State Library of New South Wales

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  • Member since 2008
  • Last upload was
    4 December
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The State Library of New South Wales' major subject strengths are Australian history, culture and literature, including Aboriginal studies, Antarctic exploration, family history and genealogy, business and management, social sciences, applied science, biography, health and law. The State Library is home to one of Australia’s most significant historical and heritage collections. As well as nearly 11 kilometres of manuscripts – from nine 1788 First Fleet journals through to the archives of contemporary organisations and writers – the Library holds more than one million photographs. From the earliest surviving photograph taken in Australia – in January 1845 – through to digital photographs taken last month, the Library’s unrivalled photographic collections document with powerful clarity the way Australians have lived their lives over two centuries. You can find out more about the State Library's photographic collections on our website: www.sl.nsw.gov.au/research-and-collections

When were these photos taken?

341
1825
2025

 

Where were these photos taken?

32% of these photos are geotagged.

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Photos of interest

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Recent uploads

The last upload was 4 December.

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Collage portrait with dangling heads, in Alfred William Leslie Ellis. World War One Album, c. 1917

  • 5 older comments, and then…
  • Philippe de Feluy - PdF said:
    This is a high quality photo and I would like to invite you to my group :
    Atypical & Montages/collages PdF

    Friendly yours
    Philippe 😉
  • Tebo Colombet said:
    J'adore absolument 💙
  • Flickr said:
    Congrats on Explore! ⭐ November 17, 2025
  • Cornelis Dumoulin said:
    Congratulations on this photo in Explore!
  • Michael Gschwind said:
    Glückwunsch zu Explore !

Colin Wyatt SLNSW_FL9723806

  • 3 older comments, and then…
  • Blue Mountains Library, Local Studies said:
    "With his marriage on the rocks and fearing his wife was having an affair, ex-champion skier Colin Wyatt decided to cope the only way he could think of.

    He began stealing rare butterflies.

    What unfolded over the following months in the late 1940s would become a bizarre search spanning multiple museums and crossing international waters.

    It would also involve thousands upon thousands of tiny flying insects.

    Hundreds of 'the best specimens' taken from museums across Australia
    The first sign of trouble came in early 1947 — some 825 specimens of rare Australian butterflies had disappeared from the Melbourne Museum's George Lyell collection.

    When Melbourne raised the alarm, other museums checked their own collections ... "
    More - www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-02/history-butterfly-theft-au...
    And - science.anu.edu.au/news-events/news/museum-heist-70-years...
  • Jazz Guy said:
    Lower left hand corner... I think that is a blotter to dry off signatures on documents. What year did ball point pens replace quill pens? There's a plot twist in a movie titled "Angel Heart" that involves this.
  • Jazz Guy said:
    And now the big question... Is the bottle of gin in the drawer on his left or on his right? :-)
  • State Library of New South Wales said:
    I read 'The Butterfly Thief' by Walter Marsh over the weekend and saw the image was in the Library collections. Really amazing that he was able to get them all over to the UK as well..
  • Narelle Jarvis said:
    What a story! So where was this picture taken and what is he doing with the photographs?

Mrs Wing Fang

  • square view said:
    Hi!

    The images in (at least) the latest upload seem to have malformed URLs for "finding more detailed information about this photograph". The link for this image, and a few others I tried go to a larger version of the image (only) – rather than the "record page", which for this photograph appears to be:

    www.acmssearch.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/itemDetailPaged.cgi?i...

    I don't know if this issue affects photographs in the State Library of NSW Flickr stream before today's upload or not.
  • square view said:
    And ... simply because this DESERVES it's own comment ;-)

    The 2015 State Library Holiday card is totally awesome!

    As only the State Library of NSW can do ;) they have brought to you The Twelve Days of Christmas in a special, free holiday ecard.

    You can pick up yours here!
  • State Library of New South Wales said:
    Thanks Pixel Wrangler - the issue should be fixed now! AC
  • covid convict said:
    trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/236519630/25585758 - a photoshopped version of this pic appeared in the Labor Daily on 10th May, 1935 (see pic on 2nd page of link)...per the accompanying caption, this is Madam Wang Feng, wife of the recently appointed Chinese Consul at Wellington, New Zealand ...she was evidently passing thru Sydney en route to NZ to join her husband...the various shipping intelligence items indicate she arrived in Sydney (from Hong Kong) on the KPM liner S.S. Nieuw Zeeland on 6th May...then departed Sydney for NZ on the R.M.S. Maunganui, on 9th May...

    trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/230253348 - the Sun, 7th May, 1935...the Sun had this pic...taken on her arrival in Sydney...

    trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/182434082 - the Brisbane Daily Telegraph, 4th May, 1935...the Brisbane Daily Telegraph's reporter 'Nancy Lee' interviewed her when she passed thru Brisbane the previous week...she evidently held a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from Nankai University, in Tianjin, and prior to her marriage had worked as an accountant...she'd spent the previous 2 years with her husband at Johannesburg...

    trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/206259841 - the Brisbane Truth, 5th May, 1935...another interview here...

    trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/246499635 - the Daily Telegraph, 22nd February, 1935...pic of her husband here...

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