Previous exhibitions

Recent Acquisitions 6
This exhibition is focussed on material acquired since 2009 for the Rare Books Collection. Especially showcased are two significant donations. One is from the firm, Rock Posters, which puts up posters around Melbourne advertising pop concerts and dances; the other is a collection of the works of the poet and novelist Robert Graves donated by retired antiquarian bookseller, Jack Bradstreet.

Artists' Books
The Rare Books Collection hosted a display of Artists' books in conjunction with the international multi-disciplinary printmaking conference IMPACT7 2011 hosted by Monash University, Art & Design. The artists' books in this exhibition are created to reflect on political and social realities from several eras.

Stardust Melodies
Through collections of popular sheet music we can hear the sounds of our ancestor's lives. Before recordings and radio conveyed the latest popular tunes, sheet music was the means of marketing the latest musical vogues and hits, and frequently featured photographs of popular singers.

Cookbooks: the Sandy Michell Collection
This exhibition celebrates the gift of valuable seventeenth and nineteenth century French and English cookbooks made by Alexandra Michell, beginning in 1988. As a result of generous financial donations from Ms Michell, the exhibition has expanded further to include early Australian cookbooks and twentieth century material.

Useful Books
The exhibition includes books on applied science and technology, manuals and trade catalogues. Such books have always played a major role in the publishing industry and are important to those studying the “history of the book". They give an closer insight into historical periods.

Lewd and Scandalous
This exhibition contains literary and visual material that was restricted or suppressed and circulated for more than two centuries in small numbers, in privately printed and clandestine editions.

Children's Books: Lindsay Shaw Collection
The Monash University Library Rare Books Collection has extensive holdings of children’s material, over 12,000 items. These form the Lindsay Shaw Collection. Lindsay Shaw was the Secretary of the Monash Faculty of Education when he began to donate children's books to the Library in 1979, beginning with sets of Ethel Turner and Mary Grant Bruce.

A Doctor's Delights
This exhibition displays highlights and discoveries from the Richard Travers Collection. Richard Travers has donated an extensive collection of books in the historical and social aspects of medicine to the Monash University Library. The collection has a particular focus on Australiana and will be an invaluable resource for current and future researchers.

Swift and Defoe
When Monash University began in 1961, one of the earliest major purchases was of a collection of Swift items. The Library has continued to add early editions and manuscripts to the Swift collection and material relating to Swift’s contemporaries, of whom the greatest is Daniel Defoe.

Recent acquisitions 5
This exhibition is focussed on material recently acquired for the Rare Books Collection, mainly dating from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Items of popular culture and Australian history and literature are of particular interest.

Southerly Busters
Celebrating publication of the fourth volume of Bibliography of Australian Literature, this exhibition highlights the holdings of the Rare Books Collection in Australian literature.

Fifty books from fifty years
To mark the University’s fiftieth anniversary, fifty Monash researchers have chosen significant items from the Rare Books Collection.

The Pacific
This exhibition covers European discovery and exploration of the Pacific. Items displayed originated in the period early eighteenth century to early twentieth century.

Australian women writers 1900-1950
An exhibition of material from the Monash University Library Rare Books Collection.

Ephemera
A display of printed material which is used for various purposes and then discarded. These fragments of the past illuminate previous lives for future generations. Items displayed range from 17th century to the present.

Sport
Sport is an interest, even an enthusiasm, which spans Australian society.

The home
This exhibition examines the home in the context of architectural and social history, particularly focussing on twentieth century Australian experience.

Recent acquisitions 4
The fourth “Recent Acquisitions” exhibition Rare books has held and includes material acquired since 2001.

Asia
A selection of more than 120 items exemplifying the depth and diversity of the Asian language collections of Monash University Library.

Sun Books
An exhibition of publications produced by renowned Australian publishers of the 1960s and 70s, Sun Books.

Communism
The exhibition draws upon the wealth of pamphlet material held in the Monash Rare Book Collection.