Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts Annual Report

The mission of the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts is to ensure that Henry Allport’s bequest is highly valued and enjoyed by its beneficiaries, the people of Tasmania, and is recognised for its major contribution to Australia’s heritage.

The values and principles which support that mission are:

• providing maximum access to the collection within the limits of preservation and security considerations
• maintaining the highest standards in collection development and service
• encouraging the Tasmanian community to participate in the development and preservation of the collection.

The general direction of work in the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts for the past year has been in accordance with the Business Plan 2006-08. This plan takes into account several higher-level plans including Tasmania Together and the State Library of Tasmania’s own business plan.

The goals of these plans were reflected in the activities of the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts in the following areas:

• awareness of the collections and community involvement
• access to the collection items
• acquisition of note
• conservation and preservation of the collection for future generations.

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Awareness of the collections and community involvement

Exhibitions and displays

Three major exhibitions were presented through the year:

Drawing the Line: Tasmania on the Map, presented as part of the Australia on the Map 1606-2006 celebrations, was on display until 30 September 2006. This exhibition featured more than one hundred maps from the Heritage Collections, many of which had not been previously shown to the public.

Fancy Buying That! New Acquisitions 1996-2006 opened on 1 November 2006, with guest speaker Andy Muirhead, presenter of the ABC Television program, Collectors. The exhibition closed in mid-February. A series of related displays in the Allport foyer gave several State Library staff members the opportunity to show and explain their own personal collections.

Alice at the Allport was the State Library of Tasmania’s major contribution to the 2007 Ten Days on the Island festival. Curated by the ceramic artist Penny Smith, the exhibition included ceramic works created by invited Australian ceramic artists which were inspired by, and displayed in, each of the Allport furniture rooms. Works included specially-created table settings including chairs, tea sets and tablecloths with designs by Tasmanian graphic artists, as well as other works by those artists. A related display in the Allport Print Room, Sweet Indulgence, featured photographs of items from the Allport ceramics collection. The exhibitions were opened on 14 March 2007 by guest speaker, author Danielle Wood. The exhibition also offered an opportunity to refresh the displays of the Allport ceramics and silver collections.

The Twelve Days of Christmas, on show in December 2006, used items from the Allport collections to illustrate the ‘days’ of the well-known Christmas carol.

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Promotion, publicity and public programs

Following the installation in 2005-06 of equipment for public presentations (screen, sound system, internet access and lectern) the Allport Library has increasingly been used for talks and lectures. Those presented in 2006-07 which related partly or wholly to Allport included the following:

• On 8 July 2006, author Richard Flanagan, gave an address on ‘Why books matter more than ever’ in the Allport Library, in association with the National Treasures from Australia’s Great Libraries exhibition.
• In April and May 2007, the State Library of Tasmania showcased high-quality speakers across the fields of journalism, popular culture, writing and history, talking about the Nature of Storytelling. Two of the four sessions were held in the Allport library: Inspired Stories on Saturday 28 April 2007, a talk by Tasmanian journalist and author Patsy Crawford; and on 23 May 2007, History Overboard, a panel discussion on history, politics and storytelling hosted by the ABC’s Christopher Lawrence.

Other events which made use of the facilities in the Allport Library included talks during Adult Learners’ Week (September 2006) and Seniors Week (October 2006) and, on 11 April and 9 May 2007, two sessions of the Hobart Lending Library’s regular Storytime activities featuring Alice in Wonderland.

In association with Alice at the Allport and the Ten Days on the Island festival, two ‘Mad Hatter’s Tea Parties’ were held in the Allport Gallery on Monday 26 and Friday 30 March 2007. At each event, 20 guests were entertained by harpist Christina Sonnemann and author Danielle Wood. Allport opened on three Saturdays in March and April 2007, before and during the festival.

The ABC television program Collectors featured a teapot from the ceramics collection on 6 October 2006. Two items of Allport furniture were featured in a segment on ‘Veneers’ and several tables from the collection were also featured in the program during March 2006. The program on 2 March 2007 also included a segment on the National Treasures from Australia’s Great Libraries exhibition which was recorded in June 2006 while the exhibition was on show at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

On 24 November 2006, Allport hosted the launch of the book Pockets & Corners: Furry Facts and Thylacine Fiction in the Heartlands of Tasmania by Diane Perndt and Penny Carey-Wells. The book reproduces several images from the Allport collections.

Staff provided talks, guided tours and other services to a wide range of special-interest groups including Hobart Historic Tours, U3A Hobart and Eastern Shore, the Rosny School for Seniors, members of the Queen Mary Club, the Ionian Club, students from public and private schools and the University of Tasmania.

Joanna Richardson successfully completed her PhD thesis ‘An annotated edition of the journals of Mary Morton Allport’ in late 2006 and presented a copy of the thesis to the Allport Library. She has also published two articles based on her work: ‘Sketches from life: the journals of Mary Morton Allport’ in Australian Heritage, Spring 2006; and ‘Introducing Mary Morton Allport and her journals’ in the Tasmanian Historical Research Association’s Papers and proceedings, April 2007.

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Access to collection items

There were 9,073 visitors in 2006-07, compared with 6,978 in 2005-06 (an increase of 30%). The increase was largely the result of the intrinsic popularity of Alice at the Allport and the resources committed by the State Library to promoting the exhibition (although earlier in the year visitor numbers for Drawing the Line were also well sustained). On Saturday 31 March 2007, 169 people visited the Alice exhibition-the highest number of visitors recorded for a Saturday opening. The total of 1,691 visitors for March 2007, was the highest monthly figure for at least 12 years.

Staff responded to 456 enquiries (256 reference and 200 directional) from members of the public, tourists, academics and other researchers-a decrease of 16% on the previous year. Researchers used 123 collection items-books, manuscripts and pamphlets.

There were requests for copies of 379 collection items, a few were supplied as photographic prints but most as digital files. While some were for private research and enjoyment, 299 of these images were requested for reproduction by 140 institutions and individuals in books, reports, theses, brochures, signs, exhibitions, television and film documentaries and on websites.

Loans

Two items were loaned to the Parliamentary Library for use in a display in the Albert Hall in Launceston to mark the 150th anniversary of the Tasmanian Parliament:

• Inkstand, [c.1840], gilded metal and glass (once the property of Francis Russell Nixon, first Bishop of Tasmania)
• Bowl, Hobart Sabbath School [c. 1862], Pinder-Bourne & Co.

The National Gallery of Australia borrowed three items from Allport for inclusion in the exhibition The Story of Australian Printmaking 1801-2005, which was on show from 30 March to 3 June 2007:

• [The Settlement, Norfolk Island] by Ellen Burgess, c.1846. Two-colour lithograph
• The Halcyon, a regular packet from Launceston to Adelaide (Commander William Jones) by Samuel Tulloch. 1848. Engraving
• Opossum Mouse from Grass Tree Hill Tasmania by Mary Morton Allport, c.1840. Lithograph.

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Acquisition of note

Books and manuscripts:

• The Zoology of the Erebus and Terror under the Command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross, R.N., F.R.S., during the years 1839 to 1843 by John Richardson and John Edward Gray, (London, EW Janson, 1875)
• Four manuscript letters written as lessons by pupils at Ellenthorpe Hall School, near Ross, in the 1830s
• The original watercolour paintings by John James Audubon for The Birds of America: reproduced in colour for the first time from the collection at the New-York Historical Society ([London]: Michael Joseph Ltd and The Connoisseur, 1966)
• Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray: Comprising the Political and Humorous History of the latter part of the Reign of George the Third by Thomas Wright, (London, Henry G. Bohn, 1851)
• Art in Nature: Over 500 Plants Illustrated from Curtis’s Botanical Magazine by Martin Rix (intro), (London, Studio Editions, 1991)
• Leichhardt’s Expeditioners: In the Australian Wilderness 1844-1845 by Dan Sprod (Hobart, Blubber Head Press, 2006) - ordinary and leather-bound editions
• Gould’s Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan (UK, US, German and Armenian editions).

Fine arts:

• Tasmanian Flora by Lauren Black. Limited edition botanical portfolio of six prints with text, 2006
• [Ship on beach] by William Buelow Gould. [183-] Pencil drawing
• Cascade Valley, Hobart Town by John Skinner Prout. [184-] Pencil and watercolour on paper.
• Fairy Glade, Fern Tree Tasmania by John Skinner Prout. [184-] Watercolour and gouache on paper
• John Gould, F.R.S. F.L.S. &c. [Portrait] [c.1849] Lithograph by Thomas Herbert Maguire
• The Birds of Australia and The Mammals of Australia by John Gould. Nine loose plates of Tasmanian species, acquired from various sources
• Ten loose plates depicting Australian marsupials, especially the thylacine and the Tasmanian devil, acquired from various sources.

Decorative arts and objects:

• Tea urn, silver plate, presented to Brother George Smith of the Church of Christ, Hobart, 1882
• Plate, Brooks Works, England, printed with an image of Christ Church, Launceston c.1890.

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Conservation and preservation of the collection for future generations

The management committee continues to support the conservation and maintenance of the collection by allocating up to 25% of its annual income from the endowment fund and from interest earned for conservation treatments, especially on fine and decorative arts pieces for which the necessary expertise is accessible only through conservators in private practice in Tasmania and interstate. In 2006-07, the committee funded treatments for 11 items from the ceramics collection. The committee notes; however, that access to the services of the few freelance specialist conservators in Tasmania is becoming increasingly difficult because of competing demands from other institutions and private clients.

Ceramic database

In 2005-06, the State Library supported the development of a database (using Adlib software) of the Allport furniture collection which brought together, supplemented and corrected information about the collection which was held in several disparate registers and indexes. This database was completed in August 2006, and in October work began on creating a similar database for the 379 items in the ceramics collection. By 30 June 2007, approximately 330 records had been created, each with details of object name, maker (or attribution), manufacture (date, place and medium), inscriptions, description, interpretative information, acquisition (including date and provenance), exhibition history and references. While the full databases are accessible only to staff, work is progressing on developments that will enable versions of the databases, which exclude confidential information, to be made available in 2007-08 through the State Library’s Digital Object Management System.

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Staff

The management committee gratefully acknowledges all of those staff of the State Library whose work and high level of expertise contribute to the development of the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts. In consequence of the committee’s concern that long-serving and knowledgeable staff might soon retire, the State Library supported a project to ‘capture the knowledge’ of the Senior Librarian (Heritage Collections) and the Senior Librarian (Allport), who have occupied their positions for 17 and 12 years respectively. Working with Jane Stapleton of the Tasmanian firm Sound Connexions, they have recorded 10 hours of interviews documenting their knowledge of the Heritage Collections in general and of the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts in particular.

Mrs Frances Kay retired from the half-time position of Art Curator (Allport) in October 2006, after providing valuable service in that position for three-and-a-half years. Following a subsequent review of staffing in the Heritage Collections, the position was restructured and renamed Interpretation and Exhibition Coordinator (Heritage Collections). Ms Maria Fletcher took up this position on 17 April 2007.

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Management committee

The management committee met three times, on 25 July and 13 November 2006 and on 12 April 2007.

Membership of the committee is unchanged, it comprises:

• Mr John Upcher (chairperson) (nominated by the trustees of the estate of Henry Allport)
• Ms Amanda Wojtowicz (nominated by the trustees of the estate of Henry Allport)
• Dr AV Brown, a trustee of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (nominated by the Board of Trustees)
• Dr Keith Adkins (appointed by the Minister for Education)
• Ms Siobhan Gaskell, Director, Information Services and Community Learning and the State Library of Tasmania (nominated by the secretary of the Department of Education).

John Upcher
Chairperson

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