Professor Melanie Oppenheimer has received a prestigious National Library of Australia Fellowship to progress her research on an intriguing power couple from early 20th century Australia, Lady Helen Munro Ferguson and our sixth Governor-General of Australia, Ronald Munro Ferguson.

Professor Oppenheimer will undertake a residency at the library in Canberra in 2021.

Her study, titled: Imperial power couple: the political and personal lives of Helen and Ronald Munro Ferguson is part of a broader project that will produce a biography of the Scottish couple, including Lady Munro Ferguson’s crucial role in establishing the Australian branch of the British Red Cross Society in 1914.

The pair played leading roles in the public sphere yet their contributions to society are still to be scrutinised and recorded in any depth, so to date their impact on Australian and Scottish history remains largely unknown.

The fellowships provide onsite access to the Library’s uniquely held or extensive collections including access to the Fellows room, with full office facilities and a personal workstation and copies of collection materials. They are designed to encourage new and innovative research, leveraging the National Library’s collections to reveal new information, insight, knowledge and creativity. A total of 10 recipients were announced last week.

Professor Oppenheimer is Chair of History at Flinders University and President of the Australian Historical Association.