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

Mitchell Library

Cultural organisation

Part of the State Library of New South Wales, the Mitchell Library collection is based on the bequest of David Scott Mitchell, a book collector who amassed an unequalled collection of books on Australia. The collection has continued to grow.

Name
Commemorated by
Royal Australian Historical Society Green Plaque 82. Mitchell Wing
Commemorates
Mitchell, David Scott
Position
Founded by
Mitchell, David Scott
1907
Librarian
Leeson, Ida
1909 - 1946
Property
Occupied
Mitchell Library building
Part of
State Library of New South Wales
Occupied
State Library of New South Wales building
Type
Cultural organisation

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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