In 1911, Marion Mahony Griffin (1871–1961) and her husband Walter Burley Griffin (1876–1937) imagined the Australian capital during a cold Chicago winter. They were working tirelessly over 9 weeks to complete their competition winning entry for the Federal Capital Design competition. Despite having never visited Australia, Marion's View from the summit of Mount Ainslie managed to capture the Australian light and environment with surprising accuracy and is still recognisable in the present-day.

Check out our Griffin collection today.

The national archival collection holds the official records of each prime minister's time in office. These official records are supplemented with personal records that illuminate their lives. Our Research Guides aim to make it easier for researchers and the general public alike to access these records and contain basic biographical information on Australia's prime ministers and their spouses, descriptions of the records they created and descriptions of the records created about them.