A century of satire

Celebrating 100 years of the Australian Cartoonists Association, the Library has original artworks on display in our Amaze Gallery — illustrating our country’s particular brand of humour, caricature, comics and the age-old tradition of skewering egos. As part of marking this milestone, curator Elise Edmonds will look at the formation of the forerunner to the ACA, the Australian Society of Black and White Artists in 1924, and will delve right back in time to look at some of Australia’s earliest cartoons and caricatures. Were we always so irreverent?

Elise Edmonds works in the Collection Acquisition and Curation branch of the Library. With a background in Australian history and museum studies, she has worked with the Library’s maps, pictures and manuscript collections, acquiring, researching and promoting these to a variety of audiences. She has curated several exhibitions highlighting the Library’s nationally significant First World War collections, along with the immersive audio exhibition Dead Central, and K*ll or Cure? A Taste of Medicine.

Host or Publisher State Library of New South Wales