Dictionary of Sydney
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The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Mitchell Library building

Library

The Mitchell Library building was erected in 1910 to house David Scott Mitchell's collection of Australiana which he had bequeathed to the people of New South Wales. In 1942 the building was extended and incorporated the New South Wales government's Free Public Library. The Mitchell Library is part of the State Library of New South Wales.

-33.866208795116, 151.21324866051

Milestone
Constructed
1906 - 1910
Opened
08 Mar 1910
Name
Alternate
Mitchell Wing
Commemorated by
Royal Australian Historical Society Green Plaque 82. Mitchell Wing
Commemorates
Mitchell, David Scott
Position
Craftsperson
Radecki, John
Builder
Melocco Brothers
Architect
Vernon, Walter Liberty
1906
Builder
John Howie and Sons
1906 - 1908
Architect
Blair, Gorrie McLeish
1906
Property
Part of
State Library of New South Wales building
Occupied by
Mitchell Library
Comprises
Dixson Wing
Comprises
Mitchell Library Reading Room
Type
Library

The Mitchell

CC BY-SA 2.0
by
David Marr
,
2014
supported by
City of Sydney - Cultural Ribbon Foreshore Histories Project

For a century the Mitchell Library has been Sydney's memory, a storehouse of treasures and a club of eccentric scholars. It is all but impossible to write or read about the history of Australia, the Pacific and the Antarctic without being in debt to the great collector and eccentric recluse David Scott Mitchell.

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Mitchell, David Scott

CC BY-SA 2.0
by
Catie Gilchrist
,
2015

The Mitchell Library was officially opened on 9 March 1910, three years after the death of its acclaimed benefactor, David Scott Mitchell, on 24 July 1907. Approximately 40,000 volumes were given to the new library along with a large collection of manuscript journals, diaries and letters, thousands of prints, maps and charts, pictures and portraits, miniatures, bookplates, coins and medals. Just over 100 years later, Mitchell's bequest to Sydney, to New South Wales and to Australia, remains remarkable.

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