Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander visitors are kindly advised that this website includes images, sounds and names of people who have passed.
All users should be aware that some topics or historical content may be culturally sensitive, offensive or distressing, and that some images may contain nudity or are of people not yet identified. Certain words, terms or descriptions may reflect the author's/creator's attitude or that of the period in which they were written, but are now considered inappropriate in today's context.
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In the Library (or anywhere with a Library card for NSW residents) |
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Only in the Library |
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Publicly available |
The Library collects material that documents life in New South Wales, from the earliest times to the present day. Unlike an art gallery, our criteria for collection is not based on artistic merit, but what a piece of art says about our history and our society. The intention is to create a collection that reflects the history of New South Wales in both the Australian and international contexts.
Artworks in our collection can be categorised in a wide range of formats and sub-formats: watercolours, prints, drawings, silhouettes, miniatures, framed works (including oil paintings), architectural plans, black and white drawings, and realia.
| Suggested search strategy |
| From the catalogue homepage, enter a sport or athlete name, and select ‘‘‘Pictures’’’ as a filter. Using the filter menu at the right of the results screen, limit your search to the sub-formats of paintings, drawings and prints. |
McLaren's Boxing Saloon main road Ballarat/ Dr Doyle's sketch book, ca. 1862-1863
The Library’s colonial art has been collected to capture life in the colony, providing a reflection on the society and culture of the period. This collection features several depictions of sporting endeavours such as cricket, boxing and sailing, including a watercolour sketch of a sailing regatta held on the 26th January 1848 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the landing of the First Fleet.
Sketches of bush animals / Norman Lindsay
Norman Lindsay endures as a towering figure of Australian art and literature. The Library holds several Lindsay collections, including his original sketches for the children’s classic The Magic Pudding, and illustrations he drew for influential early 20th century magazine The Lone Hand.
In both guises — as a children’s illustrator and a social commentator — Lindsay’s work intersects with the prevalence of sport in Australian culture. A Lindsay sketchbook held by the Library depicts scenes of Australian bush animals variously weightlifting, cycling and horseracing; another album, titled Bill Bluegum, features a Magic Pudding-esque koala playing cricket, soccer and golf.
Lindsay’s Lone Hand illustrations also contain a sporting bent, with images of sailing, steeplechase and boxing. This collection is perhaps most notable however for Lindsay’s cover of the 1 December 1908 edition: a depiction of the famous boxing match won by the African American boxer Jack Johnson in Sydney in 1908. Johnson’s victory made him the first Black heavyweight champion of the world.
As Australia’s national summer sport and one of our only major sports to cut across all state lines, it is no surprise that cricket is well represented in the Library’s art collection. A Thomas H Lewis painting from c 1870 is an important document not only for cricket lovers, but also to those interested in colonial Sydney given its depiction of Hyde Park and surrounds.
Our collection of cricket artworks also includes an ST Gill watercolour depiction of the first match between England and a combined NSW/Victorian team (pictured above), which took place at The Domain in February 1862, and a watercolour drawing of the legendary Victor Trumper.
The Library’s digitisation strategy is aimed at increasing access to our collections. Many of the Library’s artworks have been digitised and can be viewed through the Library catalogue or our digital collections viewer.
To ensure the long-term preservation of our collection, the Library limits physical access to artworks where a digital version exists. Exceptions to this policy are decided on a case-by-case basis. Want to know more? Complete an Ask a Librarian request.
Since 2018, with the opening of our new gallery spaces, more of the collection is on display than ever before. Our art collection features prominently, with the permanent exhibition Paintings from the Collection featuring over 300 paintings. Other artworks regularly feature in our temporary exhibitions. See our Galleries page to learn more.
Conditions for viewing our original artworks varies depending on factors such as the type of material and the condition of the item. In some circumstances, access requires a supervised viewing. To learn more, see our How to Use Special Collections page. Requests to view our art collection can be made by completing an Access to Special Collections Request form.
Race horse and jockey, J. Fowles, undated
On display at the Paintings from the Collection exhibition, Room 3, North Wall, no. 268.
Search filters increase the success of your catalogue searching by restricting a search based on several categories including subject matter, date published, author, and format.
Format filters can be applied to any type of item in the library’s collection but are particularly useful for visual media such as pictures which include a variety of categories or sub-formats.
Use the basic search in the library catalogue or digital collection viewer to filter by format in a basic search. You will notice that this filter is a top-level filter, allowing you to filter into categories such as books, manuscripts and pictures. Performing a keyword search for ‘horse racing’, with the Pictures filter selected will restrict your search to visual formats.
Once this has been done, use the search filters on the right-hand filter menu to further narrow your search. Sub-formats within the pictures category are as follows:
Selecting ‘Paintings’ will restrict your search to painted artworks like the one above. Whatever material you are interested in, filtering by sub-format will increase your understanding of the library’s collections.
