Objects of Substance – Historic Library Furniture

2021 ‘The Map Room’, State Library of New South Wales

Girls Grammar’s Beanland Memorial Library, housed in the Elizabeth Jameson Research Learning Centre since 2015, has such an effect. There is nothing quite like watching a prospective families’ tour or new students entering the library. They look up and around with quiet admiration and often audible gasps. While the building may be modern and the technology current, the library’s 140-year history is preserved and celebrated in the historic furniture that is integrated throughout its five levels. In these furnishings the students see their past and connect it with their present.