2007

Tuesday 27 November  
Friends of the Baillieu Library members' night

Leigh Scott Room, Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne, 6.00pm

The Friends 40 years on

Tuesday 30 October 2007
Friends of the Baillieu Library author's talk

Leigh Scott Room, Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne, 6.00pm

Brenda Niall: Life Class: The Education of a Biographer

One of Australia's foremost biographers, Brenda Niall is the author of Martin Boyd: A Life; Georgiana; The Boyds: A Family Biography and Judy Cassab: A Portrait. In Life Class: The Education of a Biographer she retraces her own footsteps to discuss the pleasures of biographical discovery and the pitfalls — technical, personal and moral — of entering other peoples' lives. Her journey takes her back to childhood in the prosperous Melbourne suburb of Kew, her convent education, her chequered university studies and her late-blossoming career at the newly-founded Monash University in the exuberant 1960s. Her biographical adventures include travels in England, Scotland, Italy, Austria and Hungary as well as scenes closer to home in Melbourne, the Mornington Peninsula, Sydney and the Shoalhaven region of NSW. Profound and intriguing questions are explored in this unusual and deeply personal account of a biographer's life. 

Tuesday 18 September 2007
Friends of the Baillieu Library Annual Dinner and guest speaker

University House, University of Melbourne, 7.00pm

Associate Professor Chris Mackie: The archaeology of Gallipoli

Tuesday 21 August 2007
Friends of the Baillieu Library lecture

Leigh Scott Room, Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne, 6.00pm  

Dr Qinghua Guo: Yingzao Fashi

A talk on a fascinating work, the Yingzao Fashi, a twelfth-century manual on Chinese architecture. The Friends provided the funds to purchase a facsimile of this important work. The Yingzao Fashi (State Building Standards) is the oldest extant Chinese technical manual on buildings. It was compiled by Li Jie, a Superintendent of State Buildings (later Director of Palace Building) in 1100 and published by the Song sovereign in 1103. 

Tuesday 24 July 2007
Friends of the Baillieu Library lecture

Leigh Scott Room, Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne, 6.00pm

Danielle Clode: Voyages to the South Seas

Voyages to the South Seas recounts the epic journeys of French explorers to Australia and encompasses a remarkable period of French and Australian history—when Australia was France's Mars and marsupials were her aliens. Australia may have been colonised by England, but for many years, by sheer weight of specimens and scientific documentation, Australia's biodiversity belonged to France. Dr Danielle Clode is a science writer fascinated by scientific history. Her love of the Australian landscape and exploration was born from a childhood spent sailing along the east coast with her parents on a gaff-rigged yawl. Danielle researched Voyages to the South Seaswhile a Creative Fellow at the State Library of Victoria. She has previously been the Thomas Ramsay Science and Humanities Fellow at Museum Victoria and a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford where she completed her DPhil in zoology. 

Saturday 21 July 2007
Friends of the Baillieu Library visit

The Melbourne Athenaeum, 188 Collins St. Melbourne, 2.00pm–4.00 pm

A passion for books

Interested in books, libraries and their histories? This afternoon event gives us the opportunity to visit one of Melbourne's oldest libraries and also to hear a talk from one of our leading book dealers. The Melbourne Athenaeum was founded in 1839. Jill Bartholomeuz, the Athenaeum's librarian will talk about its fascinating history and its library. This will be followed by a talk from Kay Craddock on buying books: by auction, from a dealer & via the Internet. Kay runs one of Melbourne's best known rare and antiquarian book shops and we will be able to visit this after her talk.

Saturday 23 June 2007
Friends of the Baillieu Library visit

University of Melbourne Archives, 120 Dawson St Brunswick, 2.00 pm

Visit to University of Melbourne Archives

The University of Melbourne Archives collects, manages and provides access to the historical records of the University, Victorian business, trade unions and other labour organisations, community and cultural organisations, as well as the personal papers of many individuals prominent within them. Records date back to the first years of the colony of Victoria up until the present day and cover a very wide field of endeavour. The Archives were established in 1960 and to date hold some 15 kilometres of records.

Tuesday 17 April 2007
Friends of the Baillieu Library author's talk

Leigh Scott Room, Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne, 6.00pm

Richard Aitken: Botanical Riches: Stories of Botanical Exploration (Meigunyah Press)

Richard Aitken is a Melbourne-based architect, curator and historian. He has prepared conservation plans for many of Australia's most significant historic gardens, including the botanic gardens of Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. He is a member of the editorial advisory board of Garden History, journal of the British-based Garden History Society. His publications include The Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens (2002), Gardenesque: A celebration of Australian gardening (2004) and Seeds of Change: An illustrated history of Adelaide Botanic Garden (2006). 

Tuesday 27 March 2007
Friends of the Baillieu Library Annual General Meeting and guest speaker

Leigh Scott Room, Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne, 6.00pm

Professor Warren Bebbington, Pro Vice-Chancellor, University Relations: The University and its cultural policy