Way back in 2015 we published an appeal, now renewed, on this blog.
Our collection of the Printed Catalogues of the Institute is
complete with one very important exception. We have access to copies of all but
the very first catalogue. It appeared in late 1849 and does not seem to be held
in any Australian library, nor to be listed by Ferguson.
There is however clear evidence that it existed.
Firstly, an announcement in the Launceston Examiner on 21
April 1849 that a "catalogue will shortly be printed".
Then the Institute’s Annual Report for 1849, dated 24 Oct
(but no doubt prepared some time before the presentation date) says the
catalogue is “at the printers”.
Then in the Launceston Examiner on 19 Jan 1850, there is an
announcement that "Catalogues of the library are now printed, and may be
obtained from the librarian, during the hours the library is open - price one
shilling."
According to the accounts of the LMI for 1849-50, two
hundred and fifty copies of the catalogue were printed and sales of catalogues
to Oct 1850 had realised income of £3/5/- (i.e. 65 copies had been sold.)
The Annual Report for 1849 gave the total size of the
collection as 1182 volumes, and the "fugitive" catalogue would be an
invaluable guide to the principles upon which the early collection was
organised. It would also provide some clue as the order in which early volumes
were acquired for the collection. The Abstract below was prepared in 1850 to chart the growth of the early collection.
Because a second catalogue appeared in 1858, the original had relatively brief currency and no doubt most copies were discarded at that time. It can only be hoped that one may have survived somewhere.
So, if any reader of this post knows of the location of an
original (or even a copy) of the 1849 Catalogue we would love to hear from you.
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