A scrapbook compiled by Martha Hardy, including 60 hand-coloured wood-engraving plates published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge entitled Plates illustrative of natural history (4 parts, ca. 1840-47). Of particular interest are no. 22 'The emeu', no. 67 'The kangaroo' and no. 127 'The duck-billed platypus'. The scrapbook also includes 26 hand-coloured plates from the S.P.C.K publication entitled Thirty plates illustrative of natural phenomena (1846).

Scrapbooks were usually, but not always, kept in commercially available albums of stiff paper. Martha Hardy's large scrapbook, however, is homemade and the pages are of linen, with coloured edges, bound into a leather covered volume. The pictures from the publications of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge are large and give a lot of information about the animal or natural phenomena shown. Martha no doubt intended this to be an educational book for her four children. Further into the scrapbook the pictures come from a variety of sources and are more diverse in nature.

Martha was the wife of Arthur Hardy who arrived in South Australia in 1839 and prospered on land at what is now the Adelaide suburb of Paradise. He later owned quarries at Glen Osmond, opened a law practice in Adelaide and built first 'Birksgate' at Glen Osmond and 'Mount Lofty House' on the slopes of Mount Lofty. He opened the Glen Osmond Institute, provided land for the Crafers Institute and initiated the school at Crafers.

Hardy, Arthur, 1816-1909

Allen, Alistair. Scraps: one hundred and fifty years of stamped, embossed reliefs: Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood exhibition February-April 1977,[London]: H.M. Stationery Off., c1977

Martin, Robert (ed.) The lasting hills: essays in the history of the Adelaide Hills, Maylands, S. Aust.: Robert Martin, 2006 see: Chapter 7 'Arthur Hardy of 'Mt Lofty House'

Duke University Libraries: More about scrapbooks

Mount Lofty House, Adelaide Hills: History of the house

SA Memory: To be a child. Robert's scrapbook

SAMemory: to be a child. Laura's scrapbook

State Library of South Australia: Mortlock Wing exhibitions. To be a child August 2004-