page_title: State Library of New South Wales
section_title: The Mitchell and Dixson bequests (1900–1929)
hierarchical_section_title: State Library of New South Wales / History / The Mitchell and Dixson bequests (1900–1929)
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of Sir William Dixson
context_page_description: The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public. It is the oldest library in Australia, being the first established in the colony of New South Wales in 1826. The library is located on the corner of Macquarie Street and Shakespeare Place, in the Sydney central business district adjacent to the Domain and the Royal Botanic Gardens, in the City of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The library is a member of the National and State Libraries Australia consortium.
  The State Library of New South Wales building was designed by Walter Liberty Vernon, assisted by H. C. L. Anderson and was built from 1905 to 1910, with further additions by Howie Bros in 1939; by FWC Powell & Sons in 1959; and by Mellocco Bros in 1964. The property was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
context_section_description: Australiana was a collecting focus for the library and David Scott Mitchell's collecting activities came to the attention of Henry Charles Lennox Anderson, Principal Librarian from 1893–1906. Anderson's stated aim of making the library a "National, and not a Municipal, Library" led him to collect Australiana material. However, Mitchell's efforts to collect as many books and manuscripts relating to Australia, the Pacific, the East Indies and Antarctica, particularly from 1886 onwards, created competition for these materials. Anderson realised that the library did not have the budget or contacts to compete with Mitchell (from the 1880s onward, George Robertson gave Mitchell first right of refusal on Australiana material purchased by Angus & Robertson), and attempted to build a working relationship with Mitchell. In 1898, Mitchell announced his intention to leave his collection to the people of New South Wales, subject to conditions including that the collection would be known as the "Mitchell Library". Although his offer was quickly accepted, construction of a new building to house the collection was delayed for several years.
  Construction commenced in 1906, one year before Mitchell's death. Following Anderson's resignation in 1907, Frank Murcott Bladen (former head of the library's lending branch) was appointed Principal Librarian. In 1909, Hugh Wright was appointed to the newly created position of Mitchell Librarian; the creation of this role was another condition of Mitchell's bequest. Nita Kibble was another early member of the library staff. The Mitchell Library officially opened on 8 March 1910; Mungo MacCallum, then President of the Library Board of Trustees, spoke at the opening. The public library remained in the Bent Street building.
  Mitchell had not kept a catalogue of his collection, and as a result, cataloguing was an early priority for librarians in the Mitchell Library. A research department was established as part of the public library in the 1920s under the direction of Nita Kibble, while Ida Leeson as Head of Acquisitions researched gaps in the library's collections. Kibble's research department was later used as a model by other State Libraries when establishing similar services. Mitchell's bequest also included funding for collection acquisition; expanding the library's collection (particularly in the area of Australiana and Pacific material) was a priority for both Wright and William Ifould, who was appointed Principal Librarian in 1912. Ifould envisioned the library as a repository of material relating to the history of Australia, not just New South Wales, and led efforts to collect material. The library acquired the papers of Lachlan Macquarie and his family in 1914, Matthew Flinders in 1922, and Abel Tasman's journal in 1926, and after World War I collected journals of soldiers from that conflict. The Commonwealth Parliamentary Library (now the National Library of Australia), established in 1901, was also collecting Australiana material. This led to conflict over the acquisition of the papers of James Cook, which were offered at auction in London in 1923. The Trustees chose not to bid for the papers as doing so would have limited the library's Australiana acquisitions budget for several years and Ifould, already in London with hopes of purchasing the papers for the Mitchell Library, was directed instead to purchase them on behalf of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library and the Public Library of New South Wales using funds provided by the Federal Government.
  Sir William Dixson offered in 1919 to leave his collection of pictures, manuscripts and other materials relating to Australiana and the Pacific (particularly early European exploration) to the library; his offer was accepted in 1924. After a series of delays construction began on a new wing to house the collection, which was opened on 21 October 1929. Dixson was the guest of honour at the opening of an exhibition to mark the centenary of Mitchell's birth in 1936, and also paid for the bronze doors added to the Mitchell building in 1942, when ex
caption: Portrait of Sir William Dixson
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