Reading the Rooms Behind the paintings of the State Library of NSW

The State Library of New South Wales holds an unrivalled collection of oil paintings. Unlike an art gallery where the focus is usually on aesthetic excellence, the rationale behind the Library’ s collecting is broad and often eclectic. It features works from artists such as Conrad Martens and John Glover, and others of variable quality, execution and skill, with a range of formats and diversity of subjects that tell us much about Australia. Reading the Rooms reveals this little-known – but rich and highly significant – collection. It delivers a fascinating and authoritative account of hundreds of paintings, and a compelling argument for their importance.

Rachel Franks holds PhDs in Australian crime fiction from Central Queensland University and true crime texts from the University of Sydney. A qualified educator and librarian, her work on crime fiction, true crime, popular culture and information science has been presented at numerous conferences as well as on radio and television. An award-winning writer, she is the author of An Uncommon Hangman: The life and deaths of Robert ‘ Nosey Bob’ Howard. She tweets @cfwriter. Richard Neville is the Mitchell Librarian and Director Engagement at the State Library of NSW. He is a well-known authority on nineteenth colonial art and culture and has published widely in this area. His A rage for curiosity: Visualising Australia 1788– 1830 is now a standard text for art of this period. In 2012 he published Mr JW Lewin. Painter & Naturalist, about colonial artist and coroner John William Lewin. He has worked with the Mitchell Library’ s famed Australiana collections since 1990.

Introduction – John Vallance Essay 1: The main thing is to get the record – Richard Neville Chapter 1 People Chapter 2 Place Essay 2: A collection so wonderfully eclectic – Anita Callaway Chapter 3 Power Chapter 4 Providers Essay 3: Building a library collection – Christopher Allen Chapter 5 Pastimes Chapter 6 Posterity Appendix: Thumbnail captions for all paintings Select bibliography Notes Biographical notes Acknowledgments Index