Such was life – SLV Blog

I have been following the Such Was Life blog from the State Library of Victoria (SLV) for a while now. The blog began in October 2012 and has been showcasing the material in the SLV’s collection. The blog explores items from the Library collections that relate to Australia’s past, and these are many and varied.

From their own description:

Such is life,’ bushranger Ned Kelly is reputed to have said in his final moments. These words are also a great way of defining history, and history (specifically Australian history) is what this blog is all about. Here we’ll explore Australian histories found in the collections of the State Library of Victoria. We’ll highlight both new acquisitions and classic resources, including: books, journals, newspapers, manuscripts, pictures, maps and ephemera

We will showcase resources that are available online, and those sitting in our stacks just waiting to be discovered.

I have found many of the post fascinating as they highlight different aspects of their collection.  This year with the 100 year commemorations of the WWI, our study of the text “all Quiet on the Western Front as well as the Year 12 Australian history course, their WWI post have been very topical.

The list of post about items about WWI include:

• First shot fired There is some debate about where this actually happened but the is are a lot of documents that show that many in Australia believe that it was from Point Nepean as a German ship tried to leave Port Phillip Bay on the 5th Aug 1914
• WWI poetry Poetry spans all aspects of war, from enlistment to conscription, to loss and battle descriptions. Further information to the uses of poetry and to poems themselves.
• Death Ballots: Australia’s World War I conscription referendums Some description of the two referendums and other related materials. great starting point for understanding how Australians felt at the time.
• Greeting from the trenches: World War I postcards Postcards were a popular way to communicate with those at home in WWI. 1916, Corporal Thomas O’Halloran sent dozens of embroidered souvenir postcards from the front lines in France to his family. The Halloran postcard collection online.
• From Ararat to the Dardenelles: World War I through newspapers A reminder about the wealth of information about our history now available to us through the digitised issues of our newspapers. Over 70 Victorian newspapers covering 1914 to 1918 are now freely available on Trove.
• World War I colour patches  Colour patches were worn on Australian soldiers’ uniforms to show which unit they belonged to. In WWI there were many different patches and this post offers links to finding out more about them.
• Commemorating your ANZACS. This was about a grant that recently finished but there was more useful information here about our service man and women. There was also advice about how to find out more about individuals who served in the Australian military.

If you would like to find out more about local servicemen and women, head to our research guide World War I: researching soldiers. It provides a step-by-step guide to finding soldiers’ service records, and discovering what battles and campaigns they were involved in. The guide also gives advice about researching the lives of Australian nurses. Our guide to key family history sources will help you to track down other key biographical details, like birth, marriage and death dates, what other jobs people held, and where people lived in their local community. Finally, our guide to publishing your family history will step you through the process of making your research available online or as a book.

There are links in the posts to primary sources available in in the library, digitised resources that can be viewed, the History section of the Ergo site and links to related material are also useful. It is a great resource and well worth following to remind you about what a fantastic treasure we have in our State Library.