercial relationship where, as is too often assumed, the current fashions in British goods were simply shipped out to the colonies in support of a society that was transposed holus-bolus from one side of the world to the other.

Established in 1850, Bright and Hitchcocks was a drapery and general merchants business. It stocked a broad range of imported goods, including men’s, women’s and children’s clothing and accessories, as well as dress fabrics and trims, blankets, carpets and household linen. It is commonly thought that ‘readymade’ fashionable dress (which could be bought over the counter) was not available at this time, however the company letters tell us otherwise. A letter from the London agent dated 24 August 1865 states, ‘By this mail I send assortment (25 dresses) new goods made for us … the prettiest goods I have seen…” Is it possible that the dress in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria was one of these twenty-five? Its styling dates it to the same era and if it is not from this particular group of imports, it certainly appears that the dress came into the country as a readymade item. Donated to the gallery in 1973, its provenance links it to the Bell family whosettled beyond Geelong on the Bellarine peninsula in the 1840s.

After more than a century of retailing to the residents of Geelong and further afield, Bright and Hitchcocks closed it doors in 1968. However its building still stands today on Moorabool street in the centre of the city as a reminder of this pioneering commercial venture.

For more information about the “Australian Made: One Hundred Years of Fashion” see

http://www.artabase.net/exhibition/1841-australian-made-100-years-of-fashion

http://media.ngv.vic.gov.au/2010/05/20/australian-made-100-years-of-fashion/

“Australian Made: One Hundred Years of Fashion from the 1850s to the 1950s” by Laura Jocic is available at the University of Melbourne Library

Contributor:

Laura Jocic, PhD candidate, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne.

Bright & Hitchcock: Geelong Archives and the Apricot and Blue 19TH Century Dress

[Reposted from the UMA Business Archives blog]

 

Bright and Hitchcock dress
Bright & Hitchcocks, Geelong (1853-1968)
Day dress 1865-1870
Gift of Miss Bell, 1973
D243.a-c-1973, National Gallery of Victoria

I found out about the existence of the University Archives because of a dress. That may sound strange, but the full-skirted apricot and blue patterned silk dress, dating from about 1865 to 1870, has a small label stitched to the inside of its waistband. It reads “From Bright & Hitchcocks, Geelong”. The dress is in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria and I came across it when I was curating an exhibition titled “Australian Made: One Hundred Years of Fashion”. It opened at the Ian Potter Centre, NGV Australia in May 2010. This dress was one of the earliest items on display and it is remarkable, not only for its almost pristine condition, but also because it appears to be the oldest surviving garment bearing an Australian label. It was not usual for makers or retailers to stitch labels into garments until the twentieth century. The majority of nineteenth century garments therefore are unlabeled.

Knowing its origins means a context can be provided for the Bright and Hitchcocks dress. Research into the company’s archives, which are held at the University of Melbourne, threw light on the networks of trade and consumption in Australia in the second half of the nineteenth century. As I read through the original hefty volumes of letters from Bright and Hitchcocks’ London agent to the managers in Geelong, I began to get a sense of how items for the Australian market were selected, what sold well, and what the company didn’t find worthwhile stocking. This clearly wasn’t a passive commercial relationship where, as is too often assumed, the current fashions in British goods were simply shipped out to the colonies in support of a society that was transposed holus-bolus from one side of the world to the other.

Established in 1850, Bright and Hitchcocks was a drapery and general merchants business. It stocked a broad range of imported goods, including men’s, women’s and children’s clothing and accessories, as well as dress fabrics and trims, blankets, carpets and household linen. It is commonly thought that ‘readymade’ fashionable dress (which could be bought over the counter) was not available at this time, however the company letters tell us otherwise. A letter from the London agent dated 24 August 1865 states, ‘By this mail I send assortment (25 dresses) new goods made for us … the prettiest goods I have seen…” Is it possible that the dress in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria was one of these twenty-five? Its styling dates it to the same era and if it is not from this particular group of imports, it certainly appears that the dress came into the country as a readymade item. Donated to the gallery in 1973, its provenance links it to the Bell family whosettled beyond Geelong on the Bellarine peninsula in the 1840s.

After more than a century of retailing to the residents of Geelong and further afield, Bright and Hitchcocks closed it doors in 1968. However its building still stands today on Moorabool street in the centre of the city as a reminder of this pioneering commercial venture.

For more information about the “Australian Made: One Hundred Years of Fashion” see

http://www.artabase.net/exhibition/1841-australian-made-100-years-of-fashion

http://media.ngv.vic.gov.au/2010/05/20/australian-made-100-years-of-fashion/

Australian Made: One Hundred Years of Fashion from the 1850s to the 1950s by Laura Jocic is available at the University of Melbourne Library.

Contributor: Laura Jocic, PhD candidate, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne.

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