Some highlights of the scrapbooks

As well as extracts from newspapers and magazines, a number of other creative projects which Sir Donald was associated with have been reproduced in these scrapbooks.

Volume 10 has three significant features:

• serialised articles on his life story which appeared originally in the press and later were published as part of Donald Bradman's book: the story of my cricketing life, with hints on batting, bowling and fielding. The State Library holds the 1930 and 1938 editions of this work published in London by Hutchinson.
• studio photographs of Sir Donald in batting and bowling poses which are of extraordinary quality, detail and beauty. Thumbnail reproductions appear in the above work, but feature in large format in the scrapbooks. The 18 images are reproduced in full on this website.
• a series of articles written by Sir Donald for the Australian periodical The referee, of which one example is included here. The referee was published in Sydney between 1886 and 1939 and is not held in the State Library of South Australia.

Volume 17 has 20 hints on how to play cricket, mainly batting hints, which may have originally appeared in newspaper form. They were later published as The News cricket hints by Don Bradman, W.A. Oldfield, Arthur Mailey and A.G. Moyes. (Sydney, Sun Newspapers, 1935), which is not held in the State Library of South Australia.

Much of the material in the scrapbooks is of interest where they foreshadow future events, or are a contrast or a connection to contemporary cricket, or contrast cricket in Australia and overseas, or are of especial interest to South Australians. Some instances of these are:-

• a headline from 1930 referring to 'Larwood in role of killer' which anticipates the drama of the Bodyline tour in 1932, and a photograph of Bradman recovering from a fast ball from Larwood

• the Australians match against Warwickshire the week before the final Test of the 1948 tour, where leg spinner Eric Hollies at the age of 35 bowls Bradman and is selected for his only Test against Australia. In this Test at The Oval he famously bowls Bradman in his last innings for 0.

• the depth of public interest in Sir Donald and in cricket itself is shown by people queuing overnight in London for tickets to Tests in 1948.

• several photographs of Test venues in England show spectators sitting on the playing arena in 1930, which is not permitted in first class grounds in Australia. However a match played in rural Townsville also in 1930 shows the spectators on the ground.

• unruly crowd behaviour occurred in Bradman's era, for example a newspaper piece Crowd breaks bounds at a Brisbane ground too small for the crowd in 1931.

• a horse was used to pull the heavy roller between innings in Brisbane in 1946.

• Bradman's Girls XI versus McCabe's Girls X1 in 1931 shows women controversially dressed in trousers playing cricket.

• Englishman Patsy Hendren wears a helmet to bat against Larwood and Bowes in 1934, of a very different type to those worn today.

• there are continual references to the English players' difficulties coping with leg spin bowling, especially against the mighty Australian bowlers Grimmett and O'Reilly, comments made prominently in the 1990s about the leg spin of Shane Warne. A cartoon of 1936 highlights the impact of the wrong'un, while Don Bradman himself demonstrates in three successive photographs the grip for a leg break, the leg break grip from behind and the leg break being delivered.

• a photograph of Don Bradman outside the Public Library building on North Terrace in 1930. This is the Jervois Wing of The State Library of South Australia which housed the Bradman Collection upon donation before the Bradman Collection was developed in the Institute Building. The Bradman Collection exhibit was closed in 2008 to accommodate the Premier's request for a long term loan of selected items to the exhibition at the Adelaide Oval.