2011

Tuesday 20 September 2011
Friends of the Baillieu Library Annual Dinner and guest speaker

University House, University of Melbourne, 7.30pm

Joy Damousi, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies and author of Colonial Voices: A Cultural History of English in Australia, 1840–1940.

Thursday 7 April 2011
Friends of the Baillieu Library visit

ANZCA, 630 St Kilda Road Melbourne, 10.30am

Tour of historic house Ulimaro and visit to the Museum at the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists

The Friends of the Baillieu Library are delighted to offer members the opportunity to tour the historic mansion Ulimaroa and visit to the Geoffrey Kay Museum at the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists. 

The College headquarters building, a gracious two-storey mansion with a distinctive tower and L-shaped verandas and balconies, is believed to be designed by J A B Koch, who also designed Labassa as well as over 70 other buildings in Melbourne.  Its name, Ulimaroa, is an early 18th-century name, possibly of Polynesian origin, for the Australian continent.  It was built in 1889–1890. Ulimaroa is a characteristic Melbourne Italianate tower house, with well-appointed and rich interiors which have been retained.  The garden has some of the original trees, including two rare tree gardenias.  Adjacent to Ulimaroa, ANZCA House was opened in 2001 and was designed by Norman Day.  The new building was designed as a partner building to differentiate between the old and new. It provides an architectural backdrop while allowing the mansion to be the "main character" on stage.

Founded in 1935 by Dr Geoffrey Kaye (1903–1986), the Geoffrey Kaye Museum of Anaesthetic History chronicles the developments and achievements in anaesthesia, intensive care medicine and pain medicine from its beginnings to the present day. It is one of the largest and most comprehensive anaesthetic history collections in the world. Through its many activities, the museum explores the important impact the specialty of anaesthesia has had on society and its continuing contribution to the advancement of medicine.

Tuesday 22 March 2011
Friends of the Baillieu Annual General Meeting and tour

Grainger Museum, University of Melbourne, 6.00pm

Grainger Museum tour with Astrid Krautschneider, Curator, Collections and Research

Tuesday 1 March 2011
Friends of the Baillieu Library visit

Melbourne Cricket Club Library, MCG, 11.00am

Tour of The Crooked Staffe exhibition

The Friends' programme for 2011 opens with the opportunity to visit the Melbourne Cricket Club Library and its fascinating exhibition celebrating 400 years of cricket in print. This exhibition celebrates the 400th anniversary of the publication of the oldest book in the MCC Library, Randle Cotgrave's Dictionarie of the French and English tongues, published in London in 1611, the same year at the King James Bible and the premiere of Shakespeare's last solo play, The Tempest.

The Dictionarie is a scarce book, but not especially rare. It is a key work to collectors of cricket items as it contains the first printed references and definition of the game of cricket.
The Crooked Staffe exhibition celebrates the diverse history of cricket as depicted in various forms of print: books, magazines, programs, menus, sheet music, lithographs, tickets, china, labels, cards etc. over the past four centuries.

Highlights include:

  • Cotgrave's dictionarie of the French and English tongues from 1611
  • First printed rules of cricket - on a handkerchief from 1744
  • First references to cricket being played in Australia - Sydney Mail of January 1804
  • First Australian cricket books - Biers & Fairfax's Australian Cricket Annual 1856/57
  • The famous Ashes obituaries published in Cricket a weekly record of the game and Sporting Times in 1882 and the verse pasted on to the Darnley Ashes Urn printed in Melbourne Punch in 1883.