The Mitchell Library Reading Room is one of the most beautiful reading rooms in the world. The high ceilings provide the room with a magnificent natural light-filled space. The walls are lined with three glorious floors of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, stocked with thousands of books. Several stained glass windows impose themselves on the room, and break up the bookshelves on the third floor. The Caxton Window looks down upon the room from the southern wall, while The Sydney Gazette window, celebrating Australia’s first newspaper, first printed in March 1803, looks down from the west wall. The room is pleasingly open, boasting original chairs and tables. It is always a pleasure to study or to read in this beautiful room. The Mitchell Library was named after David Scott Mitchell (1836-1907). Mitchell began collecting books seriously in the 1860s, starting with English literature and in 1866, he had won some repute for scholarship in English literature. By the 1880s, Mitchell turned almost solely to collecting everything on Australia and its surroundings – Australia, the Pacific, the East Indies, and Antarctica. By 1900, Mitchell was the owner of around 10,000 volumes. “The main thing is to get the records. We are too near to our past to view it properly but in a few generations the convict past will take its proper place in the perspective and our historians will pay better attention to the pioneers.” Reserved and modest, he was a good conversationalist with a touch of wit and humour. He remained unmarried and lived meagerly and unostentatiously in a comfortless house, declining honours and any infringement on his privacy. Mitchell died in 1907, bequeathing his collection to the Public Library of NSW – now the State Library of NSW – with an endowment of £70,000 to fund collection additions. Adhearing to the conditions set forth by Mitchell, the building to house the collection was named the Mitchell Library. When it opened on 8 March 1910 it had some 60,000 volumes and much other material. It remains unrivalled in its field and is one of the great national collections in the world. #statelibraryNSW #mitchelllibrary #mitchellreadingroom #davidscottmitchell (at The State Library of New South Wales)
