Turner, Henry Gyles, 1831-1920

This collection appears to have been formed at least in part by Henry Gyles Turner. It contains a number of letters addressed to him from various parties expressing opposition to Bernard Hall as Director of the Gallery. The items relating to the library deal with controversy over the adoption of the Dewey classification system, and repairs to the dome.

Henry Gyles Turner,1831-1920, banker, historian and littérateur, was born in London. He left Southampton for Melbourne in the Argo in 1854 to work for the Bank of Australasia. He helped to launch the short-lived Australian Monthly Magazine in 1865, and contributed articles to weekly periodicals such as the Melbourne Spectator, Clarke's Colonial Monthly and James Smith's satirical Touchstone. He initiated the Banks Rowing Club later serving for many years as president of the Victorian Rowing Association. While trustee-treasurer of the Yorick Club and founder-president of the Kew Literary Institute and Free Library in the early 1870s, he helped to launch the Melbourne Review. Its reputation as Australia's first successful quality review owed much to Turner's efforts as contributor, editorial committee chairman, and editor in 1881-85. He became a trustee of the Public Library, Museums, and National Gallery in April 1884, and commissioner of the Centennial International Exhibition in 1887-88. In 1904 his two-volume A History of the Colony of Victoria From its Discovery to its Absorption into the Commonwealth of Australia was published in London, followed in 1911 by The First Decade of the Australian Commonwealth, and two years later by Our Own Little Rebellion: The Story of the Eureka Stockade, both published in Melbourne. Thereafter he continued to foster a high culture and a community of letters in Melbourne.