#CreateArtHistory contest

For wizards, tricks and illusions, explore our Magic gallery.

Discover fanciful images of imaginary beasts in our Weird and wonderful creatures gallery.

For more inspiration, dip into our digital image pool – a cornucopia of photos, maps, posters, illustrations and much more! All pictures are out of copyright or available to be used.

Browse pictures of beautiful flowers and fruit in our Botanicals gallery.

The Library is home to all sorts of incredible items, and one of the most magical is the WG Alma Conjuring Collection.

Go behind the scenes with our rare books librarian, Jan McDonald, as she reveals two of her favourite volumes of botanical illustrations.

All of the images in our Botanicals and Weird and wonderful creatures galleries are drawn from our History of the book collection. You can see many of these images in the World of the book exhibition – permanently on display on Level 4 of the Dome Galleries.

In 2017 State Library Victoria teamed up with Redbubble, the global creative marketplace, to create independent art history.

We asked artists from across the world to design original work inspired by historic images from our collection to win incredible prizes. These comprised cash (1st prize: A$2500; 2nd prize: A$1000; 3rd prize: A$500), having their design displayed at the Library and added to the Library collection, and having their products sold at the Library in Library in Readings bookshop.

Entrants chose an image from our three collection themes: Magic, Weird and wonderful creatures and Botanicals; created an original design inspired by this image; shared it on Instagram with #CreateArtHistory and uploaded it to their Redbubble account.

Explore the winning entries