Guide to the Papers of Guido Baracchi
MS 5241
National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record
Created: ©2003.
Collection Summary
- Creator
- Baracchi, Guido, 1887-1975
- Title
- Papers of Guido Baracchi
- Date Range
- 1870-1975
- Collection Number
- MS 5241
- Extent
- 2.52 metres (18 boxes)
- Language of Materials
- English
- Repository
- National Library of Australia
Introduction
Scope and Contents
The collection consists of correspondence, diaries, notebooks, handwritten notes from talks, a large amount of research notes, cuttings, handbills, leaflets, translations, photographs and poetry. It covers such organisations as the Communist Party of Australia, the Australian Labor Party, the Revolutionary Socialist Alliance, the Revolutionary Workers League, the Victorian Labour League, the Congress for Friendship and Aid to the Soviet Union, the Fourth International and the Seamen's Union. Other topics covered are conscription, the Vietnam War and the Spanish Civil War. There are also essays and biographical notes and cuttings on such people as H. Alwyn Lee, Baracchi's father (Pietro Baracchi), E.T. Brown, Percy Laidler and Victoria Cramp.
The box of correspondence includes letters from Ralph Gibson, May Brodney, K.S. Prichard, Nettie and Helen Palmer, Dr Lotte Fink, Miriam Dixon, Eric Aarons, David and Bertha Walker (daughter of Percy Laidler), Neura and Michael Hall, Frederick Macartney, President Caballero, Tom Mann, Chris O'Sullivan, Erik Quirk, Jean Battersby, E.E. Jones, Lord Bruce, Will H. Turner, Prof. John Anderson, E.M. Higgins, Maurice Blackburn and Sydney Williams.
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is available for reference.
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Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions.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 Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.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 Guido Baracchi, National Library of Australia, MS 5241, [series and/or file number]'.
Provenance
The papers of Guido Baracchi were donated to the National Library by Gilda Baracchi in 1976. Further instalments were received in 1991 and 1992.
Related Materials
Papers of Pietro Baracchi are held in the Library's Manuscript Collection at MS 8913.
Arrangement
This collection has been arranged in the order in which the three instalments were received. The contents of some series overlap.
Biographical Note
Guido Baracchi was born in 1887 and died in 1975. He was one of the founders of the Australian Communist Party. After the war he went to Europe and was active with the British Labour and Communist parties and worked as an underground member of the German Communist Party in Berlin. Baracchi returned to Australia in 1935 and he rejoined the Australian Communist Party.
He was married four times and his children include Gilda Baracchi.
Pietro Baracchi, Guido's father, was born in Florence in 1851. He was the government astronomer to the State of Victoria from 1900 to 1907. In 1910 the Commonwealth government invited Baracchi and a party of four to the Yass - Canberra area to select a suitable site for an astronomical observatory. Baracchi led expeditions to observe solar eclipses to Bruny Island, Tasmania in 1910 and Tonga in 1911. He died in 1926 and was buried in Melbourne.
Item Descriptions
Series 1. Correspondence, 1919-1970
See also Series 10 for correspondence received in 1991 and 1992.
Correspondence, 1919-1970 (File 1-5)
Includes letters by Ralph Gibson, May Brodney, K.S. Prichard, Nettie and Helen Palmer, Dr Lotte Fink, Miriam Dixon, Eric Aarons, David and Bertha Walker (daughter of Percy Laidler), Neura and Michael Hall, Frederick T. Macartney, President Caballerio, Tom Mann, Chris O'Sullivan, Eric Quirk, Jean Battersby, E.E. Jones, Lord Bruce, Will H. Turner, Professor John Anderson, E.M. Higgins, Maurice Blackburn and Sydney Williams.
Series 4. Subject files
See also Series 12.
Series 8. Printed material
See also Series 17.
Series 10. Correspondence, 1911-1975
The series comprises letters written to Baracchi and drafts of some of his letters. See also Series 1.
Series 11. General writings
Essays and poetry. Titles include: 'The Human Adventure', 'An Essay on Dress', 'Camaraderie', 'Conservation of Energy', 'Wings', 'A Song', 'Surface Rights', 'Luck', 'Battle Ardour', 'An Epitaph', 'A Fable for Sloughmen', 'Invitation', 'The End of Day', 'A Woman's Farewell', 'The Despoiler', 'Two Cities', 'Rose and Christopher', 'Lament', 'Bedrooms', 'S. Coleridge', 'The Astral Flame', 'The Wastrels', 'Roses of a Dream', 'The Net of Memory', and 'Apocalyptic'. See also Series 5.
Series 14. Cuttings, 1946-1947
Some of the cuttings are political in their nature. See also Series 7.
Series 16. Miscellaneous, 1904-1976
See also Series 9.
Miscellaneous documents, 1921-1976 (File 1-7)
Includes transcript of an interview on conscription [n.d.]; typescript entitled 'Reminiscences of Evatt'; an interview with the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission); miscellaneous financial papers, including tax returns; and personal documents, such as a copy of Baracchi's birth certificate.
Miscellaneous documents and papers (File 10)
Includes Guido's school reports from Church of England Grammar School (1904-6) and University of Melbourne (1906); programs for the Wallaby Club Christmas dinners (1909-12); typescript of letter to editor of Daily Mail (1914, unknown author); divorce papers between Ellis Harvey Davies and Mary Isabel Davies (1934); divorce papers between Harriet Elizabeth Baracchi and Guido Carlo Luigi Baracchi (1938); and floral tributes of Guido Baracchi's death (1975).
Container List
| Series | File/Item | Box |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1-5 | 1 |
| 2 | 6-13 | 2 |
| 3 | 14-18 | 3 |
| 4 | 21-34 | 4-5 |
| 5 | 35-54 | 5-8 |
| 6 | 55-65 | 8-9 |
| 7 | 66-75 | 9-10 |
| 8 | 76-84 | 10-11 |
| 9 | 85-86 | 11-12 |
| 10 | 1-7 | 13 |
| 10 | 8 | 18 |
| 11 | 1-9 | 14 |
| 11 | 10 | 18 |
| 12 | 1-4 | 15 |
| 13 | 1 | 15 |
| 14 | 1 | 15 |
| 15 | 1 | 16 |
| 15 | 2 | 18 |
| 16 | 1-7 | 16 |
| 16 | 8-12 | 18 |
| 17 | 17 |