NSW Bookstall Co. illustrations and artwork

Founded by Henry Lloyd in 1879, the NSW Bookstall Company started as a chain of railway kiosks selling affordable paperbacks to travellers at a time when most travel is undertaken by rail. After Lloyd’s death in 1897, Alfred Cecil Rowlandson bought the business and led the Company’s successful foray into mass market paperback publishing. It published Australian popular fiction and postcards, operated bookshops, circulating libraries and a newsagency distribution. The company operated from 1879-1946.

The collection features over a hundred original images, a third of which are bold and eye-catching cover designs by renowned Australian artists, notably the Lindsay family,  Moginie and Vernon Lorimer among others.