Jean Garling Room
Mitchell Building, State Library of NSW
1 Shakespeare Place, Sydney

EXHIBITION NOW OPEN

Opening Hours: Monday 2-5 pm; Thursday 3-6 pm; Sunday 2-5 pm until 31 March 2022, with a break from 21 December 2021 to 9 January 2022 over the holiday period.

About the Exhibition: This Exhibition begins a year of celebrations to mark the Society’s contributions to the intellectual life of NSW over 200 years. It is the perfect moment to reinforce our commitment to enriching lives through knowledge and inquiry. As we think about our future, we are informed by our history.

NEXUS has two meanings: a central or focal point; and a connection or series of connections linking two or more things. From the beginning, the Society has epitomised both meanings, as a forum for ideas and discovery, exposing us to the latest research and promoting awareness of some of the major issues confronting humanity. With 200 years of history, the exhibition can only showcase a fraction of the Society’s archives and achievements in telling the story of its Origins, Ideas, Advances, and Impacts.

Highlights of the exhibition include: 

• Letters from Professor Sir T W Edgeworth David, Antarctic explorer, on sun thaw line observations and arranging a presentation on the British Antarctic Expedition (1907 – 1909) led by Sir Ernest Shackleton
• Two original letters, including one with box-kite illustrations, of Lawrence Hargrave, a noted aviation pioneer and the first in Australia to fly (attached to four box kites of his own design), who published 23 papers on aeronautics in the Society’s Journal & Proceedings.