The Ross Steele AM Fellowship supports research into the State Library of NSW pictorial collections. 

$12,000 - Supports research into the State Library of NSW pictorial collections.

The Fellowship was inaugurated in 2019 with the support of Ross Steele AM. The Library has been collecting pictorial material since the 1880s, but the David Scott Mitchell Bequest of 1907 and the generosity of Sir William Dixson underpinned the compilation of the some of the largest pictorial collections in the country.

The pictorial collections are principally documentary, and their acquisition has operated in a market and context very different to fine art images. The broad history of the compilation of these collections is not well understood. Initially pictures were purchased to illustrate major historical landscapes, events and people, often with a focus on European colonisation. The evolution of the photographic image significantly changed the documentary impetus, however, and we now collect much more broadly, with an understanding that the full diversity of Australian life and culture needs to be recorded. In their diversity of format and their extent, these are some of the most significant and largest pictorial collections in Australia.

It is expected that Ross Steele AM Fellows will:

• be experienced researchers who are able to demonstrate a successful record of scholarship, publications and research outcomes
• be able to demonstrate a high-level capacity to promote their work through a variety of media channels in collaboration with the Library
• agree that the Fellowship is a priority during their tenure and that a concentrated period of effort will be made to deliver the Fellowship
• actively promote the research undertaken during their tenure
• make a presentation about the project at the conclusion of the Fellowship
• ensure any publications, outcomes or media coverage which result from the Fellowship prominently acknowledge the support of the Library and the Fellowship
• contribute to Library's print and online publications
• submit, to the Mitchell Librarian, a four-page summary of their completed project, copies of any research outcomes (presentations and publications) and a bibliography
• acquit their Fellowship in a timely manner.

• Phone: 02 9273 1765
• Email: scholarship.library@sl.nsw.gov.au