Creating Imagined Interiors

Join award winning production designer Melinda Doring; Craig McPherson, Senior Curator at the National Trust of Australia (NSW); and Joanna Nicholas from Museums of History NSW as they discuss different approaches to creating interiors for house museums and film and television productions.

Whether working on film and TV productions or historic houses and museums, what are the narratives that drive these interior designs and inspire the designers themselves? Melinda has sought inspiration from the collection of the Caroline Simpson Library when designing TV productions, including the recent Amazon Prime Video series The lost flowers of Alice Hart. Craig worked with the library in the reinterpretation of Everglades House, Leura, while Joanna used the library’s collection in the revitalisation of the drawing room at Vaucluse House.

The evening will include a viewing of creative sources in the Caroline Simpson Library collection used for each project as well as presentations from the three speakers. A Q&A will be led by Research Librarian Dr Matthew Stephens. Refreshments included with each ticket.

Members get more: 20% discount off the ticket price.

Watch the recording

Design for frieze / by Ethel Atkinson

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

The Mint, 10 Macquarie Street, Sydney NSW 2000

Caroline Simpson Library

The Mint, 10 Macquarie Street, Sydney NSW 2000
  • Cafe
  • Wheelchair accessible
Plan your visit
  • Tuesday 21 May 6pm–8pm

Caroline Simpson Collection

Equestrian Statue of the King, Astor Flats and Chief Secretary’s Building

The Astor, 1923–2023

Upon completion in 1923, The Astor in Sydney's Macquarie Stree twas the largest reinforced concrete building in Australia, the tallest residential block, and this country’s first company title residences

Detail of the four poster bed and beaded watch pockets in the Principal bedroom, Vaucluse House

Watch pockets

Watch pockets hung on the head cloth of a four-post bedstead and originally served in place of bedside tables, which were uncommon in the 19th century

Acquisition of the John and Phyllis Murphy wallpaper collection
Wallpaper

Wall to wall: a marvellous wallpaper collection

A remarkable donation of over 3,000 wallpaper samples by John and Phyllis Murphy adds to our existing collection to form Australia’s largest repository of historic wallpapers

Two women on the steps of a sandstone building. One is crouching and holding a wooden tool, an axe rests beside her. The other and one sits on the step at a easel, under an umbrella

Queering the Interior: London, New York, Sydney, 1882–1929

Design practices of five figures from queer history: Irish playwright and poet Oscar Wilde, American actress and interior designer Elsie de Wolfe, and Australian artists Eirene Mort, Roy de Maistre and Adrian Feint (1894–1971)