In Summary

Dr Amanda Scardamaglia, Deputy Chair of the Swinburne Law School, has been awarded a State Library of Victoria 2015 Creative Fellowship.

The Library's Creative Fellowship program invites artists and scholars to be inspired by and imaginatively respond to published or original works from the Library’s collections.

Dr Scardamaglia received the fellowship for her research, ‘Charles Troedel: A biography of colonial trade marks, pictorial advertising and other lithographs’.

“I’m really excited and so pleased to have an opportunity to explore a period of Australia's history I’m passionate about and to be honest, I can’t wait to get started,” Dr Scardamaglia said.

“It’s a real luxury to be able to carve out a block of time to do archival research and this fellowship affords me that luxury, giving me exclusive access to the State Library collection and the assistance of their experienced librarians.”

While researching the history of trade mark law, Dr Scardamaglia came across Charles Troedel, who was a prolific Victorian lithographic printer in the 19th century.

“I was surprised to see little had been written on Troedel, particularly given the Library holds such an expansive collection of his works and many of his business records in their archive.  This fellowship will allow me to tap into this previously undiscovered material, for the first time.”

When finished, Dr Scardamaglia plans to share her research with the State Library community through public lectures and an exhibition, which will pay homage to Troedel's work.

The three-month fellowship will commence in November this year.