MS 6206
National Library of Australia
View Catalogue Record
Collection Summary
- Creator
-
Ian Turner
- Title
-
Papers of Ian Turner
- Date Range
-
1948-1979
- Collection Number
-
MS 6206
- Extent
-
15.8 metres (113 boxes + 14 folios)
- Language of Materials
-
English
- Repository
-
National Library of Australia
Introduction
Scope and Contents
The collection comprises a large quantity of correspondence, consisting of letters from his family, academic and literary associates, friends, publishers, numerous organizations and reflects his wide interests. Copies of many of his own letters are included. There are drafts and background material relating to his own books: Cinderella dressed in yella; Sydney burning; In union is strength: a history of trade unions in Australia; The Australian dream; The depression of the 1930s; Peter Lalor; Industrial labour and politics: the labour movement in Australia, 1900-1921.
Academic material includes radio and university lecture notes, some student research papers, reports on theses and manuscripts, references and records concerning Monash University government.
Subject files are intensive, including research on Australian Aborigines, Australian history, the Australia Council, the Vietnam war, apartheid in South Africa, socialism, the Australian Labor Party, Broadsheet, Arena and Overland. There is a large quantity of pamphlets, ephemera and printed material dealing with these and numerous other subjects.
Conditions Governing Access
Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2594538).
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Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions.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 Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.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 Ian Turner, National Library of Australia, MS 6206, [box number and series and/or file number]'.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The Library purchased the bulk of the collection from Dr Leonie Sandercock in 1979. Further papers were donated to the Library in several instalments between 1981 and 1996.
Biographical Note
Ian Turner was born on March 10, 1922, at East Malvern, Melbourne, the son of Francis Turner, a wheat farmer, and his wife Nina, nee Lang. He was educated at Nhill State School, Geelong College (on a scholarship) and the University of Melbourne, from which he graduated in 1949 (LL.B., 1948; B.A., 1949).
In 1941 Turner was called up for service in the militia, later transferring to the Australian Imperial Forces. In the following year he joined the Communist Party of Australia. While in the A.I.F. he served as a driver with headquarters staff in Queensland and in New Guinea, where he was reduced in the ranks from lance corporal to private for insubordination. Later he became an acting corporal in the Australian Army Education Service, and was discharged from the A.I.F. in Melbourne in February 1945. He then returned to the University where he studied History and Politics under Max Crawford, Percy Partridge, and Manning Clark. After graduation he joined the railways as a cleaner and threw himself into the work of the Communist Party and the Australian Railways Union; he was sacked by the railways in 1952.
In 1958 Turner was expelled from the Communist Party after expressing opposition to the Soviet Union’s suppression of the Hungarian uprising of 1956. He then studied at the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University, being awarded a Ph.D. in 1963. From 1962-1964 he lectured at the University of Adelaide, after which he moved to Monash University where he established himself as an inspiring teacher of Australian history in the radical nationalist tradition. He maintained a long association with Stephen Murray-Smith and the journal Overland.
Turner married Amirah Gust in 1948 and they had three children before being divorced. In 1968 he married Ann Barnard. He died in 1978 while playing beach cricket, on Erith Island in Bass Strait.
[Source: The Australian Dictionary of Biography, v.16].
Item Descriptions
Class. Original Consignment
Correspondence (File) - Box 1-5
Except where indicated on the folder, there is no particular chronological or subject order to the correspondence. Some folders contain a small quantity of other papers such as notes.
Monash University: Lecture notes and business papers (File) - Box 6-9
Australia Council (File) - Box 10-12
Australian Aborigines (File) - Box 13-16
Australian Labor Party (File) - Box 17
Broadsheet (File) - Box 18
Drafts (File) - Box 19-20
Circulars, handouts, photocopy (File) - Box 21-23
Printed Matter (File) - Box 25-27
Australian Broadcasting Commission (File) - Box 28
A.B.C. Broadcast – Australian Nationalism (File) - Box 28
A.C.T. – History (File) - Box 28
Anstey, Frank (File) - Box 28
Anthropology and Government (File) - Box 28
Anti-Vietnam War demonstrations (File) - Box 28
The Arts – printed matter (2) (File) - Box 28
Australian Culture (File) - Box 29
The Australian Dream (File) - Box 29
Australian External Relations, 1880-1914 (File) - Box 29
Australian History (general) (File) - Box 29
Australian Labor Party (Centre) (File) - Box 29
Australian Labor Party. Victoria branch. (File) - Box 29
Australian “Left”. (File) - Box 29
Australian Mates (File) - Box 29
Australian Society., 1961 (File) - Box 29
Australian Society for the Study of Labor History (File) - Box 29
Australian Studies Club (File) - Box 30
Automobile (File) - Box 30
Books to A.N.U. (2) (File) - Box 30
Broadsheets - roneoed material (File) - Box 30
Bushrangers (File) - Box 30
C.A.P.A (Victoria) (File) - Box 30
Cassells – Depression (File) - Box 30
Censorship (File) - Box 30
Centre for Research into Aboriginal Affairs (File) - Box 30
Cinderella Dressed in Yella (6) (File) - Box 31
Clark: Canberra (File) - Box 31
The Concept of Class (File) - Box 31
Colonialism and man (File) - Box 32
Communist Party of Australia, 1956-58 (File) - Box 32
Cultural mission to China (File) - Box 32
Death of a Building – draft by Harry Roskalenko (File) - Box 32
Depression (File) - Box 32
Draft of a novel? (File) - Box 32
Duplicate documents (File) - Box 32
The Estarolica (2) (File) - Box 33
Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement (File) - Box 33
Federalism and the Commonwealth (File) - Box 33
Fitzpatrick (MacMillan) (File) - Box 33
Function notices (File) - Box 33
Historiography. Civil Liberties (File) - Box 33
Humanists (File) - Box 33
Immigrants (File) - Box 34
In Union is Strength (3) (File) - Box 34
1957–60 4th International (Australia) (File) - Box 34
International Communist Party documents (File) - Box 34
International labor and politics. Reviews (File) - Box 34
Labor History references (File) - Box 34
Labor Movement (File) - Box 35
Peter Lalor (2) (File) - Box 35
A.D. Lang (File) - Box 35
The last remake of Beau Geste (File) - Box 35
Law Reform Commission (File) - Box 35
The Left (2) (File) - Box 35
Lenin article (File) - Box 35
Bert Lloyd (File) - Box 35
Ellen Mary McEwan: Thesis (File) - Box 36
Manning Clark (File) - Box 36
Meetings, engagements (File) - Box 36
Miscellaneous Australia. 156-58 (File) - Box 36
Miscellaneous manuscripts (I.T.) (File) - Box 36
Miscellany (File) - Box 36
Monash Administration (File) - Box 36
”Monash and La Trobe frolics” (File) - Box 36
Monash History notes., 1974 (File) - Box 36
Monash Labor Club (File) - Box 36
Monash University Staff Socialist Group (File) - Box 36
Morals (2) (File) - Box 37
N.S.W. - History (File) - Box 37
National Capital Development Commission (File) - Box 37
National Conference for a Democratic Constitution., Sept. 1977 (File) - Box 37
Natural Health New China Policy (File) - Box 37
New History. Chapter by H Radi (File) - Box 37
The New Left: Marcuse, counter culture (File) - Box 37
New Technology (File) - Box 37
The Nuffield Foundation (File) - Box 37
Oral History (File) - Box 38
Outlook, 1956-58 (File) - Box 38
Overland (2) (File) - Box 38
Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Antarctica – History (File) - Box 38
Petty, T. – Women (File) - Box 38
Pelican Guide to Australia Literature (File) - Box 38
Photocopy of an 1856 diary (File) - Box 38
Political stories (File) - Box 38
Popular culture (File) - Box 38
Postgraduate supervision (File) - Box 39
Queensland – History (File) - Box 39
Radicalism (File) - Box 39
Referee’s reports (by I.A.H.T.) (File) - Box 39
Register, 1844-46 (File) - Box 39
Richmond A.L.P. (File) - Box 39
Richmond City Council election (File) - Box 39
Richmond Historical Society (File) - Box 39
Richmond Town Planning (File) - Box 39
Roman Catholic Church – History (File) - Box 39
Santamaria (File) - Box 39
Shearers – Bullockies (File) - Box 39
Social Service (File) - Box 40
The Socialist (N.S.W. no.1-6, 1959-60) (File) - Box 40
South Australia – History (File) - Box 40
Staff College (File) - Box 40
The Street Commission (7) (File) - Box 40
Students, 1970 (File) - Box 41
Students’ Movement, 1970 (File) - Box 41
Studies in Higher Education (File) - Box 41
Syndicalism in France (File) - Box 41
Tasmania – History (File) - Box 41
Thesis – tables (File) - Box 41
Trotsky Essay I.T. (File) - Box 41
“Turner scribblings” (File) - Box 41
United Kingdom (File) - Box 42
Universities (File) - Box 42
University Conferences (File) - Box 42
“Victoria” article for World Book Encyclopaedia (File) - Box 42
Victoria – History (File) - Box 42
Visit to Australia of Naomi Mitchison (File) - Box 42
Visit to China. 1975 (2) (File) - Box 42
Western Australia – History (File) - Box 42
Wool economics (File) - Box 42
World Book Encyclopaedia (File) - Box 43
World Economy (File) - Box 43
World War One (2) (File) - Box 43
Groups of small subject files (3) (File) - Box 43
Groups of small subject files (File) - Box 44
Press Cuttings (File) - Box 45–47
14 packages of monographs, photographs, printed material and news cuttings. (File) - Folio-Box (No. ?)
Class. Consignment added 1982
Press cuttings (File) - Box 48-55
Football book research (File) - Box 56-60
Sydney’s burning (File) - Box 61-63
Freedom to read Association (File) - Box 64-66
Olympic Games, 1956 (File) - Box 67
Crimes Act, 1960 (File) - Box 68
Vietnam War (File) - Box 69
Australia – China Society (File) - Box 70
Overland; Australian Book Society; Moomba Book Fair, 1955-57 (File) - Box 71
Industrial Labour and Politics, 1900-1921 (File) - Box 72
Lecture notes (File) - Box 73-74
Turner’s writings (File) - Box 75-78
Research notes and cards (File) - Box 79-83
Subject files: Australian history (File) - Box 84-87
Subject files: Urban studies (File) - Box 88-89
Subject files: The Arts (File) - Box 90-91
Subject files: European history (File) - Box 92-93
Subject files: General (File) - Box 94-98
Articles by others (File) - Box 99
Printed material (File) - Box 100-103
Correspondence and personal papers (closed) (File) - Box 104-105
Class. Consignment added 1983
Mostly Australian history research notes
Sydney Labour Council (File) - Box 106
Australian Workers Union (File) - Box 106
Communism in a workers’ democracy, 1962 (File) - Box 106
Two photographs of Turner and friends, December 1956 (File) - Box 106
IWW in Australia (File) - Box 107
Broadsheet, 1963-65 (File) - Box 107
Arbitration in Australia (File) - Box 107
Waterside workers (File) - Box 107
Early Socialist organizations in Australia (File) - Box 107
The International Socialist (File) - Box 107
Class. Consignment added 1985
Correspondence (closed), 1948-76 (File) - Box 108
Correspondence (closed), 1959-73 (File) - Box 109
Correspondence (closed), 1960-73. Re privacy and defamation and the Dorothy Hewitt case (File) - Box 110
Correspondence (closed), 1956-70. Re Overland magazine, Round-up newssheets., 1962-64 (File) - Box 111
Class. Consignment added 1987
Publications on Communism, including roneoed items, journals and cuttings, mostly 1950’s (File) - Box 112-113