Home Beautiful

The University of Melbourne’s Architecture and Planning Library Rare Materials Collection contains some wonderful historical items, mostly obtained through donations from architects and planners and the former library of the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects. Some of the rare items relate to Australian domestic architecture, particularly from around the end of World War I, through the 1920s and 1930s and after World War II, when the idea of building a ‘dream home’ was in vogue. This is reflected in  the image above (top left) on the cover of the 1 April 1931 issue of The Australian Home Beautiful.

The image top right shows the catalogue of an exhibition held by the University of Melbourne’s Architectural Atelier 8-21 March 1933. Entitled ‘Exhibition of Domestic Architecture’, the exhibition showcased 22 architectural models made by the Atelier.

The image bottom left illustrates an advertisement for bathroom fittings, and is from the book, Fifty modern homes … to show the trend here and abroad and to demonstrate that modern buildings can be interesting and even beautiful, by A. Lanyon Clark and George R. Hann, Sydney: Building Publishing, 1940.

The 1930s sitting room (bottom right) is from an article, ‘Colour: the secret of successful interior decoration’, in Centenary Homes 1934-35: Building Industry Congress of Victoria, Melbourne, c.1935.


Cambridge in Words and Pictures

One of the fine collections within the University’s Special Collections is the Cambridge collection, consisting of 600 volumes when it was purchased by the University from Dr Pierre Gorman CBE (1924-2006) in 1994. The collection contains books, manuscripts, prints and other material relating to Cambridge, the city, the county and the University.

Dr Gorman continued to generously donate to the collection up until his death, including a large collection of images of Cambridge. He also documented an extensive bibliography of the collection, which included books on Cambridge found in other parts of the University of Melbourne collections. The bibliography was published in 2008 and lists around 3000 items, published from 1568 to the present day.

For more information on this beautiful collection see www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/collections/special/collections/rarebooks/camb.html

Above (clockwise from top left): Cambridge, by Ruth Mellanby, London: Blackie & Son, [1951]; ‘Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University Almanack’, 1826; ‘Cambridge’, published by J. Mawman, 1821, hand-coloured aquatint with engraving; Special Collections, University of Melbourne Library.


Vale Diana Gribble

The above photo is used with permission from Diana’s long-time colleague and friend, W.H. Chong

As co-founder of three publishing companies, Di Gribble had a profound effect on Australian literature and public commentary.

‘Diana Gribble was a legend in Australian publishing, having co-founded the McPhee Gribble imprint that published such ground-breaking works as Helen Garner’s Monkey Grip and Puberty Blues by Gabrielle Carey and Kathy Lette’, said University Librarian Philip Kent.

Established in the mid-1970s, the Carlton-based McPhee Gribble introduced Australian readers to authors like Tim Winton, Murray Bail, Kaz Cooke and Martin Flanagan. Gribble’s business partner was Hilary McPhee.

The company was bought by Penguin in 1989 but Di Gribble’s remarkable publishing career continued.

In 1990 she and Eric Beecher co-founded the Text Media group that was later sold to Fairfax for A$70 million.

In 2003 Gribble and Beecher created an online publishing group, Private Media Partners, that now owns six web publications including the influential political commentary site Crikey.com.au.

‘The University of Melbourne Library is indeed fortunate to hold the archives of McPhee Gribble and also its predecessor organisation, Sisters Publishing Ltd’, Philip Kent said. ‘These archives are a significant part of our holdings of feminist publishers’ records.’

The McPhee Gribble company archives are held in the University of Melbourne Archives. This important collection contains author files, business documents, press cuttings and some production material such as artwork, page layouts, galleys and page proofs.

Sisters Publishing began in 1979 as the ‘valiant idea’ of five Melbourne publishers: Hilary McPhee, Diana Gribble, Joyce Nicholson, Anne O’Donovan and Sally Milner. They decided Sisters would publish quality works ‘for women, by women and about women’.

To avoid prohibitive distribution and storage costs, Sisters was conceived as a mail-order book club with a quarterly subscription-only newsletter offering Sisters’ own publications and ‘the best feminist books from publishers here and overseas’, all at discount rates.

The Sisters Publishing archive is the complete record of the company and documents all of its activities.

For details of the Sisters Publishing and McPhee Gribble archives, browse the ‘collections’ section of the University Archives website.

Researchers can access the McPhee Gribble and Sisters Publishing archives via the Cultural Collections Reading Room or by contacting the University of Melbourne Archives.

Related links:

Catalogue details:

1999.0048
MCPHEE GRIBBLE PTY LTD [1975-1990]
Creator(s):
Mcphee Gribble Pty Ltd [-]

1. Author files (1975-1990) for all McPhee Gribble authors include correspondence between authors, agents, editors, publishers; contract negotiations; production planning documents; manuscripts; royalty statements and other material. 2. Administration files (1975-1990) include contracts; directors’ files; minutes of sales and marketing meetings; publishing policy documents; business plans, balance sheets and financial records; copies of outward correspondence; subject files (1976-1990); rejected manuscript files; some production material including art work, page layout, galley and page proofs. 3. Presscuttings of book reviews, interviews and articles on authors.

108 m. (419 boxes, 3 cartons, 16 volumes).
Cassette tapes
Photograph
Business, organisations


Grainger Day – 19 October

Join us at the Grainger Museum and the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music for an exciting program of events:

11.30; 12.00; 12.30; 1.00: Live performances in the Museum
1.30: Grainger concert in Melba Hall (MH)
2.30: Grainger masterclass with Penelope Thwaites (MH)
4.00: Demonstration of the Duo-Art—Grainger’s own
reproducing piano—in the Museum
5.15: Lecture-recital by Penelope Thwaites (MH) followed by refreshments

TIME & DATE
Wednesday 19 October, 11.30am – 7.00pm
VENUE
Grainger Museum &
Melbourne Conservatorium of Music
The University of Melbourne
Royal Parade, Parkville VIC
COST
Free admission – no prior bookings
FULL PROGRAM DETAILS AT
www.vcam.unimelb.edu.au/events

Above: Percy Grainger’s Weber Duo-Art piano (c. 1932) on display at the Grainger Museum (photograph by Brian Allison).


Perservering with Percy (Grainger)

An evening with John Amis, Tuesday 11 October

British broadcaster, author and critic, John Amis is presenting an anniversary lecture which draws on his own historic interview with Percy Grainger for the Grainger Museum.

Tuesday 11 October, 6.00 – 7.00pm
Leigh Scott Room, first floor, Baillieu Library
University of Melbourne
Free admission
About John Amis

(1922–)

Six weeks in a bank was enough for him to decide to live by and with music. Working with orchestras (London Philharmonic, Symphony and Royal Philharmonic), organising concerts for Myra Hess at the National Gallery and for Michael Tippett, whose secretary and friend he was, concert manager for Thomas Beecham, music critic in London for The Scotsman, organiser of the Summer School of Music with William Glock at Bryanston and Dartington for 34 years, broadcaster on radio and TV for 40, during which time he interviewed 500 of the most famous or interesting (or both) musicians from Hindemith to Bernstein, from Cage to Swann, from Stravinsky to Stockhausen. Amis featured in the radio and TV quiz show ‘My Music’, still heard on Australian radio even though it started in 1968.

His books include an autobiography A miscellany, an anthology Words about Music and My Life in Music 1945–2000, articles and profiles, A Photographer at the Aldeburgh Festival (Nigel Luckhurst) and Musicians on Camera (Lelia Goehr). In The Gramophone David Cairns wrote of ‘My Music’ that ‘Amis is that rare phenomenon, a brilliant talker, mimic and story-teller who writes as vividly as he speaks … the book is monument to one of the most remarkable figures in our musical life.’

Percy Grainger (1882–1961)

The Australian born composer was also a pianist with an international career. His records of Chopin, Grieg, Brahms and his own music are still available. Grainger is the only well-known composer most of whose oeuvre is derived from folk material. Benjamin Britten said that Grainger was an arranger of genius.

Above: Portrait of John Amis by June Mendoza AO CBE.


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