All stories are shaped by the documents that survive to tell them. Presented by the PMI Collections Librarian, Ellen Coates At the Prahran Mechanic’s Institute (PMI), the Collections Librarian, Ellen Coates, presented a talk called All stories are shaped by the documents that survive to tell them. She used items from the library archive and rare
More Than Romance: The Witty World of Georgette Heyer
Presented by Dr. Jennifer Kloester at East Melbourne library On Tuesday evening, around 75 people attended “More Than Romance: The Witty World of Georgette Heyer” which was presented by Dr. Jennifer Kloester at East Melbourne library. Jennifer spoke about how Heyer’s family background and early life shaped her as a writer, and how she had
Printing the Plays of Shakespeare and Company in the 17th Century
Presented by Dr. David McInnis for Rare Books Melbourne and hosted at The Melbourne Athenaeum Library On Tuesday 25th July, more than 70 people attended a fascinating talk that was held at The Melbourne Athenaeum Library to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the publication in 1623 of the First Folio of William Shakespeare’s plays. The
You Can’t Draw in Books
Presented by Alissa Duke for Rare Books Melbourne On Monday evening, 35 people gathered at East Melbourne Library to hear a talk by Alissa Duke, the official sketch artist for MRBW, called “You Can’t Draw in Books”. Alyssa related her personal history of drawing in books, and how she, as a professional librarian, had to
Rare Books from the RHSV collection
Presented by Jillian Hiscock Following the traditional tea, coffee and cake provided by the Royal Historical Society of Victoria (RHSV), the second talk was presented by Jillian Hiscock, the Collections Manager of the RHSV, who spoke about “Rare Books from the RHSV collection”. Jillian recounted how she had noticed some interesting-looking books that were kept
First Glimpses of the Antarctic
Presented by Andrew McConville for State Library Victoria Monday 24th July began with an event run by Andrew McConville, the Digital Access Librarian at State Library Victoria, entitled “First Glimpses of the Antarctic”. Andrew showed an attentive audience of 30 how the history of the exploration of the Antarctic has been documented and preserved through
Collecting Australian Internment Ephemera
Speaker: Edwin Jewell Later on Monday morning, two events were held at the headquarters of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria (RHSV) in A’Beckett Street, Melbourne. Firstly, The Ephemera Society of Victoria featured Ed Jewell, who spoke on “Collecting Australian Internment Ephemera”. Ed shared with the audience of nearly 60 people some of the highlights
From Folio to Fopdoodle
The Johnson Society of Australia On the Sunday 23rd July, The Johnson Society of Australia held an event, “From Folio to Fopdoodle” at The Kathleen Syme Community Centre in Carlton. An audience of 40 heard the traditional speaker for the Johnson Society, John Byrne, speak about some of the interesting and unusual aspects of Dr.
Charting The Heavens with Shane Carmody
On Saturday July 22nd , almost 200 guests gathered in the Conversation Quarter of the State Library Victoria (SLV) to hear Shane Carmody deliver a genuinely exciting and informative talk, “Charting the Heavens”. Shane traversed astronomical history from the 2nd century CE writings of Ptolemy, though the later advances of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo and Newton, right
C J La Trobe Society Event
MRBW2023 commenced on 21st July at Tonic House with an event presented by The C J La Trobe Society, and attended by almost 80 people. The speaker was historian Dr. Andrew Lemon, whose entertaining talk, “The Fencer’s Manual”, discussed the first book in Melbourne to be printed and published by the pioneering firm of Clarson,