National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record
The collection documents Professor Parker's academic career and his private life interests. The papers include family and business correspondence, personal files, working papers, drafts and research material relating to his writing.
Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2911389).
Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions.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 Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.
Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Robert Stewart Parker, National Library of Australia, [class number/series/file number]'.
The original consignment of papers of R.S. Parker were acquired by the Library under the Taxation Incentives for the Arts Scheme in 1990.
Further papers were added in: 1996 (Series 3, Subseries 5, File 465); March 2000 (Series 8); April 2002 (Series 9); and 4 February 2005 (Series 7, Subseries 4, Files 167-174).
Please note: This finding aid may comprise or contain descriptive information provided by donors, researchers and/or volunteers.
Please note: each consignment in this collection has a separate box number sequence (i.e. there may be multiple Box 1s). Please cite the relevant Class number as well as the Box number when requesting retrieval of material from the collection.
Parkers' published works include: Public Service recruitment in Australia, 1942 Administrative development in Papua and New Guinea, 1971 Papua New Guinea as an emergent state, 1972 The government of New South Wales, 1978
Robert Stewart Parker was born on 19 February 1915 in Artarmon N.S.W. He was educated at North Sydney Boys' High School and Sydney University. In 1938 he was appointed Lecturer in Public Administration and Secretary to the Council of the Canberra University College. From 1939 to 1945 he was Lecturer in Public Administration at Victoria University College, Wellington, (with some years' leave for war service) before returning to the Canberra University College as Lecturer in Political Science. In 1947-48 Parker was a Social Science Research Fellow at the Australian National University, and from 1949 was Professor and head of the School of Political Science and Public Administration at Victoria University College. In 1954 he returned to Canberra as Reader in the Department of Political Science, Research School of Social, Sciences Australian National University. He became Professor of Political Science in 1963 and retired in 1978.
Parker was a member of a number of official, academic and cultural bodies. He was a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, a Life Fellow of the Royal Institute of Public Administration Australia, a Life Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Public Administration and the New Zealand College of Management, and a Life Member of Musica Viva Australia of which he was a Director from 1981 to 1990. He was President of the Australasian Political Studies Association in 1963-64. He was also a member of the 1957 Committee of Inquiry into Commonwealth Public Service Recruitment (Boyer Committee), the Interim Council of the Administrative College of Papua New Guinea (1962-69) and the Papua New Guinea Public Services Arbitration Tribunal (1972-73).
Comprises family and professional correspondence, personal files, working papers, drafts, research material, diaries, lecture notes, seminar papers, references, testimonials and other papers documenting Parker's academic career and other diverse interests including music and theatre. The papers document Parker's involvement in various organisations including the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, Australasian Political Studies Association, Australian Administrative Staff College, Australian Institute of Political Science, Australian National University, Musica Viva Australia, New Zealand Administrative Staff College, Papua New Guinea Administrative College, Royal Australian Institute of Public Administration, Boyer Committee of Inquiry into Commonwealth Public Service Recruitment, Australian Research Grants Committee, New Zealand Institute of Public Administrative and the Papua New Guinea Public Services Arbitration Tribunal.
Contained in 192 boxes.
'Administrators born or made?' To Civil Service Institute (NZ) 1949
'Are good managers born or made?" Talk 1957
'Australian Background' proposal for ANU wide seminar, 1955-1956
Australian Economic Policy (Department of Finance), 1988
See also Series 9/74
Parker donated the index cards (in two wooden boxes and three metal drawers) to the Library in March 2000. The subjects include history of the civil service in the 19th century, politics and administration in New South Wales in the 1970s, church and state, and Australian politicians (eg. Joseph Cook).
The series includes correspondence, alphabetical files, floppy dics and 51/4" diskettes. The Library has preserved Parker's arrangement of the papers within the manila folders and their titles.
Nashua 5.25 inch diskettes MD2D DS DD 48 T.P.I.
5.25 inch floppy disk
XIDEX Precision Floppy Disk 5022-1000 in a Nashua envelope.
Verbatim Datalife MD2-D
Nashua single sided, Double density, Soft-sectored with Hub Ring. MD-1D CC-8701-300
Generic disk
Verbatim 3.5 inch disk
3.5 inch floppy disk
Comprises personal papers, including letters, photographs, maps and travel brochures, ephemera, printed music and other printed material.
Contained in 1 box and 1 folio box.