Local History e-Books
John Butler Cooper On-line
During the early years of the twentieth century, John Butler Cooper (pictured) was commissioned by the Prahran City Council and the Malvern City Council to write the histories of their respective municipalities, with emphasis upon land settlement, the establishment of council, construction of public buildings etc. Both of these texts are reproduced below in pdf format.
For a biographical essay on Cooper, click on the attached file to download the address by historian Mary Sheehan on the occasion of the initial e-publishing of the two books in 2001:
JB Cooper (43.13 KB)
Copies of this work are available from our Library service.
Copies are also available for purchase.
Cooper's historical accounts are rich in detail and written in a rather florid, rambling style characteristic of the Victorian era. Some readers may find it useful by way of introduction to the history of Prahran to begin by reading the essay by Betty Malone, published as an introduction to Sally Wilde's History of Prahran (1993). Wilde's history was commissioned by Council as a sequel to Cooper's work. Click on the attached file to download this essay.
Intro by Malone (69.88 KB)
The commissioned sequel to this book is The History of Prahran Volume II, 1925-1990 by Sally Wilde.
Copies of this work are available from our library service.
The commissioned sequel to this book is Private and public memory: a history of the City of Malvern by Lynne Strahan.