
Free, Secular and Democratic
June 2013
Building the Public Library 1853-1913
It is generally supposed that Sydney provided the touchstone for the development of Melbourne’s cultural identity and that in the rivalry between the two cities Melbourne first crafted its view of itself.
But Sydney was only a part of the story. For Melbourne the main game was elsewhere; it was always Melbourne v The World. The city’s ambition was breathtaking and inspiring.
Born competitive, Port Phillip’s first fortune was founded on wool which was sold in tough, competitive overseas markets. Its second fortune came from gold the extraction and processing of which required innovation and advanced technological infrastructure. So the settlement always looked outwards, its squatters and wealthy post-gold entrepreneurs shuttling back and forth between the colony and Europe keeping an eye on the latest idea, product, or invention. The colony liked to communicate and innovate, establishing the first telegraph line (1853) and train service (1853) in the country. And certain of its hard thinkers had the ambition to create from the assemblage of diverse people that crowded onto its shore from the nineteenth-century global diaspora an early experiment in liberal democracy. The invention of a football game with no offside rule and the foundation of one of the earliest Public Libraries in the world were no accidents.
The exhibition Free, Secular and Democratic: Building the Public Library 1853-1913 at the State Library of Victoria tells the story of the birth and early development of the Public Library. From the laying of its foundation stone in 1854 to the completion of the Domed Reading Room in 1913 it was the quintessential cultural achievement of early Melbourne.
While Charles La Trobe’s government set aside the funding for the building and its books in 1853, the Library’s early fortunes were closely bound up with Redmond Barry, chair of the first trustees. Barry was a quixotic figure and his history is well known; indeed he enjoys something of an iconic status at the Library, his bronze statue still guarding the entrance. Born in Ireland, he studied law and was admitted to the Irish Bar in 1838. Arriving in Melbourne in 1839, he practised as a lawyer and was elevated to the new bench of the Supreme Court of Victoria in January 1852.
However Barry is best known (apart from sentencing Ned Kelly to the gallows) for his indefatigable enthusiasm for every social, cultural and philanthropic activity he could possibly be involved in – the Mechanics Institute, Melbourne Club, Melbourne Hospital, Philharmonic Society, Philosophical Institute, Royal Society of Victoria. He was first Chancellor of the University of Melbourne as well as chair of the Library’s trustees. He made things happen. He organised the first purchases of books for the Library, oversaw the architectural competition that produced Joseph Reed’s winning design and generally masterminded the development of the Library site for almost three decades.
Joseph Reed, the architect of the library’s first buildings and close colleague of Barry, is far less well known to Melburnians, although his legacy in the city is there for all of us to see. It includes not only the Library but also the Town Hall, three churches, Trades Hall, the Royal Exhibition Building and various buildings at the University of Melbourne, all still used for their original purposes. Reed’s office exists today as Bates Smart, one of the oldest continuous architectural practices in the world.
Free, Secular and Democratic tells two interwoven stories. One focuses on the Queens Reading Room, the Intercolonial Exhibitions buildings of 1866 demolished in the early twentieth century and the Domed Reading Room which took their place. This story is about architectural and design innovation and the gradual occupation of the whole site from Swanston Street to Russell Street.
The second story concerns the cultural institutions which were gathered together on the site over the course of four decades – the Library, National Gallery of Victoria, Industrial and Technological Museum, Natural History Museum, Schools of Painting and Design, and the Intercolonial Exhibitions which were held in the 1860s and 1870s. With its roots in the liberal political philosophy of the nineteenth century the ‘Institution’ as it was known, followed closely on the heels of the newly established South Kensington (now the Victoria and Albert) Museum in London, both inspired by the educational objective of engaging with the public in a practical and accessible way.
If Melbourne’s identity is characterised, as some believe it is, by a belief in enlightenment and happiness for all, in the importance of social and political engagement and in the capacity of ideas to galvanise action, then we might say that the Public Library is its foundational site.
Harriet Edquist is Professor of Architectural History at RMIT and Director of RMIT Design Archives.
Free, Secular and Democratic: Building the Public Library 1853-1913 is one of many events celebrating the centenary of the Dome. This free exhibition shows in the Keith Murdoch Gallery until February 2014.
slv.vic.gov.au/free-secular-democratic
Images:
1. Nicholas Chevalier, The Public Library, 1860, watercolour, gift of Mr McEwan, 1965, State Library of Victoria.
2. Barnett Johnson (later Johnstone), Queen’s Reading Room, Melbourne Public Library, 1859, albumen silver photograph, State Library of Victoria.
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