About the records

Administrative Information

• The collection is comprised of records from 28 accessions. The codes used to uniquely identify each accession range from PERR1986-01 to PERR2012-02.
• The records have been allocated to 13 series. The codes used to uniquely identify each series range from PERS001 to PERS013.
• Through the processing of the records, 1 provenance entity was identified. The code used to uniquely identify this provenance entity, i.e. records creator or custodian, is PERP001.
• The inventory covers 932 items, and may include records of continuing value, records sentenced for destruction and records that have been destroyed. The codes used to uniquely identify each inventory item range from PERR00001 to PERR00920. The total collection occupies 1,345 linear cm of shelf space (or its equivalent).
• The documentation of the records at inventory level started on 27 October 2003. The latest additions were made on 5 September 2012. The latest modifications were made on 19 December 2012. This collection profile was updated on 19 December 2012.

Scope and Content

The records in the Nancye Kent Perry Collection were accumulated by Nancye Perry throughout her life. They document her diverse career in the United Kingdom and Australia at a time when there were relatively few women scientists. The collection includes an especially substantial set of records about Nancye’s research in Australia into the Sirex woodwasp, which she carried out for the CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) Division of Forest Products (1950-1951) and for the Commonwealth Department of Health (1954-1957). In 1957 Nancye married Warren Perry. She also ceased work in scientific research in that year.

Nancye Perry’s professional files form part of a varied set of personal papers that document the rich tapestry of her life and times. There are many records in the collection of and about Nancye Perry’s youth and family life, including her parents, Palmer and Enid Kent, and her sister, Pauline Deakins, to whom she remained close throughout her life. These include extensive sets of family history records and correspondence, photographs and files pertaining to Nancye’s childhood on Sydney’s North Shore, dairies and visual records relating to overseas trips made by the family, and files of Nancye’s parents that range back to the late 19th century.

The collection documents the breadth and depth with which Nancye Perry developed her interests in books and the arts, among other activities, later in life. This includes records about her painting, in particular her art training, exhibitions of her work, and other artwork in which she took an interest. In addition, there are thorough and precise registers of the substantial book collection Nancye Perry acquired between c.1963 and 2006, with specialisations including Australiana, ships, shipwrecks and the sea.

The collection also holds a varied and extensive set of Nancye Perry’s financial records which she created and acquired in the course of managing a portfolio of shares. The longevity and precision characteristic of Nancye Perry’s share trading activities, as well as her active and critical engagement with the business practices of the companies in which she invested, is particularly evident in Nancye Perry’s nine Investment Registers, which span the period 1955-2006. These registers are located in Series Four of the Perry Guide.

Surveying and Mapping the Records

Records of Nancye Perry's Scientific Career

Other Records of Nancye Perry's

Due to the long period of time involved in the preservation and management of Nancye Perry's records, there is some variation in the level of detail provided about individual inventory items in the Perry Guide.

In addition to the material documented in this guide, the State Library of Victoria also holds 25 boxes of further records of Nancye Perry's, on assorted subjects which include the anti-Republican movement. For more information about these records, contact the State Library of Victoria's reference service, citing State Library of Victoria accession numbers MS 13933 and MS 14106.

Further information about this guide and the records it describes, including transfer arrangements, custodianship and other contextual information, is held in the office files and the Heritage Documentation Management System (HDMS) database at the eScholarship Research Centre, University of Melbourne.

Dates of Records

How These Records Can Be Used

Where material from the Records of Nancye Kent Perry is copied or quoted the source of the material must be acknowledged.

Preferred Citation

For citation of the published guide, an acceptable form would be: Anne Holloway, Michael Jones, Gavan McCarthy, Ailie Smith, Jenny Smith, Rachel Tropea and Ann McCarthy, Nancye Kent Perry Guide to Records, The University of Melbourne eScholarship Research Centre, 2010 [URL and date accessed].

Copyright

The Records of Nancye Kent Perry are held by the State Library of Victoria. The State Library of Victoria manages any rights (including moral rights) in all material contained in the Records of Nancye Kent Perry.

All information in the guide to this collection and in the material of the collection itself, served from Australia, is administered under Australian Intellectual Property Laws.