Catalogues of Lost Dreams
House contents have been sold by auction in Sydney for over 200 years.
Many of these sales took place in Sydney’s grandest homes, with their furnishings documented room-by-room in catalogues produced by local auction houses.
Join Dr Matthew Stephens as he looks at the gossip behind these sales, and see auction catalogues, rare books, photographs, and treasures associated with some of these magnificent buildings. Matthew will also discuss the Caroline Simpson Library’s recent acquisition of the JR Lawson Auction Catalogue Collection and how it can be used for future research.
Talks & webinars
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Murphy Wallpaper Collection
The recent donation to the Caroline Simpson Library of thousands of wallpapers in the John and Phyllis Murphy Collection means that Museums of History NSW now has the largest holding of historical wallpapers in Australia
Creating Imagined Interiors
Join industry experts at the Caroline Simpson Library as they discuss different approaches to creating interiors for house museums and film and television productions
Unlocking Past Lives
Join Matthew Stephens, research librarian at the Caroline Simpson Library, as he uses the library’s specialist collection to explore the contexts of a selection of historic family photographs
![Vivienne Chaffer : Colour [interior design student workbook]](https://api.mhnsw.au/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.mhnsw.au%2Ffotoweb%2Fembed%2F2024%2F03%2Fb09f1f0c5831414a9ae3b0baf97b548d.jpg&w=1920&h=400&fit=inside&format=webp)
Phyllis Shillito and her colour curriculum 1945–1979
This event focused on the colour curriculum of pioneering Sydney-based colour designer and educator Phyllis Shillito (1895–1980) of the 1940s to the 1970s