Family papers, 1804-1975

Component identifier:

Series 19

Content Summary:

The series comprises correspondence, manuscripts, typescripts, notes, a notebook, personal documents, photographs, souvenirs, programs, press clippings and other printed material. The correspondence is primarily between family members, including a large exchange between Deakin and his son-in-law Herbert Brookes. There are papers of Pattie Deakin, including material relating to returned soldiers, the 'ANZAC Buffet' and the opening of Parliament in Canberra in 1927, together with reminiscences of Alfred Deakin by members of his family, material relating to Deakin family history and other papers.

Deakin's letters to his sister from America and England, written in 1885 and 1887, were transcribed into notebooks with the family references excluded. These can be found in Series 2. The papers of Deakin's sister Catherine are held in the Manuscript Collection at MS 4913, and in the papers of Deakin's daughter Stella Rivett at MS 9057. The papers of Deakin's daughter and son-in-law, Ivy and Herbert Brookes, are at MS 1924, while those of his daughter Vera White and her husband Sir Thomas White are at MS 9148.

This series contains Items 19/1 - 19/615. The family photograph albums in Subseries 19.7 have been digitised, and are available online through this finding aid. The photographs in these albums have also been individually catalogued (http://nla.gov.au/catalogue).

Immediate source of acquisition:

On 3 December 1965 Ivy Brookes, the eldest daughter of Alfred Deakin, formally presented the Deakin Papers to the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, for permanent preservation in the National Library. After Deakin's death in 1919 his papers remained in the possession of his widow, Pattie, until her death in 1934. They were used extensively by Herbert Brookes, and by Professor Walter Murdoch while he was working on the first biography of Deakin, published in 1923. In 1945 the Deakin Papers were examined by an officer of the National Library and it was agreed that the papers would ultimately be deposited in the Library. In 1948 Professor R.M. Crawford of the University of Melbourne became custodian of the papers on the understanding that either an extensive selection of documents or a biography would be based on them. Subsequently his colleague, Professor J.A. La Nauze, began Deakin's biography and the papers remained in his custody until the work was completed in 1965. From time to time other papers relating to Deakin were added to the original collection by Herbert and Ivy Brookes, Lady Rivett and Sir Thomas and Lady White. Professors Crawford and La Nauze also added letters or copies of Deakin letters that they had acquired from other sources.

Names:

Brookes, Ivy

Contents

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