In 1915, Dame Nellie Melba rallied the support of the Australia artistic community to create 'Melba’s Gift Book of Australian Art and Literature', in support of the Belgium Relief Fund. The book itself is a fantastic collection of works by some of Australia’s most famous artists and cartoonists, poets and authors. We were commissioned by the Yarra Ranges Regional Museum to conduct background research into this fascinating publication to inform an exhibition 'Charity: Melba's Gift Book of Australian Art & Literature', which was presented at the Museum in October 2017.
Following the exhibition, we worked with the museum on two publications: a souvenir booklet and a journal article drawing on the research gathered for the exhibition. The article ‘Melba’s Gift Book: Fund-raising, Propaganda and Australian Identity in World War I’ was published in the Victorian Historical Journal, Volume 89, Number 2, December 2018.
