Precious Prints

Josef Scharl, ‘Junges Paar’ (Young couple). Woodcut, c.1935, Marion and David Adams Collection, Baillieu Library Print Collection.

This print is from a collection of European expressionist prints donated to the Baillieu Library late last year by David Adams. The collection was begun by Adams, a retired engineer, and his late wife Professor Marion Adams in the early 1970s. Professor Adams, who was passionate about collecting, was an academic and was Dean of Arts at the University of Melbourne from 1988 to 1993.

The Baillieu Library received 79 prints and woodcuts, while the Ian Potter Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Victoria have also received precious items from the Adams’.

Mr Adams believes in the importance of donating such cultural treasures to institutions such as the University, giving the collections a good home that will know their value and protect them, as well as making them available for viewing and research to all.


Face to Face with Maria Cosway

Maria Cosway is an artist and a heroine. Maria Hadfield was born in Florence, where she escaped death by the hand of a maid who had already killed four of her siblings. Her mother later relocated the family to England and Maria married fellow artist Richard Cosway. Maria Cosway is one of the few women of her era to be recognised by the Royal Academy of Arts. She was encouraged by her predecessor and mentor Angelica Kauffman who is also represented in the Baillieu’s collection. Maria did not reach her full potential as an artist because her husband would not give permission for her to become a professional painter. Her self portrait was exhibited at the Royal Academy. It is now lost, but recorded through mezzotint. She is perhaps best known for her romantic relationship with American president Thomas Jefferson and she inspired his only known love letter.

The Maria Cosway mezzotint  is on display in Face to Face: portraits of artists on the ground floor of the Baillieu Library until 9 June 2012.


Historian Uses Archives to Research Baillieu Biography

Historian, Honorary Fellow and member of the Archives Advisory Board at the University of Melbourne, Peter Yule recently launched his biography William Laurence Baillieu: Father of Australian Industry (Hardie Grant, 2012) at the Baillieu Library. Much of Peter’s research was carried out at the University of Melbourne Archives (UMA). Some extracts of his speech at the launch of this book give a sense of what he found.

I recall Geoffrey Blainey saying several years ago that the life of WL Baillieu was the great unwritten biography in Australian history.  A biography was planned soon after his death in 1936, when his son Clive, the first Lord Baillieu, commissioned preliminary family history research, and work continued after the Second World War with the production of two manuscripts, but they were never published. Strangely, the main reason for the failure of the earlier attempts to write a biography was that there didn’t appear to be enough material to base it on. Before the 1970s virtually none of WL’s letters were available – leading one historian to conclude that he was possibly illiterate.  Since that time, however, a vast amount of archival material has become available, largely through the efforts of Darren Baillieu, his son David, the executors of Clive Baillieu’s estate, and Frank Strahan, the founder of the University of Melbourne Archives. There are now literally thousands of WL’s letters in the University Archives and more are held by various family members.  Far from being illiterate, WL was an eloquent and creative writer, with a wonderful turn of phrase and a fine sense of humour.

As I researched and wrote this book my appreciation for the extent of WL’s achievements steadily grew. The best brief summary I think is the one by Billy Hughes quoted on the back cover – Billy Hughes, by the way, began as a bitter enemy of WL and accused him of trading with the enemy in the First World War, but came to admire him greatly – Billy Hughes said of WL: ‘He was a dreamer of dreams and, with his genius for constructive enterprise, inexhaustible energy and courage, made them all come true’. No Australian – probably few people anywhere in the world – founded or developed so many new businesses in such a wide range of industries. WL – usually working with one or more of his many close associates – founded or built up many major mining and metals processing companies – most notably the Zinc Corporation (the ancestor of Rio Tinto), North Broken Hill, the lead smelter at Port Pirie, and the zinc works at Hobart; he was the driving force behind manufacturing companies such Metal Manufactures, Dunlop, British Australian Lead Manufacturers (the ancestor of Dulux paints) and APPM, which built the paper mill at Burnie in Tasmania; he and Theodore Fink built the Herald and Weekly Times into Australia’s major media company, and he and Monty Cohen formed Australia’s dominant brewery – Carlton & United. Before 1914 he drove the growth of Melbourne’s major electricity supply company and planned the development of the brown coal deposits of the La Trobe Valley. And there were many more, including, of course, EL&C Baillieu stockbrokers and the Ballieu Allard real estate business which WL started with his brothers. Most people who accumulate large fortunes do it in one industry – think of Frank Lowy in shopping centres, or Rupert Murdoch in media – but WL created successful businesses in many industries. He saw the big picture, planned for the long-term and genuinely saw nation building as a central part of his work. There has never been a business empire in Australia with anything like the breadth or diversity of the Collins House group, and none has made such an important contribution to Australia’s economic development.

Not many of us will be ready to tackle the next great unwritten biography of Australian history, but if you have a research idea of your own, big or small, get in touch with UMA to see how we can help.

Homecoming after World War I to Heathfield, Toorak, Melbourne. William Latham Baillieu with his son Clive Latham Baillieu and grandsons William and Robert posed with motorcycle, Mar 1920, Clive Latham Baillieu Papers, University of Melbourne Archives, 1982.0142, BWP/9706.

Life Under A Shadow: John Harry Grainger, architect and civil engineer

John Grainger, Grainger Museum Collection

The Grainger Museum at the University of Melbourne is currently presenting an exhibition that investigates the many achievements of John Harry Grainger, the gifted architect and engineer whose life was largely overshadowed by that of his son, composer and performer, Percy Aldridge Grainger.

Trained in London, J.H. Grainger travelled to Australia in 1877 to take up the humble position of a draftsman with the South Australian Public Works Department. An ambitious young man, Grainger entered into competitions for private commissions with great success. At 25 he won commissions for two bridges: the intricately engineered swing bridge at Sale in Gippsland; and most significantly, Princes Bridge over the Yarra River in Melbourne. The Princes Bridge design was an enormous achievement – a task that would have challenged a practitioner twice his age. It became a major landmark then, as it is now.

Notable structures that were the result of Grainger’s creative vision were the well-loved ‘Georges’ building in Collins Street, Melbourne and the State Savings Bank and Masonic Hall also in Melbourne (the latter two no longer exist). The impressive French Renaissance Revival style public library and municipal offices in Auckland, as well as the Fremantle Town Hall in Perth, are fine examples of Grainger’s public building commissions.

This exhibition includes a selection of artefacts from the Grainger Museum Collection which show aspects of Grainger’s life, as well as photographs, architectural and engineering drawings, and artworks. The displays include correspondence and ephemera relating to his relationship with his son Percy. It will give Museum visitors a more detailed understanding of Percy Grainger’s early family life and the often forgotten influences of his father.

Grainger Museum opening hours are Tuesday to Friday and Sunday from 1.00pm to 4.30pm, and Mondays during semester from 12noon to 3.30pm when there is a performance in Melba Hall.


Adventure & Art

Exhibition: ‘Adventure & Art: the fine press book from 1450 to 2011’, Leigh Scott Gallery, 1st floor, Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne, 1 March to 27 May 2012

Adventure & Art, curated by poet and fine press printer Alan Loney, is about the printer’s craft, evidenced from the first printed books in the 15th century, and given a hugely influential impetus by William Morris and the Arts & Craft movement at the end of the 19th century. This exhibition shows how a number of technologies that are obsolete in commercial terms are still current in creative and craft terms in the 21st century. Exhibited are books from the Baillieu Library’s Special Collections from Europe, North America, New Zealand and Australia.


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