Adventures with an Atlas: Rediscovering the French Government’s Gift of Books to Melbourne in 1880

Author: MICHAEL SHIRREFS
Explorations No 48 (Jun 2010): 43-54
https://doi.org/10.62586/WAFJ7643

This account by Michael Shirrefs, a broadcaster, printmaker and composer, describes his re-discovery in the State Library of Victoria of a substantial collection of maps and books donated in 1880 by the French Government to the people of Melbourne. The gift of this half-forgotten collection was made to the Melbourne Public Library, the predecessor of today’s State Library, on the occasion of the 1880-1881 Melbourne International Exhibition.

Keywords: State Library of Victoria, Atlas des anciens plans de Paris, Melbourne International Exhibition, 1880-1881, Archives nationales, Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris (BHVP), Jules Belcour (Consul General in 1880-1881)


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