Guide to the Papers of Dame Mary Gilmore

MS 1662

National Library of Australia


Date completed: 1962-1994
Last updated: July 2008


This finding aid was revised and published with the assistance of the Ray Mathew and Eva Kollsman Trust


Summary

Creator: Gilmore, Mary, Dame, 1865-1962
Title: Papers of Dame Mary Gilmore
Date range: 1893-1960
Reference number: MS 1662
Extent: 3 centimetres (5 folders)
Repository: National Library of Australia Canberra

Introduction

Scope and Content

The collection comprises drafts of poetry, letters to W.A. Woods, Mrs Gollan Lewis, Mrs W.A. Woods, correspondence received by W.A. Woods from A.G. Stephens and Rose Webster concerning Mary Gilmore and press cuttings concerning Mary Gilmore.

Access

Available for research.

Provenance

The collection was donated to the Library by Mrs Gollan Lewis in 1966.

Related Material

Papers of Dame Mary Gilmore are also held at MS 727, MS 1695 and MS 8766; diaries of Mary Gilmore, 1940-1949 are held at MS 614 (copies: originals held by Mitchell Library, Sydney). Small collections of letters by Mary Gilmore are held at MS 633, MS 1728, MS 1888, MS 2685 and MS 5644.

Other collections containing letters and papers of Mary Gilmore include the following:

Kate Baker (MS 1533); W.P. Bluett (MS 4714); J.H. Catts (MS 658); Alec Chisholm (MS 1880), M. Condon (MS 2375); Ralph De Boissiere (MS 8402); Harold W. Eather (MS 2015); Edward Findley (MS 2111); Annie Louise Green (MS 8574); Elioth Gruner (MS 8965); Clement Hosking (MS 2680); Norman Jeffery (MS 1948); Marie McNiven (MS 2012); and W. Farmer Whyte (MS 970).

The Library also holds records of the Mary Gilmore Centenary Committee, 1964-65 at MS 1696.

Separated Material

Other papers of Dame Mary Gilmore are held by the Mitchell Library, Sydney; the Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra; and Charles Sturt University Regional Archives.

Preferred Citation

See http://www.nla.gov.au/ms/citation.html

Access Terms

Personal Names
Woods, W.A.; Woods, W.A., Mrs; Lewis, Gollan, Mrs; Stephens, A.G. (Alfred George), 1865-1933; Webster, Rose;

Biographical Note

Mary Cameron, poet and journalist, was born at Mary Vale, Woodhouselee, near Goulburn, NSW, on 16 August 1865. She was educated at Brucedale, near Wagga Wagga, and later at Wagga Wagga Public School. Between 1877 and 1895 she taught in a variety of schools in New South Wales. She became involved in the New Australia movement and on 31 October 1895 resigned from teaching and sailed to Paraguay on the Ruapehu. Cameron remained at the Cosme settlement in Paraguay until 1899. She married fellow colonist and Victorian shearer William Alexander Gilmore (1866-1945) in 1897 and their only child William Dysart Cameron Gilmore (1898-1945) was born at Villarica, near Cosme. Before returning to Australia in 1902, she taught English in Rio Gallegos in southern Patagonia and wrote for Buenos Aires papers.

Gilmore's verse first appeared in the Australian Worker in 1902, and from 1908-31 she edited the women's page of this newspaper. Her first published volume, Marri'd and other verses appeared in 1910. Other publications include The passionate heart (1918), Hound of the road (1922), The tilted cart (1925), The wild swan (1930), The rue tree (1931), Under the wilgas (1932), Battlefields (1939), and Fourteen men (1954).

In 1937, in recognition of her contribution to Australian literature, she was made a Dame of the British Empire - the first woman to receive this award for services to literature. Dame Mary was a founder of the Lyceum Club, Sydney, a founder and vice-president in 1928 of the Fellowship of Australian Writers, an early member of the New South Wales Institute of Journalists and life member of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Dame Mary Gilmore died on 3 December 1962.



Series list and descriptions

Series 1 Drafts of poetry 1893-1898

Folder 1
Item 1-2: 'Aye he's dee'in, our boy is dee'in', n.d.
Item 3: 'Here's wishin's', n.d.
Item 4: 'The cows kep' flying' up, boys', 2 Sept 1893
Item 5: 'A sin is sin, whoever sins', 1 September 1894
Item 6: 'The tide is at the full', 30 November 1895
Item 7: 'I don't know whether 'tis well to love', 2 December 1895
Item 8: 'It's gettin' in an' gettin' out', 7 December 1895
Item 9: 'My love is great as the ocean', 9 December 1895
Item 10: 'Give us a kiss, sweet heart', 5 February 1898
Item 11: 'Us is out, her an' me', 6 February 1898
Item 12: 'Us ain't made to snap and snarl', [ 6 February 1898?]
Item 13: 'O, singer in brown', 1 July 1903

Series 2 Letters of Dame Mary Gilmore, 1909-1960

Subseries 2a Letters to W.A. Woods, 1909-1936

Folder 2
Item 14-15: Letter, n.d.
Item 16: 30 November 1909
Item 17: 15 January 1910
Item 18-20: 1 March 1910
Item 21-23: 26 November 1911
Item 24-25: 14 November 1936

Subseries 2b Letters to Mrs Gollan Lewis, 1939-1960

Folder 2
Item 26: Letter, n.d.
Item 27-29: 9 March 1938 [ie. 1939]
Item 30-31: 9 February 1940
Item 32: 4 June 1940
Item 33-34: 5 April 1949
Item 35-36: 2 Sept 1949
Item 37-38: 1 August 1953
Item 39-40: 2 October 1959
Item 41-42: 22 Sept 1960

Subseries 2c Letters to Mrs W.A. Woods, 1952

Folder 2
Item 43-44: 25 January 1952
Item 45-46: 26 February 1952
Item 47-48: 14 March 1952

Series 3 Letters concerning Dame Mary Gilmore, 1897-1899

Subseries 3a Letters from A.G. Stephens to W.A. Woods, 1897-1899

Folder 3
Item 49: 2 December 1897
Item 50-51: 3 April 1899
Item 52: 14 April 1899
Item 53: 25 September 1899

Subseries 3b Letters from Rose Webster to W.A. Woods, 1897-1899

Folder 3
Item 54-55: 30 Sept 1899
Item 56-57: 15 October 1899

Series 4 Press cuttings concerning Dame Mary Gilmore, 1895-1953

Folder 4
Item 58: 'Then she went' Bulletin, n.d.
Item 59: 'In the city', n.d.
Item 60: 'Goodnight, beloved!' [Democrat], n.d.
Item 61: 'Because of the daughters' [Women's Voice], n.d.
Item 62: 'Two Souls', n.d.
Item 63: 'The wrong breed', n.d.
Item 64: 'The little ones' Clipper 21 1895
Item 65: 'Because of the daughters' Women's Voice 10 August 1895
Item 66: 'Honey-sweet, de babby' 8 April 1903
Item 67: 'Poets do honor to a poetess' Sunday Sun 13 August 1933
Item 68: 'My fleece is white as snow' Sydney Morning Herald 18 June 1949
Item 69: 'Wind and wars will swamp police state' Tribune 29 July 1953
Item 70: 'Cities, universities in U.S.S.R. 'dead heart'' Tribune 29 July 1953

Series 5 Miscellaneous, 1942-1943

Folder 5
Item 71: Photograph of Mary Cameron, n.d.
Item 72: Hegmonay card, 1942-1943