Caroline Simpson Library
A window to the past
The private collection of photographer Alan Spearman Evans reveals an exceptional photographic record of an average middle-class couple celebrating their life in suburban Sydney in the early to mid 20th century
A world of designs
Trade catalogues, published to illustrate the products for sale from a manufacturer, wholesaler or retailer, reveal the surprising wealth of choice available to Australian consumers in the 19th century
Alan Spearman Evans Collection
The Alan Spearman Evans Collection comprises over 2000 photographic images of houses, house interiors, garden landscapes and industrial workplaces in NSW
An extraordinary collection
The Caroline Simpson Collection has become Australia’s leading source of information on the history of houses, interiors, furnishings, gardens and domestic life
Reading Room
Caroline Simpson Library
A specialised resource centre on home and garden design, history and life
Past Event
Collections in Practice with Sibella Court
Join us for a fascinating conversation with interior designer and historian Sibella Court about her creative process
Conversations in collections
A series of talks that explore the fascinating stories behind the objects in the Caroline Simpson Library
Cool Colours
In Spring 2015, Museums of History NSW was asked if it could assist in the recreation of a 1950s colour palette for Hillary’s Hut, located at the Scott Base, Antarctica
Designed with intent: colonial vs modernist chairs
This selection of furniture juxtaposes the old with the new: early 19th-century colonial seating and modernist styles made over a hundred years later