On a recent trip when I was undertaking research into colonial publishing practices, I was lucky enough to access a copy of Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, which was published as part of Petherick's Collection of Favourite and Approved Authors. That series, published by E.A. Petherick & Co. was one of the few series of books published by local publishers. The copy of Tess that I handled was a beautiful book, published in 1892. The State Library staff kindly informed me that there were more recent editions of Hardy that I could have a look at...and then looked slightly confused when I wanted a copy of the inside covers of the book (which contained a listing of all the books in the Petherick series...you can read exactly why I wanted to see this when I finish my thesis in about six months time).

This walk down memory lane is an avenue for announcing that the State Library of New South Wales has just released rare Australian photographs from its archive onto Flickr. If that copy of Tess was anything to go by then there are going to be more than a few cultural gems released as part of this collection. You can find the complete photostream here but I thought I would include one photo in this post, which would allow me to continue my time travel through Australian history:

For those of you who are not familiar with Sir Isaac, he was Australia's first native-born Governer-General and the 3rd Chief Justice of our High Court. Sir Isaac dissented in the first case on the power of the Parliament to make laws with respect to copyrights, patents of invention and designs, and trade marks (section 51(xviii)) in Attorney General (NSW) ex rel Tooth & Co Ltd v Brewery Employees Union of NSW.

This concludes today's lengthy lesson on Australian copyright and cultural history!