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A collection of fruit stickers from Sydney’s northern beaches doesn’t seem to have much in common with slightly icky, Victorian-era mourning jewellery made from human hair, a book smaller than the nail on a pinky finger, or the original First Fleet journals.
But they are among more than 200 items chosen by staff at the State Library of NSW from its 6.5 million collection for a special 200th-birthday exhibition that tells the stories of all sorts of stuff – from the ephemeral to the quotidian and valuable – collected by Australians.
Some will be part of a G-rated peep show within a box of curiosities. A microscope will assist visitors to read the words of the Lord’s Prayer (in several languages) on pages of the library’s smallest book.
Visitors can also examine “hairwork”: Victorian-era human hair woven into a wearable reminder of someone who had died, or sailed to Australia.
Curator Elise Edmonds said: “We love to tell the big stories, the famous, internationally significant stories, with some of our amazing items. But we also love those personal stories from everyday people. I think that’s why a lot of us love working here.”
Hairwork jewellery like this was treated as family heirlooms.Wolter Peeters
Edmonds said the exhibition would show another side of the “august institution” that most people associated with its books, valuable maps and medieval manuscripts.
A book of bright fruit stickers collected over a year by a staff member who lived in Mona Vale is on display, alongside labels for early Australian wine including Coo-ee brand port and burgundy.
Better-known treasures include the UNESCO-listed First Fleet journals, Frank Hurley’s photographs of Antarctica, Ethel Turner’s original manuscript of Seven Little Australians, and the Indigenous author Ruby Langford Ginibi’s papers.
The new exhibition starts on Sunday, to coincide with the library’s open day.
A collection of 1960s, bright-coloured, waxed bread wrappers collected by Susan Stephenson brings back the smell of a time when bread was baked daily and locally.
Before plastic, bread wrappers were waxed, and each bakery’s was distinctive.
“They’re beautiful, eye-catching things, everyday objects that we just take for granted,” Edmonds said.
When Stephenson donated the collection in 2024 she said her parents had been happy to buy a loaf of bread whenever and where they went on holidays, so she could add the wrapper to her collection.
As well as a lock of hair from Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, the exhibition includes hair from Captain James Cook’s wife Elizabeth, woven into a necklace resembling a gold chain.
When members of the conservation team looked at the Victorian hairwork under a microscope and then tried weaving each other’s hair, they found it was harder than it looked.
“It’s a real artwork,” Edmonds said.
As for the ick factor, a library staffer said it depended on the hair’s condition. Neatly presented, most people were intrigued. If messy and musty, however, the pieces were creepy, they said.
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Julie Power is a senior reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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