We are delighted that esteemed historian Barbara Minchinton will deliver our September lecture based on the research for her latest book. Madame Brussels was Melbourne's most vilified brothel-keeper of the nineteenth century, but little has been known about Caroline Hodgson, the woman who played the role. There were no Visitors' Books to reveal her networks, and few letters written in her own hand. Family material that came to light in 2018 provided some clues, and a German genealogist found others, but for her biography the details of her life in Melbourne were largely sourced from newspapers and government records. The story that emerged was the story of Melbourne's sex industry from 1871 to its criminalisation in 1908.

From its beginning the Melbourne Public Library supplemented its book stock with donations. In 1873, the library published a catalogue of these gifts, listing an array of donors from emperors and kings to more humble colonists. In part a celebration, in part an appeal for more gifts, the catalogue provides an insight into the literary culture
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📜 Join our Collections Librarian Ellen Coates, on a journey through the fascinating history of Victoria’s second oldest library as they celebrate their 170th year. Beginning when the Library declared itself into existence in on the 1st of May 1854. The challenges of the early years, including how the Committee dealt with a squatting Secretary
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