Sir William Dixson collection
The Dixson collection is one of world's most extensive Australiana collections, which includes books, maps, paintings, stamps, coins and manuscripts.
The Sir William Dixson Collection includes the Dixson Galleries (1929) and the Dixson Library (1959).
What sets them apart?
Sir William Dixson began collecting Australiana in his twenties up until his death in 1952. Dixson’s interests were not confined to books, maps and manuscripts. He was fascinated by Australian, New Zealand and Pacific society and culture particularly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and, collected widely on language and customs. The Dixson collection also contains an eclectic collection of coins, medals, relics and curios.
The Dixson Library
Sir William’s personal collection was transferred from his Killara home to the Library in Macquarie Street progressively between 1951 and 1959. It comprised some 21,000 books, 42 linear metres of manuscripts, some 300 framed paintings, 205 albums of pictures, 1500 prints, drawings and watercolours, 250 museum objects, 8000 coins, tokens and medals (one of the finest collections in Australia) and nearly 10,000 postage stamps. This collection is known as the Dixson Library collection. No new material is added to the collection, which is now closed.
The quality of Dixson's Library – both in terms of its content and physical condition – is remarkable. For Dixson, the history of the book, as told through annotations or associations with interesting people as well as its decorative elements including the state of the binding, the cleanness of the copy and the presence of additional illustrations, was highly important.
The Dixson Library collection contains fine examples of medieval illuminated manuscripts and early printed books including some volumes with rare fore-edge paintings, many superb maps, charts and atlases of the great Dutch cartographers as well as 16th and 17th century books concerned with geography and navigation, other publishing rarities including a fine 1827 set of the first London edition of Charles Dickens' The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club in original parts and curios such as miniature books.
A particular strength of the Dixson Library is the extensive collection of colonial pictures and photographs. In the early twentieth century he began collecting colonial art and photography and in 1919, he stated his intention of donating part of his picture collection to the Public Library of NSW on the understanding that the government extend the Mitchell Library building to provide a space where the pictures could be hung.
The Dixson Galleries were opened on 21 October 1929, displaying 300 pictures including Dixson’s first donation of 195 paintings, and by 1943 he had added a further 150 paintings. His enthusiasm for rare prints and photography ensured that his collection covers virtually every aspect of Australian art.
Borrowing collection material
The Dixson collection is a reference collection only. Requests for outward loans of collection items from the Dixson collection to other cultural institutions for exhibition including travelling exhibitions will be considered.