An accommodating friendship.

• Author: Garrett, Phoebe
• Position: National Library of Australia and Australian Academy of the Humanities - Australian Humanities Research Council

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The Australian Academy of the Humanities has recently entrusted its Royal Charter to the National Library of Australia on permanent loan. In a poetic twist, the Charter is returning home as the National Library building on the foreshore of Lake Burley Griffin, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2008, was the home of the former Australian Humanities Research Council (AHRC) when it was incorporated by Royal Charter as the Australian Academy of the Humanities (AAH) in 1969.

The AHRC, incorporated in 1957, began its life in Adelaide before moving to offices in the Academy of Science building, Gordon Street, Acton, when it opened in 1959 and remained...