State Library Victoria

🏳️‍🌈 Pride Month spotlight 🏳️‍🌈

Our digitisation team has just added to our online collection a snapshot of q***r history: moments from the 1993 opening of Midsumma Festival.

Captured by photographer Adrian Flint as the parade passed by the Library, these images are a celebration of community, joy and visibility – and honour the long, proud history of LGBTQIA+ culture and expression in Victoria.

Explore more of our newly digitised collection items: https://bit.ly/43TyKJX

📖 School holidays are almost here at State Library Victoria.

Join us from Saturday for treasured tales and creative adventures – where memories are made page by page.

📝 Celebrate the 21st Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge as you reimagine beloved fairytales and classic stories at our writing workshop: Stories to discover. Stories to tell.
🖼️ Create a keepsake photo frame inspired by the book, These Long-Loved Things by Josh Pyke and Ronojoy Ghosh at a free drop-in craft session.
📚 Get cosy in the Pauline Gandel Children’s Quarter, with reading nooks, toys, and 4,000 books for kids – picture books, community language titles, non-fiction and graphic novels.

👉 Tap to explore our winter kids program filled with free and low-cost activities: https://bit.ly/4eXUMS3
✏️ Writing workshops are supported by the Department of Education Victoria for the 21st Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge.

The sun has set on the winter solstice – the shortest day of the year. 💫

As the season reaches its turning point, we’re sharing watercolours from Australian artists Violet H. E. Teague’s sketchbook. Follow the light of day through the soft atmospheric hues of sunrise, sunset and twilight, captured during her journey through Central Australia in July in the early 1930s.

Find more watercolours, sketches and notes from Violet's travel sketchbook in our collection: https://bit.ly/44rdtaB

An accidental poisoning. Cows in Royal Park. Gold Rush memories from Bealiba.

These are some of the vivid moments uncovered by librarian Paul Dee, who recently stumbled upon a set of personal essays written by older Victorians in 1965.

Each one provides an insight into the writer’s earliest memories, and everyday life at the turn of the century.

Find them in the Library’s Manuscripts Collection and discover more in Paul's latest blog:

Reminiscences and Recollections from 1965 A collection of small excerpts from essays about the early memories of 20th-century Victorians.

Australian history is rich with refugee stories – and our collections help keep these stories alive.

This Refugee Week, delve into Walkley Award-winning photographer Barat Ali Batoor's intimate series ‘Restoring Hope: Photographs of the Hazara Community in Victoria 2013-2014’, which is held in our collection.

You may have seen Batoor's moving exhibition 'Searching for Sanctuary' at the Library in 2024.

The exhibition, which documented his exile from Afghanistan to eventual settlement in Australia, was highly commended for Small Project of the Year (Galleries) at the 2026 Victorian Museums and Galleries Awards.

We invite you to explore these works, reflect on the journeys that shape our community, and celebrate the voices that continue to enrich Australia.

🔗 Explore the full series online: https://find.slv.vic.gov.au/discovery/collectionDiscovery?vid=61SLV_INST:SLV&collectionId=81280019170007636

✨ This August, State Library Victoria comes alive for Now or Never, Melbourne’s festival of art, ideas, sound and technology.

Experience the Library like you’ve never seen, heard or felt before:
🌙 Library Up Late returns, transforming the Library into an after-dark playground of music, art and unexpected encounters. Follow a sound through the Dome, stumble upon surprise performances, or settle in for a moment of reflection as the building comes alive at night.
💻 A Sexual History of the Internet with Mindy Seu invites you into a communal ritual exploring the internet’s past – tracing the pervasive and provocative origins of our digital tools.

Join us for two evenings of discovery, connection and late-night energy in the heart of the city.
📆 Library Up Late: 21 August https://bit.ly/4ehCoU4
📆 A Sexual History of the Internet: 25 August https://bit.ly/4oBRSps

Library up Late presented by State Library Victoria with Now or Never.
A Sexual History of the Internet presented by State Library Victoria with Now or Never and The Wheeler Centre.

🎸 in 1964, Melbourne made music history.

The Beatles, plus their stand-in drummer Jimmy Nicol, faced the press together at the Southern Cross Hotel.

It was the first and only time all 5 appeared at a press conference.

Two days earlier, more than 200,000 fans had packed Adelaide’s streets to welcome Beatlemania to Australia – without Ringo Starr who had been struck down with tonsillitis.

By the time the band reached Melbourne, Ringo had rejoined the group, and the appearance made front-page news across the city.

The Fab Four took to Festival Hall on 15, 16 and 17 June before continuing on to Sydney, New Zealand and Queensland.

📸 Do you remember Beatlemania in Melbourne?
👉 Read more about their visit in our blog: https://bit.ly/2U6araY

🍞 103 years of happy little Vegemites!

On this day in 1923, the Australian breakfast staple was invented in Albert Park in Melbourne and hit supermarket shelves that same year.

Read more about the history of the national treasure in 'Vegemite: the true story of the man who invented an Australian icon' – available on the shelf in the Dome.

Beatlemania. Little Monsters. Beliebers. What happens when admiration becomes obsession? 💔

Fever Dreams opens Salon After D’Arc’s 2026 series – four thought‑provoking evenings exploring the forces that shape how we love and remember. Our first event dives into love and obsession as powerful emotional and cultural force

Hosted by Jamila Rizvi, the evening brings together bold thinkers and voices:
💘 Dr Hannah McCann on Taylor Swift fandom, identity and belonging.
💗 Aurelia St Clair on internet fixations and the algorithms shaping us.
💖 Rosie Waterland joins Jamilla in conversation on reality TV, feminism and what it reveals about who we are.

The Salon After D'Arc series is generously supported by the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust. It is an opportunity to delve deeper into interesting topics, make connections in the beautiful surrounds of the Library and view rare books acquired through the Women Writers Fund initiative.

📆 Wednesday 17 June.
📚 Special collections viewing from 6.30pm
🎟️ Book now: https://bit.ly/4dmtNxw