Beautiful books in both cities

This post comes from Leonie Cash, librarian at the Museum Victoria library.

Finally, something Sydney and Melbourne agree upon! Both Museum Victoria and the Australian Museum were avid collectors of books in the mid-19th century.

Gould's Birds of Australia in the MV Library Rare Books Collection.
Source: Museum Victoria  

Matthew Stephens, reference librarian at the beautiful Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection at the Historic Houses Trust of NSW, recently spent time examining MV's archives and rare books. As part of his PhD research on the growth of book collecting from 1850 to the late 1880s. Matthew was keen to compare his findings from the Australian Museum with evidence of the early book collections at Museum Victoria. His research here confirmed the richness of the scientific book collections nurtured in Sydney and Melbourne at that time.

Links

MV News: Biodiversity Heritage Library

MV News: Library Week rare book viewing

Rare books at the Australian Museum