The Morgan Collection of Children’s Books

Image from The Sleeping Beauty, illustrated by Walter Crane, engraved and colour printed by Edmund Evans, London: J. Lane, c.1897.

This is from the Morgan Collection of Children’s Books, a substantial part of which was donated to the University Library in 1954 by F.C. Morgan (1878-1978). Morgan was an English librarian and through a connection to Sir John Medley, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne from 1938 to 1951, he decided to donate to a Commonwealth country, believing that Britain already had sufficient such collections. The Morgan Collection has grown to around 4,000 beautiful and fascinating items, which can be viewed in the Special Collections reading room, 3rd floor, Baillieu Library.

Subscribe to the Library Collections eNewsletter: a monthly update with stories and images from the Library’s extensive and rich collections.

Percy Grainger as an Artist

It is not very well known that in addition to his prodigious gifts as pianist and composer, Percy Grainger was also a talented artist. Learning initially from his father John Grainger, the well-known architect (but fine watercolourist), and then from Frederick McCubbin – the famous Australian artist of the Heidelberg School, up until the age of eighteen, Grainger was seriously considering dropping his music career altogether in favour of the visual arts. Given that he befriended artists such as McCubbin, Rupert Bunny, Tom Roberts, Norman Lindsay (to name but a few), this is hardly surprising! Pictured is one of Percy Grainger’s artworks in watercolour.

Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882-1961), Oscillator-playing tone tool, 1st experiment, 1951, watercolour, ink and graphite on paper, 14.2 x 25.7 cm, Grainger Museum collection, University of Melbourne.

Melbourne 1880

This map was reproduced from an original engraving by Samuel Calvert held in the National Library of Australia. It was a supplement to the Illustrated Australian News, October 1880. You can download a larger version from the digital repository: http://library.unimelb.edu.au/digitalcollections/cultural_and_special_collections/map_collections/

Number of posts found: 382

Post type

Previous posts