Artwork and photographs

Explore our digitised collections

Botanical artwork: The Library's collection of botanical art includes the work of some of Australia's best-known botanical artists, including Anita Barley, Mali Moir, Enid Mayfield, Celia Rosser, Margaret Stones and Betty Conabere. The collection of over 5,000 botanical artworks also includes art by many of the 19^th century female collectors who collected plants for Ferdinand von Mueller. These collectors include Flora Martin, Marie and Marianne Wehl, Euphemia Henderson and Fanny Anne Charsley.

Historical photographs: The Library also holds over 30,000 photographs, including a large collection of historical photographs and early plans of the Gardens. Many of these photographs are from the late-19^th century and early 20^th century and show staff at work in what was then the Melbourne Botanic Garden. The collection also includes the Ken Duxbury postcard collection, featuring many early scenes of the gardens, photographs of Ferdinand von Mueller, William Guilfoyle and specimens from the Economic Botany Museum. This collection is also being actively digitised and will continue to grow as more photographs are made available.

Online availability: Library staff are actively digitising much of the collection and making it available to the public for the first time. Access to the portals is via the links below. The collection will continue to grow as more artworks are digitised.

Most of the images available via our web portals below are available for download and use under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. This allows for free, non-commercial use of the images if copyright and attribution to Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria is acknowledged. For commercial use of any of the images, please contact our marketing team.