State Library of NSW

Yesterday I went for another lunchtime walk, but as it was rather hot instead of going to the gardens I went to the State Library of NSW. Such a beautiful building!! I ended up speaking with a volunteer, I got a little lost and found myself in a museum in there, turns out the building is actually 5 buildings in one 😊 it will take a bit to get through I think!

Such beautiful columns

“In books lies the soul of the whole Past Time; the articulate audible voice of the Past, when the body and material substance of it has altogether vanished like a dream."

big stained glass windows, such lovely walls of books

This below room is called the Shakespear room, there is alot of history in there but i was more interested in the wood carvings and stained glass, so detailed :) The roof, the pillars, the windows, all of it.

These doors on the way out!

I jumped on their website to find a bit of history about the place:

The naming of the Library

The State Library of NSW is the oldest library in Australia. In 1869 the NSW Government purchased the Australian Subscription Library, which had been established in 1826, to form the Sydney Free Public Library, the first truly public library for the people of NSW. The Mitchell Library, the first library in the country to concentrate entirely on Australian content, opened in 1910.

The building of the Library

In December 1827 operations began in rented premises in Pitt Street, and for the next two years the Library led a peripatetic existence—a few years in George Street, then Bridge Street, Macquarie Street and Macquarie Place. In 1845 it finally moved into its own new building on the corner of Bent and Macquarie Streets, approximately where the Aurora Place development now stands.
By 1869 the subscription library was hopelessly in debt, and the New South Wales Government was persuaded to buy it for £5100 (£1500 for the books and £3600 for the building). In September 1869, the Sydney Free Public Library opened its doors with a stock of 20 000 volumes.

Key dates

• 1826: The Australian Subscription Library, precursor of the State Library of NSW, opens in Pitt Street. It moves three times until finding a permanent home on Bent Street in 1845.
• 1869: The NSW Government assumes responsibility for the Library, which becomes the Sydney Free Public Library. Focus changes to a reference collection, with a strong emphasis on Australian material.
• 1895: The name changes to the Public Library of New South Wales, articulating its role and the importance of its collection.
  *1898: David Scott Mitchell offers his entire Australian collection and a substantial endowment to the NSW Government on the condition a new building in constructed to house it.
  *1910: The new Mitchell Library (the northwest corner which now houses the Friends Room opens to the public on 9 March with a reading room for the study of items from the Mitchell Collection.
  *1919: Sir William Dixson offers to present a collection of paintings to the Public Library, provided a wing is constructed to house it.
• 1929: The Dixson Wing (the southwest corner facing the statue of Matthew Flinders) is opened.
• 1942: The Public Library extensions to the Mitchell Library Building are opened, including the magnificent vestibule, glassed ceiling reading room and the Shakespeare Room. The collections, staff and services of the Public Library are relocated from Bent Street to the expanded building, now called the Public Library of New South Wales. The Mitchell and Dixson collections continue to be used in the original Mitchell Reading Room and the public library collections are read in the Reference Library Reading Room (known as the Mitchell Library Reading Room since 1988).
• 1964: Mitchell Library Building completed with the construction of the Domain Wing on the southeast corner.
• 1975: The name changes to the State Library of New South Wales.
• 1988: The Macquarie Street wing opens with a new reading room (now the State Reference Library). The Reference Library Reading Room becomes the Mitchell Library Reading Room in which the now very large Mitchell Library Collection, including special collections, are studied by those holding a reader’s ticket.
• 2013: AMAZE: The Michael Crouch Gallery opened in the Mitchell Building.
• 2014: The State Reference Library is renamed the Governor Marie Bashir Reading Room.

Reference State Library of NSW website