For decades, Curtin University Library has been committed to digitising archival collection content, making this unique material freely available online. The Electronic Research Archive for the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library went live right back in 1999, the first of its kind in Australia. In recent years we commenced partnering with the Digitisation Centre of Western Australia (DCWA) from its establishment, to expand our digitising program to include our rare book and other unique heritage material.
DCWA is a collaboration between WA universities, the State Library of Western Australia, and the Western Australian Museum to digitise original collections held by partner institutions. DCWA is described as ‘an important piece of research infrastructure that aims to digitise, to global archival standards, the major Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences collections held in Western Australia’. Located at the Barry J. Marshall Library at UWA the facility has equipment to digitise material in an extensive range of formats, from large drawings, maps and bound volumes to film and sound recordings. At Curtin University, the Library, Curtin University Archives, and John Curtin Gallery have been working together to maximise the benefits from the services being offered by the centre.
Hotel Subiaco, drawing by Henry Trigg, 1896. CUL00111/1/1
The establishment of the DCWA has provided new opportunities to digitise some of our most vulnerable archival material and make this available online. We were especially grateful to achieve the digitising of the oldest architectural drawings from the Summerhayes Collection. This collection represents the work of three generations of the Summerhayes family: Edwin, Reginald and Geoffrey, whose combined practice of architecture in Western Australia extended through the twentieth century. The set of digitised drawings date from 1896 to 1956 and include plans for the Subiaco Hotel, buildings in Singapore and Malaysia, and residential and commercial buildings in Perth and country Western Australia.
DCWA has also completed digitisation of some of our rare Western Australian books and ephemera, including a souvenir booklet of the centenary of the City of Perth (1929), Western Australia: An Official Handbook (1925), and Emily Pelloe’s Wildflowers of Western Australia (1921). These publications – many of them not previously digitised – give rich insights into moments in our state’s history and its changing sense of identity.
DCWA has been providing us with high resolution preservation images of the materials we have selected for digitisation, as well as smaller-sized access files which have been published on our library catalogue. In addition, the Collections WA portal is a platform which has enabled us to share our digitised items more widely. Launched in 2020, Collections WA is a free, searchable platform that brings together collections from cultural organisations across Western Australia. It is overseen by the Australian Museums and Galleries Association Western Australia and the Western Australian Museum with funding provided by Lotterywest and the Western Australian Government.
Wildflowers of Western Australia, by Emily H. Pelloe, 1921.
One of the benefits of Collections WA is the ability to enhance the records with geotags. We have added geotags to the Summerhayes architectural drawings and other collection photographs, allowing them to be discoverable for users searching for a particular location. A good example of this can be seen when viewing the Summerhayes Architecture Collection on Collections WA.
Looking ahead, one of our next goals for digitisation is a set of gramophone disc recordings of John Curtin’s wartime speeches, pressed by the ABC and given to his widow, Elsie Curtin, soon after his death in 1945. They have not been played for many years and the digitised recordings will be a valued addition to the JCPML collection. We also look forward to continuing to contribute to the Collections WA platform and sharing our special collections more widely, connecting us to researchers of all kinds with an interest in the rich and varied collections of Western Australia.
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