4. The nature of the collection and policy guidelines for its development
The Collection as a whole
The purpose of the collection is to provide, maintain and develop for Tasmanians and other interested people a high quality collection of rare and valuable items, in several print and art forms.
The Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts is unique in its origins as a family collection which, since it became a public collection in the care of the State Library of Tasmania, has continued to be developed according to the principles established by the Allport family. It is also unique in the breadth and richness of its resources. Its importance lies both in its continuing integrity as a collection and in the value of the items it contains.
From 1966 to 1994, the development of the collection determined very largely by the knowledge and expertise of the former curator, Geoffrey Stilwell until his retirement in January 1995.
Allport is one of several agencies charged with the responsibility of collecting and preserving Tasmania’s cultural and documentary heritage. There is, inevitably, some overlap and duplication between the roles and collections of these agencies. Within the State Library of Tasmania, the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts is one of four heritage collections, the others being the Tasmaniana Library, the WL Crowther Library and the Launceston Local Studies Library. Each of these four collections has, and will continue to have, its own legal and physical integrity. Together, they form an integrated unit providing resources and services to researchers and recreational visitors.
Apart from the State Library, the Allport collection and the services it provides are closely related to those of the Archives Office of Tasmania, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery.
Acquisitions for the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts will always be made in a spirit of co-operation with other heritage collections, both within and outside Tasmania.
The origins and essence of the collection and of its principal print and fine arts forms lie in the artistic interests and abilities of an educated and cultured Tasmanian colonial family of the nineteenth century. The wider ranging interests of some members of the family are also reflected in its historical, scientific and social content.
The principal forms comprise books, pamphlets, manuscripts, maps, prints, oil paintings, water-colours, ceramics, glassware, silverware, furniture and objects of historical interest. It is necessary and useful to divide materials into different formats according to the ways in which they should be stored, handled and catalogued.
The present strengths of the collection lie in the subjects of:
- Pacific and Australasian discovery
- Exploration and travel
- Australian and Tasmanian history
- Natural history
- The arts
The criteria determining the contents of the collection are principally the rarity and value of items within the above mentioned subjects and forms. Items are included in the collection as fine and typical examples of the subjects and forms they represent. A guiding principle is the desire, whenever possible and appropriate, to obtain items of the finest quality of their type.
Books, Pamphlets, Manuscripts and Maps
Scope
The collection of printed material comprises approximately six thousand items (many of them making up multi-volume works) dating from the early eighteenth century to the present day. It includes rare or valuable works generally covering:
- discovery and exploration of Australasia and the Pacific region including the Antarctic
- natural history of these regions
- history of Tasmanian and Australian settlement and subsequent development
- aboriginal people of Tasmania and Australia
- fine arts and architecture relating to Australia
- Allport family items
The Library collection includes fine editions of works mainly concerning early exploration and voyages of discovery in the Pacific and Australasian regions, with particular regard to Tasmania. Australian and Tasmanian biography of the early colonial period features prominently, together with published journals, letters and diaries of the period. Other subjects represented less intensively in the collection include Antarctic and New Zealand exploration, natural history of the Pacific and Australasia and, more incidentally, colonial and penal settlement and aboriginal subjects.
Most works are in the English language, a few in Latin, French, German and Dutch. The latter were purchased because of references to Tasmania. English is the preferred but not necessarily exclusive language.
In its scope and content, the Library collection now stands as the counterpart of the rare book collections in State Libraries elsewhere in Australia. This reflects Henry Allport’s intention that it serve as permanent reference library of Australiana akin to the Mitchell Library in the State Library of New South Wales.
The manuscript collection includes Allport family (and related) material as well as items and record groups collected because of their subject matter (in most instances relating to Tasmania’s history).
Future Development
- The scope of the book collection and the rarity of its contents will be preserved by acquiring scarce and valuable items which reinforce the present coverage. This policy will permit the acquisition of rare items relevant to the collection, not previously held, and the replacement of existing titles with superior copies.
- The present subject coverage will be maintained by purchasing newly published works as well as facsimile editions and translations of original works already held.
- An extension of the scope of the collection into subjects such as Antarctica
- Rare and significant manuscripts will be acquired, depending on an assessment of their value and merit to the Allport collections as a whole.
Photographs
Scope
There are approximately 2000 photographs in this small but important collection.
It includes fine examples of daguerreotypes, glass plates and other nineteenth century photographic formats as well as an extensive collection of modem photographs and slides. The collection is very much the result of the involvement of Allport family members in the development of photography in Tasmania and their association with some of the better-known photographers.
The collection mainly comprises portraits of family members and friends; and images of houses, prominent buildings, streetscapes and natural features.
Future Development
Rare and significant photographs will be acquired depending on an assessment of their value, merit and relevance to the Allport collections as a whole.
Paintings, Drawings and Sketchbooks
Scope
There are approximately 70 oil paintings and almost 1,700 water-colours and drawings (including items in sketchbooks) in the collection.
The collection is focused in the nineteenth century with an emphasis on Tasmanian subject matter: i.e. early exploration, settlement, topography, history and portraiture. Artistic merit, rarity, fine physical condition and the importance of the works as historical documents have all been considered in the development of the collection.
Future Development
- Additions to the collection will generally conform with the artists originally collected by Allport family members. However works by contemporaneous artists of acknowledged quality who are not already represented in the collection, but whose works will enhance the collection and make it more comprehensible, will be considered for acquisition.
- Increasing the representation of early artists important to the development of nineteenth century Australian exploration and settlement (particularly Tasmanian) by collecting fine examples of their original work. Allport’s collecting ability will increasingly be influenced by the rising popularity and consequent cost of “colonial” art. Relevant material from later periods which otherwise fall within the scope of this policy and is affordable will therefore be considered for acquisition.
- Supplementing the Allport’s collection of fine and rare printed volumes on exploration and natural history by collecting original works which relate to the published images.
- An increase in the collection of Tasmanian colonial portraits where the available examples are of artistic as well as biographical merit. The provenance of these portraits and confirmation of the identities of the sitters will be major factors in the decision to purchase.
- Some examples of 20th Century fine arts may be appropriate for acquisition if they provide a context for the existing Allport works created by CFL Allport in the first half of that century.
- Collecting works which form a historical record of the Tasmanian environment, both built and natural.
- Development of a representative collection of Tasmanian watercolours of exceptional quality and significance by the principal Tasmanian artists of the second half of the twentieth century.
- Collecting outstanding examples of the work of female Tasmanian botanical artists of the second half of the twentieth century.
- Replacement of inferior works with works of superior quality, unless there is a compelling reason for retaining the inferior original, ego historical importance, subject matter or association value.
- Additions will not be made to the examples of the works of English painters such as R.P. Bonington. J.S. Cotman, Peter de Wint, and John Varley.
- Costs associated with conservation and storage will be taken into consideration when acquiring works. Information regarding the provenance and history of the work and materials and techniques used will be sought and recorded.
- Artists’ intentions regarding display, storage, conservation and copyright permissions will be sought and recorded.
Prints
Scope
Prints form a valuable component of the Allport Library. The collection includes more than 600 individual items. Although it is not yet definitive, it is perhaps the most extensive collection in Tasmania. Most are of Tasmanian interest, forming an important source of information for the history, biography, topography, natural history, and architecture of Tasmania. The historical range extends from lithographs produced by the artists on French expeditions in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries to the work of Curzona Frances Louise Allport in the first half of the twentieth century.
Future Development
- Additions to the collection will concentrate on filling gaps in the nineteenth century Tasmanian print area. The major references are the three standard works by Clifford Craig, The engravers of Van Diemen’s Land (1961), Old Tasmanian prints (1964) and More old Tasmanian prints (1984).
- The nineteenth-century emphasis will be maintained, except that items by or associated with members of the Allport family and items which enhance the appreciation of, and place in context, the work of CFL Allport (such as selected examples of the work of early twentieth century women printmakers) will also be considered for acquisition.
- Images which are already held in the collection as illustrations in bound volumes -especially those relating to natural history, discovery, exploration and travel – will, when appropriate, be acquired as separate prints for exhibition purposes.
- Where there are multiple copies of the same image, a minimum of 3 exact duplicates of the best quality, as well as all variant copies, will be retained for the collection. Additional exact duplicates will be considered for disposal. Where possible inferior copies of important prints will be replaced by copies of superior quality.
- When opportunities arise, contemporaneous prints which will assist in the display of the collection (for example, an 1830s fashion plate of female archery dress, to accompany Mary Morton Allport’s archery equipment) will be acquired. These acquisitions will not be given high priority.