Guide to the Papers of Bernard Smith, 1902-2011

Summary

Collection number:

MS 8680, MS Acc10.064, MS Acc10.088,.MS Acc13.037, MS Acc15.122

Creator:

Smith, Bernard

Extent:

(113 ms boxes + 2 elephant folios + 1 large folio +1 archives box + 3 large folio boxes)

Language:

English and English

Preferred citation:

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Bernard Smith, National Library of Australia, [class/series/file number]'.

Availability:

Available

Access conditions:

Available for research. Not for loan.

Background

Content Summary:

MS 8680 comprises correspondence, principally with Jack Lindsay, 1979-1988, handwritten drafts, notes and typescripts of talks, lectures, addresses, book reviews and articles. There are a large number of drafts of articles, later published in journals and newspapers such as Meanjin, Art and Australia and the Age.

The Acc10.064 instalment consists of Bernard Smith's appointment diaries, daybooks and journals; notebooks for research, overseas travel, exhibitions and journalism; school work books; album of news clippings; various awards, badges and medals including Centenary of Federation medal, Ph.D. (ANU), Doctor of Letters - Honoris Causa (University of Melbourne), Chevalier de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and honorary Doctorate of Letters (University of Sydney). There are also 20 diaries of Smith's first wife, Kate Smith (Kate Challis).

The Acc10.088 instalment comprises general and current files titled by subject or correspondent, which include personal and professional correspondence, research notes, conference materials, bibliographies, news clippings, drafts, papers submitted to journals, annual reports, photographs, invitations, book launch ephemera, personal and family papers; art catalogues including Power Institute Gallery catalogues; published articles, lectures and offprints including Sydney University and Power Institute; video and audio cassettes, CD-ROMs and slides; microform of Alderney Papers held in Royal College of Surgeons; diary of 1980 China trip; reviews; exhibition posters; research notebooks; sketch books, loose pencil drawings and watercolours by Smith, including juvenilia; posters advertising art exhibitions and lectures; map of Norfolk Island; and, a small number of papers of Kate Smith.

The Acc13.037 instalment comprises papers documenting Bernard Smith's professional life as an art historian, writer and lecturer, including notebooks and diaries, correspondence, subject and artists' files, draft manuscripts, steel engravings, photographs, maps and ephemera.The photographs largely comprise images of artworks used in Smith's publications about art relating to the voyages of Captain James Cook, but also of artists and their artworks. The notebooks are autobiographical, used by Smith in the preparation of The boy Adeodatus: the portrait of a lucky young bastard. In addition there is a file pertaining to Smith's role as President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (1973-1982).

The Acc15.122 instalment comprises written and pictorial archives belonging to Bernard Smith including correspondence; extensive research files for his publications; drafts; photographs; artworks, including pencil sketches of Ned Kelly by Sidney Nolan; personal documents and papers relating to his wife Kate Smith. The collection also includes significant material relating to The Antipodeans group, including the minute book from their first meeting on 19 February 1959. Present were Bernard Smith, John Perceval, David Boyd, Clifton Pugh, Arthur Boyd, Charles Blackman and John Brack.

Biographical Note:

Bernard Smith, art historian, lecturer and critic, was born in 1916 and grew up in the Sydney suburb of Burwood. He studied at the Sydney Teachers' College 1934-35, the University of Sydney 1945-48, the Courtauld Institute of Art and Warburg Institute, London, 1948-49, and completed his PhD at the Australian National University in 1953-54.

Smith's professional career as a teacher led to his appointment as education officer at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1945-52. He lectured at the Department of Fine Arts, University of Melbourne from 1955, and was appointed Reader, 1964-66. During this period he was also art critic for the Melbourne Age. Smith was Professor of Contemporary Art and Director of the Power Institute of Fine Arts, Sydney University, 1967-77. A Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, Smith was president, 1977-80.

Smith's first major publication was Place, taste and tradition (1945). During his time at the University of Sydney, his publications included The architectural character of Glebe, Sydney (1974), editor, Documents on art and taste in Australia: the colonial period, 1770-1914 (1975), Concerning contemporary art: the Power Lectures, 1968-73 (1975) and The Antipodean manifesto: essays in art and history (1976). Other publications include European vision and the South Pacific, 1768-1850 (1960), Australian painting 1788-1960 (1962), The art of Captain Cook's voyages (1985-87), Imagining the Pacific (1992) and Noel Counihan: artist and revolutionary (1993). The autobiography of his early years (1916-1940) was published in 1984 as The boy Adeodatus- the portrait of a lucky young bastard.

Collection Retrieval Advice:

Please note: each consignment in this collection has a separate box number sequence (i.e. there are multiple Box 1's). Please cite the relevant Class number as well as the Box number when requesting retrieval of material from the collection.

Provenance:

These papers were donated to the National Library by Professor Bernard Smith in instalments received in 1995 (two consignments), 1996, 1997 (two consignments) 1998, 1999 and 2000. Further papers were added in 2010 (two consignments) and 2013.

Arrangement:

Bernard Smith's arrangement of the papers has been preserved by the Library. This finding-aid is based on listings provided by the donor.

Indexed terms

Subjects:

Academic
Arts

Conditions Governing Access:

Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn338224).

Conditions Governing Use:

Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.

Preferred citation:

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Bernard Smith, National Library of Australia, [class/series/file number]'.

Location of this collection:

National Library of Australia

Parkes Place

Canberra ACT 2600, Australia

Contact:

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