Guide to the Papers of Joan Kingsley-Strack, 1908-1978

Request this via the Catalogue
 

Online content

Some materials from this collection are available online.
Show only online content

Online content

View online

Summary

Collection number:
MS 9551
Creator:
Kingsley-Strack, Joan, 1892-1983
Extent:
(13 boxes + 1 folio box + 2 map folios)
Language:
English and English
Preferred citation:
Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Joan Kingsley-Strack, National Library of Australia, [class/series/file number]'.
Availability:
Available
Access conditions:
Part available for research; part requires permission for research. Not for loan.

Background

Content Summary:
MS 9551 comprises correspondence, diaries, notes, minutes, newspaper cuttings, photographs, artwork, circulars and publications, mostly dating from the period 1930-1950. They deal in particular with Joan Kingsley-Strack's strong interest in Aboriginal culture and welfare and her involvement in the Committee for Aboriginal Citizenship, the Oxford Group and other organisations. The correspondents include Mary Gilmore, Alfred James, A.W. Platts, William Ricketts, Pearl Gibbs, Albert Thompson and Michael Sawtell (13 boxes, 1 fol. box, 2 map folios).
Biographical Note:

Joan (Jeanne Goldie) Commons was born on 4 October 1892 at her parents' home at Pymble, Sydney. Her father, Donald Commons, a New Zealand emigrant of Scottish descent, had been an engineer on the newly built North Shore railway line. He was an amateur artist and founding member of the Julian Ashton Art School. Her mother, Helena Isobel Hobbes, came from Wallaga Lake on the far South Coast of New South Wales, her parents being English/Scottish migrant selectors. Joan and her younger sister Helen were schooled in a classical education at home, at the insistence of her retired father.

Joan married Norman Kingsley-Strack in Sydney on 31 December 1916. Her husband, an ex-AIF officer, worked in accountancy and advertising between the wars and was in Military Intelligence during World War II. They purchased land at Pymble and built a substantial home. They had three children, Peter (born in 1917), Narrelle Jeannette (born in 1923) and Helen Patricia (born in 1924). In the early 1920s the Stracks went to Melbourne, but soon returned to Sydney. In 1924 they moved to Brisbane. They returned to Sydney in late 1928 and from then on lived in a succession of rented properties on Sydney's North Shore.

The Stracks were closely involved in the New Guard in the early 1930s. In the late 1930s Joan was active in the Aboriginal movement, as secretary of the Committee for Aboriginal Citizenship. In 1943 Joan and Norman divorced. Joan lived in Sydney's eastern suburbs and supported herself as a ceramic artist and antique restorer. In her old age she lived with her daughters in Sydney and northern New South Wales. She died in 1983 aged 90 at Coffs Harbour.

Information supplied by Victoria Haskins.

Provenance:

The collection was purchased by the Library from Mrs Jan Haskins, the daughter of Joan Kingsley-Strack, in 2001.

Arrangement:

The papers had been organised by Kingsley-Strack's great granddaughter, Victoria Haskins, when she was doing research for her doctoral thesis. In general, the Library has retained the files that she created and also several sequences of files. The overall arrangement of ten series has been imposed by the Library.

Access and use

Conditions Governing Access:
Access conditions may apply to this collection, please refer to the collection's catalogue record for further information (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2291550).
Conditions Governing Use:
Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.
Preferred citation:
Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Joan Kingsley-Strack, National Library of Australia, [class/series/file number]'.
Location of this collection:
Parkes Place
Canberra ACT 2600, Australia
Contact:
Contact us