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Philanthropy is a sharing of one's spirit and one's resources to encourage and bring out that which is within people with something to give to our society, needing the means whereby they can develop themselves to give it... It is focused and specific, and an act of hope.
Barbara Blackman
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In Her Gift celebrates the lives of some of Australia's most generous women. Although the tradition of Australian women's philanthropy is rooted in voluntary work and large-scale giving has been more often associated with men - names like Sidney Myer, Alfred Felton, Ian Potter, Richard Pratt - a small number of Australian women have given significant sums of money to charitable causes alongside their wealthy male counterparts since the late nineteenth century. Their contributions have provided schools, university scholarships, hospital wings, research centres, places of worship, galleries, gardens, theatrical productions, orchestras, refuge centres and advocacy services.
This exhibition links to a database containing biographical notes on over thirty Australian women philanthropists, along with details of relevant bibliographical and archival resources.
- Start by reading an introduction to the project
- Browse an alphabetical list of philanthropists
- Browse alphabetical lists of archival and published resources
- Browse images
- Search the register of Australia Women