Collections
Talk
An Appetite for History
Cookbooks and manuscript recipes from the 1830s to the 1970s
Wednesday 12 March 6pm–7.30pm
Talk
A Lesson in Bold Design
Exploring the John and Phyllis Murphy Collection of historic wallpapers
Wednesday 5 February 6pm–7.30pm
Online talk
Settlers’ Muster Book 1800
Join us for a webinar led by Dr Carol Liston AO, Adjunct Associate Professor in History at Western Sydney University, who will explore the contents of the Settlers’ Muster Book 1800
Friday 31 January 10.30am–11.30am
![Alexander Mackintosh Archive :
architectural plans and specifications, 1901-ca.1921: Waterhouse & Lake : architectural plans and specifications, 1909-1924 / B.J. Waterhouse & J.W. Lake [architectural drawing]](https://images.mhnsw.au/fotoweb/embed/2024/12/41b04e66f26c41e0a8a932bedad1490a.jpg)
The Alexander Mackintosh Archive: revealing records of a master builder
Forgotten for decades, the archive of building contractor Alexander Mackintosh was rediscovered in a roof space in the 1990s. It includes more than 270 architectural drawings and reveals information about the work of many of Sydney’s leading architects of the early 20th century
![Cover label Small debts registers [Newcastle Court of Petty Sessions]](https://images.mhnsw.au/fotoweb/embed/2024/12/4ba709e2a1c2428bb82ee7470b3cd642.jpg)
Online talk
Small Debts Registers
This webinar will explore the newly indexed and digitised Small Debt Registers held in the NSW State Archives Collection, and how they can highlight the history of NSW local communities
Friday 28 March 10.30am–11.30am
Online talk
Murphy Wallpaper Collection
This webinar will illustrate the (perhaps surprising) riot of colour and pattern with which Australians decorated their homes in the 19th and early 20th centuries and will also consider what these wallpapers can tell us about the aspirations of Australian homeowners in the past
Friday 7 February 10.30am–11.30am
Latest News
New insights from an old photograph
A recent acquisition for the Caroline Simpson Library captures a rare view of the long-demolished southern range of the Hyde Park Barracks
![[Sydney from the north shore], Joseph Lycett, 1827.](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/zl9du87e/production/efb0ca986f6e159dd142f8014c35c3b1010cbc06-1346x908.jpg?fit=max&auto=format)
Hearing the music of early New South Wales
A new website documents an exciting partnership between Museums of History NSW and the University of Sydney in an exploration of Indigenous song and European settler vocal and instrumental music in early colonial NSW
The architectural pattern books of Elizabeth Macquarie
The architectural achievements of Governor Macquarie’s era are usually attributed to Macquarie’s architect Francis Greenway. Yet evidence collected during an inquiry into the state of the colony of NSW in the early 1820s includes references to the involvement of the governor’s wife, Elizabeth Macquarie, in matters architectural