Issue 42: Spring 2010 - Melbourne Cricket Club
Issue 42: Spring 2010 - Melbourne Cricket Club
Issue 42: Spring 2010 - Melbourne Cricket Club
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
Yorker Archival Treasures<br />
UNCOVERING THE TREASURES<br />
OF THE MCC ARCHIVES<br />
Hand drawn sketch by H. C. A. Harrison of proposed area where football was to be played.<br />
MCC Archives, acc 445<br />
MCC archivist Patricia Downs embarks on an exciting journey as she works diligently through a huge resource of material<br />
pertaining to the MCC and its wonderful ground.<br />
Exquisite handwritten correspondence, rare letterheads, priceless<br />
documents, photographs, maps and papers are gradually being<br />
unearthed in the newly established <strong>Melbourne</strong> <strong>Cricket</strong> <strong>Club</strong><br />
archives section. The fascinating history of the MCC and the rich<br />
heritage of its corporate memory have lain in dusty files and<br />
boxes for decades. Now its secrets are being rediscovered.<br />
Until the beginning of 2009, there had been no resource or<br />
responsibility officially designated for the management and<br />
development of the MCC archives. However, the appointment<br />
of an archivist has paved the way for a professional appraisal of<br />
the wealth of historical material collected by the club since its<br />
inception. Strategies have been developed to safeguard these<br />
fragile archival documents for present and future generations and<br />
to provide access to their storehouse of knowledge.<br />
About 30 years ago, one of the greatest treasures of the MCC<br />
collection was discovered by chance among a trunk of archival<br />
material being sorted through by Bill Gray, a former honorary<br />
curator of the MCC. This document proved to be the original<br />
handwritten set of rules of the <strong>Melbourne</strong> Football <strong>Club</strong> of May<br />
1859. Currently displayed in the MCC Museum, this document is a<br />
real destination piece for visitors.<br />
Boxes of correspondence and printed matter from 1905 to 1912<br />
relating to “The Great Split” in the cricket world have also surfaced.<br />
These original documents retell the drama over the control of<br />
international cricket teams, especially surrounding the MCC and the<br />
formation and establishment of Australian cricket’s Board of Control.<br />
The memorabilia and documents illustrating Alf Batchelder's<br />
absorbing article on the 1917 Patriotic Carnival – published in this<br />
edition of The Yorker – were among the first glimpses of the secrets<br />
of the MCC archives until its establishment this year as an entity.<br />
6<br />
The Yorker - <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2010</strong>