The National Library is always adding new and exciting items into its collections every year, and 2022 was no exception. Read on to find out about some of the interesting new items that have been added to the Library’s collection throughout the year.
A special edition of The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
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A special edition of Richard Flanagan’s 2013 novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North was acquired by the Library and is now on display in the Treasures Gallery.
Tasmanian author Richard Flanagan was awarded the Booker Prize for best English-language novel in 2014 for his haunting work The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Upon receipt of the award, he was presented with a special edition of the novel, intricately bound by Sue Doggett.
The one-of-a-kind item was donated by the author to a charity auction organised by Australian artist Ben Quilty. Proceeds from the auction were donated to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). The successful bidder subsequently presented the book to the Library, where it is currently on display in the Treasures exhibition gallery.
Yah Yah by Anna Zhu
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Eight photographs from Australian photographer Anna Zhu’s Yah Yah series (2008) were added to the Library’s collection.
Yah Yah tells the story of Zhu’s grandparents’ intimate closeness in a collection of understated, candid stills. The series explores the artist’s Chinese Australian heritage and the impact of her grandparents’ migration to Australia in 1998.
The evocative images capture a relationship in a domestic setting and hint at broader themes of isolation and loneliness within migrant communities.
The Schevenhuysen Map
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The Library enhanced its strong collection of rare, printed maps with a new acquisition with Veritable Representation des Premieres Matieres ou Elements (True Representation of the First Matters or Elements) – also known as The Schevenhuysen Map. This is a rare, hand-coloured copperplate engraving printed in Haarlem circa 1700 by Ambrosius Schevenhuysen, based on a much earlier map of 1582 by Antonino Saliba.
It is a spectacular cosmographical map printed at the end of the Dutch Golden Age, that brings together different mapping and philosophical traditions of important past mapmakers. The work maps the Asia-Pacific region in the main terrestrial view, consistent with pre-Dutch (pre-1640s) knowledge of the region.
The Barunga Statement
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A copy of the Barunga Statement (54 of 100) with original signatures from artists and activists Galarrwuy Yunupingu and Wenten Rubuntja, whose art appears in the Statement, was also added to the Library's collections.
Painted during the 1988 Barunga Sport and Cultural Festival, the Barunga Statement was the culmination of years of engagement and discussion between Aboriginal groups in the Northern Territory and the Australian Government.
The Statement combines Aboriginal symbolism from northern and central Australia and a translation of these into English language text. The Northern and Central Land Councils presented the Statement to then prime minister Bob Hawke, and it went on to be hung in Parliament House.
Portraits of prominent Australians by Philip Gostelow
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Five works from Australian photographer Philip Gostelow’s Portraits of Prominent Australians, 1998-2005 series have recently been added to the Library’s collection.
The Portraits of Prominent Australians, 1998-2005 collection features photographs of Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson, Tetsuya Wakuda, Dr Alan Trounson, and Bruce Haigh, who have brought about social or political change in their respective fields of filmmaking, hospitality, in-vitro fertilisation and politics.
2022 Australia Federal Election polling places photographs
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Every federal election, the Library collects campaign material and ephemera across all candidates, electorates and parties comprehensively. The Library's election ephemera collection covers every Australian federal election since Federation in 1901.
For the 2022 Federal Election, photographers from across Australia were commissioned by the National Library of Australia to photograph the election campaign and polling day in their communities.
