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Farm catalogues sought by NLA

The National Library of Australia (NLA) is seeking old farm catalogues for its ephemera collection, reports ABC Rural. NLA’s ephemera officer Catherine Aldersey told ABC Rural that the catalogues were an important part of Australian farming life and were used by farming families living a long way from town centres as a source of information and to order farm machinery. Some catalogues date back to the early 1900s and many were painted or illustrated. ‘There is something very spare about them, but at the same time they were pored over and kept, unlike today’s junk mail which is designed to last a week or two,’ said Aldersey. The NLA sources ephemera from auctions, clearing sales and collectors, but also from ‘very generous members of the public who think this material is important and share the value that we put on it and donate it to us’, said Aldersey.

 

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