Guide to the Papers of Marilyn Lake
MS 9715
National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record
Created: ©2004.
Collection Summary
- Creator
- Lake, Marilyn, Professor
- Title
- Papers of Marilyn Lake.
- Date Range
- 1964-2004
- Collection Number
- MS 9715
- Extent
- 6 metres (30 MS boxes + 1 map-folio)
- Language of Materials
- English
- Repository
- Special Collections (Manuscripts)
Introduction
Scope and Content
The collection comprises correspondence, appointment diaries, photographs, newspaper cuttings, research materials and the drafts of Lake's books, articles, lectures, reviews, conference papers and other writings. The papers relate mostly to her academic career and her work as a historian and social commentator. There is a group of papers relating to Lake's appointment as the Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University, 2001-2002. The correspondents include Ashton Calvert, Peter Conrad, Michael Roe, Kay Daniels, Patricia Grimshaw, Stuart Macintyre, Jill Roe and Ann Curthoys.
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-vn143685)
Copying and Publishing
Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions.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 Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.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 Marilyn Lake, National Library of Australia, MS 9715, [class/series/file number]'.
Provenance
The papers were purchased by the Library from Professor Marilyn Lake in two instalments, one in 1999 and one in 2004.
Related Material
A microfilm copy of Lake's doctoral thesis, The limits of hope: soldier settlement in Victoria 1915-1938 (Monash University, 1984) is held at McG 3005.
Arrangement
The Library has arranged the papers into 16 series. Many of the papers were in files and the contents of the files have been kept intact. Some files are on a specific subject, such as a conference, while others are more general, such as articles. The general correspondence was mostly loose, apart from a few special files, and it was arranged in chronological order.
Location of papers by instalment date
8 April 2004: Series 1/19-23
8 April 2004: Series 8/7
8 April 2004: Series 11/14-15
8 April 2004: Series 12/36-38
8 April 2004: Series 13/8
8 April 2004: Series 14/54-65
8 April 2004: Series 15/10-12
8 April 2004: Series 16/1-11
8 April 2004: Series 17/1-3
8 April 2004: Series 18/1-9
8 April 2004: Series 19/10-12
8 April 2004: Series 20/1-13
8 April 2004: Series 21/2-4
8 April 2004: Series 22/2-3
8 April 2004: Series 23/3-5
Biographical Note
Marilyn Calvert was born in Hobart on 5 January 1949. She was educated at Hobart High School, the University of Tasmania, where she gained a Master of Arts in 1973, and Monash University, where she graduated as a Doctor of Philosophy in 1984. On 5 October 1968 she married Sam Lake, a zoologist who later became Professor of Biological Sciences at Monash University.
After gaining her doctorate, Marilyn Lake lectured in history and social theory at the University of Melbourne and also at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. In 1988 she was appointed a Senior Lecturer and Director of Women's Studies at La Trobe University and in 1994 she became a Professor of History. She was Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University in 2001-2002. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.
Lake has written and co-edited several books and a very large number of articles and conference papers. She is known internationally for her writings in women's history and sexuality and she has also written on wars, nationalism, labour history and land settlement. Her history of the women's movement in Australia, Getting Equal, appeared in 1999. In 2002 she published her first biography, a study of the Aboriginal activist Faith Bandler.
In 2003, Lake was awarded the Centenary Medal for service to Australian society and the humanities in the study of Australian women's history. The commemorative medal was struck to mark the achievements of a broad cross-section of the Australian community at the commencement of a new century.
Item Descriptions
Class. Original Consignment
Series 1. General correspondence, 1964-2004
The bulk of the letters kept by Lake were written by academic friends and colleagues. Correspondents include Michael Roe, Kay Daniels, Jill Roe, Richard White, Graeme Davison, Stuart Macintyre, Peter Chapman, Patricia Grimshaw and Ann Curthoys.
There are two more substantial groups of letters, written by Lake's brother Ashton Calvert and the critic and novelist Peter Conrad. The letters from Calvert mostly date from 1966-1970, when he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. Conrad was an undergraduate at the University of Tasmania at the same time as Lake and has since lived mainly in Britain and the United States. His letters were written from Oxford, London and Lisbon.
Series 2. Diaries, 1977-1991
The diaries in this series are appointment diaries, giving brief details of appointments and addresses at the back.
Series 3. Academic career, 1971-1995
This small series contains testimonials from staff at the University of Tasmania, a curriculum vitae, documents concerning Lake's appointments at La Trobe University, and her address at the University's 1995 graduation ceremony.
Series 4. A Divided Society, 1972-1977
Lake's Master of Arts thesis, completed in 1973, was entitled 'Tasmania and the First World War; a study of the effects of the First World War on Tasmanian society and politics, 1914-1919'. It formed the basis of her first book, entitled A Divided society: Tasmania and the First World War, which was published by Melbourne University Press in 1975. The series contains correspondence, especially with the publisher, as well as research notes and reviews. The correspondents include Michael Roe and Peter Ryan.
Series 5. Double time: women in Victoria, 1982-1983
Double time was published by Penguin in 1985 to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Victoria. Edited by Lake and Farley Kelly, it comprised 50 biographies of women, from early figures such as Eliza Batman and Georgiana McCrae until modern times. Lake wrote pieces on Ellen Kelly (1832-1923), the mother of Ned Kelly, and Annie Smith (1875-1951), a nurse and 'soldier settler'. The file of papers contains drafts of the latter article and correspondence and notes concerning Annie Smith.
1 file
Series 6. The limits of hope, 1983-1990
The limits of hope: soldier settlement in Victoria 1915-38 was based on Lake's doctoral thesis at Monash University, which she completed in 1983. In this study she used a sample of 300 of the 11,000 returned service people and their families who were given land grants after World War I. The book was published by Oxford University Press in 1987.
While doing her research, Lake received letters and photographs from a number of soldier settlers or family members recalling conditions on the settlements. In addition, the series contains letters from historians and members of the public, notes and reviews. The correspondents include Cecil Lamb, Mary Tanner, Trevor Clutterbuck, Graeme Davison, Ken Inglis and Barrie Roberts.
Series 7. Australians at work, 1990
Edited by Lake and Charles Fox of the University of Western Australia, Australians at work was published by McPhee Gribble in 1990. The collection of sources and commentaries were organised into sections: the meaning of work; Aborigines and work; the organization of work; the sexual division of labour; social relations in the workplace; technology and work.
The series contains photocopies of newspaper articles and other documents, notes, photographs and a few letters.
3 files
Series 8. Creating a nation, 1984-2000
Creating a nation was written by Patricia Grimshaw, Marian Aveling, Ann McGrath and Lake and published by Allen & Unwin in 1994. Lake wrote four of the chapters on the twentieth century. In her introduction she wrote that 'The book starts from the premise that gender is integral to the processes that comprise the history of Australia - that political and economic as well as social and cultural history are constituted in gender terms'.
The papers document the collaboration between the four writers over a period of several years. Other correspondents include Ursula Owen, Carmen Callil, John Iremonger, Nicky Klempfner and Stuart Macintyre.
Series 9. Freedom bound II, 1995
Freedom bound II: documents on women in modern Australia was edited by Lake and Katie Holmes and published by Allen & Unwin in 1995. The documents were divided into four sections: Maternal citizenship, 1901-1920; The modern desire for pleasure and freedom, 1921-1940; Imagining equality, 1941-1968; Liberation, 1969-1993. Freedom bound I, covering women in nineteenth century Australia, was published in the same year.
The small number of papers on this publication consist of lists of documents, a letter from Cecily Close of Melbourne University Archives, and a circular about the launching of the book at La Trobe University.
1 file
Series 10. Gender and war, 1992-1996
Gender and war: Australians at war in the twentieth century was edited by Lake and Joy Damousi of Melbourne University and published by the Cambridge University Press in 1995. The volume contained 18 essays on such subjects as the Anzac mythology, women in the anti-conscription movement in 1916-1917, the crisis of masculinity in World War I, gay men and lesbians in military service, and race and gender in the World Wars and the Vietnam War. Lake's own essay was entitled 'Female desires: the meaning of World War II'.
Correspondents include Joy Damousi, Phillipa McGuinness, Kay Saunders and Garry Wotherspoon.
Series 11. Getting equal, 1991-2004
In 1991 Lake suggested to Allen & Unwin that they might publish a history of Australian feminism. She subsequently carried out research in libraries and archives for several years. Getting equal: the history of Australian feminism was published in 1999. The first general history of the women's movement in Australia, it covered the period from the 1890s until the late twentieth century.
Series 12. Articles, 1977-2004
Lake has published numerous articles in academic journals and she has also written book reviews, articles and columns for Melbourne newspapers. This series contains drafts of many of her articles and reviews, together with correspondence with editors and other writers. Some of her articles were filed by date, while others had their own files. There is some overlap with papers in Series 14, Conferences and seminars.
Series 13. Lectures, 1985-2003
The series contains handwritten and typescript drafts of several public lectures by Lake, together with associated letters, programs and flyers.
Series 14. Conferences and seminars, 1977-2003
From the late 1970s onwards Lake attended and spoke at numerous conferences, congresses, seminars, and made other public appearances. This large series contains drafts of her addresses and papers, correspondence with conference organisers, programs and flyers. Some of the papers were filed by date, while larger groups were given their own files. Lake was one of the organisers of the 1996 Australian Historical Association Conference and there are several files on this Conference. There are drafts of several papers presented by Lake at conferences in the USA during the time she was Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University in 2001-2002.
Series 15. Organisations, 1988-2003
The papers in this series comprise minutes of meetings, submissions, reports, circulars, leaflets and a small number of letters relating to organisations with which Lake was associated. Apart from the Australian Academy of the Humanities papers, they mostly deal with museum exhibitions, oral history projects, community projects and other schemes relating to women in Australia.
Series 16. Harvard University, 2001-2002
The Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University was established in 1976 as a result of a grant by the Australian Government, in recognition of the American Bicentenary, to further American understanding of Australia.
Lake was appointed to the Chair from September 2001 to June 2002 and the papers in this series were accumulated during her tenure. They comprise correspondence; newspaper cuttings; ephemera relating to Harvard and to Lake's visit in general; together with Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences newsletters, handbooks, agendas and minutes of meetings, journals and booklets.
Series 17. Women's rights and human rights
Women's rights and human rights: international historical perspectives is a collection of contemporary writings on the subject of women's rights during the 19th and 20th centuries. Edited by Patricia Grimshaw, Katie Holmes and Marilyn Lake, the book was published by Palgrove, London in 2001. Typescripts of papers from contributors are contained in this series.
3 files
Series 18. Faith Bandler, 1971-2002
Lake's first biography, Faith: Faith Bandler, gentle activist, was published by Allen & Unwin, Sydney in 2002. Later that year the book was the selected as the winner of the Human Rights Arts Non-Fiction Award. Papers relating to the book are contained in this series. They comprise correspondence with Faith Bandler and the publisher, edited typescript drafts, proofs, and reviews. There are also photocopies of cards and letters Faith Bandler received from Maisie and Russell Drysdale (c1971-78) and from Patrick White (1975-88).
See also series 20 for related audio material
Series 19. Other writings, 1967-2003
Contained in this series is a small group of other writings by Lake which includes an undergraduate essay marked by Michael Roe (1967), contributions to several books and editorial comments on Henry Reynold's manuscripts Aboriginal sovereignty and Fate of a free people. Also included is Lake's outline of the history of Victoria, commissioned as part of the Heritage Strategy of the Victorian Government, which was established within the framework of the Australian Heritage Commission.
Series 20. Audio visual material, 1997-1999
A small group of audio cassette tapes and one VHS video, listed by title.
Series 21. Ephemera, 1990-2003
This series comprises ephemera accumulated by Lake in the form of flyers, booklets, newsletters, invitations to public and official functions, and miscellaneous newspaper cuttings, other than those contained in Series 22. There is also an undated poster advertising the Sydney Vietnam Moratorium and an arm band promoting Aboriginal reconciliation.
4 files and one elephant folio
Series 22. Biographical papers, 1985-2004
Contained in this series is a small group of papers of a biographical nature. There are photographs, newspaper cuttings referring to Lake, and copies of her curriculum vitae.
3 files
Series 23. Miscellaneous papers, 1995-2003
A small group of miscellaneous papers accumulated by Lake.