Exhibition: The World Is One Kilometre: Greville Street, Prahran

Throughout August, we are hosting this free exhibition which accompanies award winning author/historian, Dr Judith Buckrich's new book.

The book explores 180 years of life in the area from before European settlement to the present day.

The exhibition is available for viewing form Monday 5 August, during library hours.

Victorian History Showcase over 2 days!
The Friends of the PMI Library are excited to be hosting this two day history showcase exhibiting a number of historical societies from around Victoria, as part of the PMI’s 165th birthday celebrations and National Family History Month.

Oral Histories

Our oral history collection is small, but deep. It ranges through everything from blacksmithing in Prahran, to the history of 19th century buildings in Melbourne, to personal stories from around Melbourne and Victoria.

These resources can give an intimate level of knowledge to your research project that would be impossible to find elsewhere. The oral history resources can be found on the library computers under audio recordings.

Family History / Genealogy

The PMI is an essential hub for family history research. As well as more general resources, such as the library subscription to Ancestry.com, we hold much more specific and unique resources that are vital to family history research.

Resources such as: town history, historical society periodicals, family histories, how to genealogy books, databases, indexes, gazettes and directories. These sorts of resources are invaluable for both the macro and the micro view of family history.

The PMI Victorian History Library has more than 30,000 books for loan and a professional information service for our members, we provide a central resource for research into the history of Victoria. We hold many titles that are unavailable elsewhere. It is the only lending collection of its kind in Australia that is available for loan to the general public.

Electronic Databases
Electronic databases are often overlooked, and the PMI’s collection can provide a myriad of information. They range from directories like the Sands and McDougall’s directories which cover addresses in first Melbourne and then Victoria, to hospital indexes, to registries for example cemetery burial registries from a wide variety of Victorian cemeteries, to gazettes for example the police gazette, which covers all sorts of ways that people came into contact with the law. These are just examples of some of these sorts of resources and they can be invaluable as they can give you firsthand primary information.

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