The Italian Historical Society (IHS) was established in 1980 to collect, preserve and promote the history of Italian immigration to Australia. The IHS photographic collection has been online, accessible via Web Publisher Pro, for about two years, and IHS has long wanted to make the large and varied collection better known and more widely available online.

It was with some excitement that nearly 8,000 publicly accessible photographs from the IHS collection have recently been harvested into Trove and are now available for all to search and view.

Initially, the National Library of Australia’s Picture Australia system was to provide access to the photographic collection, using its harvesting software and an interface provided by Maxus. However, before this could be finalised, Trove became the NLA’s flagship web system for all kinds of collections, from books to music, maps, diaries and, of course, images. New items added to the DB/Text Works textbase at the IHS will now automatically be included in Trove when the Trove harvester makes its regular passes via the internet. Data and images remain on the IHS web site, while becoming accessible through Trove.

The IHS has an extensive collection of photographs, ephemera, letters, documents, official records and newspaper cuttings which relate to Italian migration and settlement in Australia. Much of the material has been donated by Italian migrants and their descendents. While reflective of the experience of Italians across the country, the focus of this collection is Victoria.

You can browse the whole collection, or search using Trove’s simple and advanced searches. Go to http://trove.nla.gov.au/ to start viewing the amazing variety of the collection. Search for pictures of the first Italian coffee machines used in Melbourne cafes (“first coffee machine”), or early tomato growers (“tomatoes Italian historical”) or browse the whole collection by typing “nuc:VIHS” into the Simple Search box.

Maxus is delighted to have brought this project to fruition, in liaison with IHS curatorial staff and Trove technical staff.

If you are interested in putting some or all of your Web Publisher Pro textbases online via Trove, contact Maxus to discuss the options!