Lost and found: the story of the ANU Visitors Book

For almost 40 years, an important record of ANU history was sitting in storage at Chancelry.

When Vice-Chancellor Genevieve Bell moved into Building #10, a colleague handed her a leatherbound red book.

“I was cleaning out my office and found this in one of the cupboards,” he said. “I thought you might be interested.”

The Australian National University Visitors Book holds signatures from prime ministers, royalty, diplomats, journalists, academics and other notable figures who have visited the university, dating back to November 1953.

Each signature tells a story about ANU. My job was to identify them all.

Signed, sealed, discovered

According to ANU archivist Abbey Turrell, we don’t have much information on the book and its history.

“Visitor books are objects that have very few records created about them,” she says.

Sir Leslie Melville, the second Vice-Chancellor of the University, was likely the person who started the Visitors Book.

The first signature – from Major General Ronald Hopkins, a senior officer in the Australian Army and a Commandment of the Royal Military College, Duntroon – appeared around a week after Melville started in the position in 1953.

While working my way through the book, there was one signature I couldn’t decipher: it was just the name ‘Philip’.

How could someone have no surname? Would someone be bold enough to sign without one?  I mentioned it to the Vice-Chancellor.

“I think that’s the late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh,” Professor Bell informed me.

Sure enough, the late Duke had visited campus to open University House.

The last person to sign the Visitors Book before it was rediscovered was former prime minister Bob Hawke in 1984. It’s likely Hawke was on campus to discuss the now disestablished Peace Research Centre and his government’s commitment to arms reduction.

Reviving a ritual

As a cultural anthropologist, Professor Bell recognises the value of ceremonies and traditions – this is a big part of why she brought the Visitors Book back to life.

“I started using the book again because I believe in rituals,” she says.

“I think it’s important to find ways to record and acknowledge the remarkable people who visit us here and the amazing moments that creates.”

Last year, the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, James Marape, became the first person to sign the book since 1984. He signed it again when he visited campus recently, becoming the second person – after Gough Whitlam – to have his name in the book twice.

More than 70 years after his father’s visit, the current King of England visited Canberra in 2024.  ANU Chancellor Julie Bishop brought the Visitors Book along to the Botanic Gardens for him to sign. King Charles III appears to have had a problem with the pen on his first attempt at signing – there’s a half-finished scribble on the page before his autograph.

A tale of two books

There’s another red Visitors Book at ANU. Embossed with the same fonts and gold accents, the book at University House includes signatures from notable figures such as Margaret Mead. The renowned anthropologist visited ANU in 1964, where she met her future rival, Derek Freeman.

Unlike the book found in the Chancelry, more is known about the history of the University House Visitors Book. In fact, it was used so often that the staff had to source a new one.

“If I recall correctly, the first entry for the new Visitors Book was for the House’s 50 Year celebrations in 2004,” says former General Manager of University House, Sean Moroney.

“Other inserts included the visit to the ANU by Prince Frederik and Princess Mary in March 2005, where a ceremony was held in the Great Hall and the book was signed by dignitaries in the Scarth Room.”

For each new event documented within the pages of the University House book, gold calligraphy titles were written by Oswald Paul Butz, a Canberra educator who turned to calligraphy after he retired. According to Moroney, Butz was the only Canberra calligrapher using gold ink.

Making herstory

While a handful of women had signed the ANU Visitors Book before its disappearance in 1984, it was only as spouses or relatives of male VIPs.

But in March 2024, former prime minister Julia Gillard became the first woman to sign the book in her own right. That same day, Dr June Oscar AO, an ANU Honorary Professor of Bunuba descent, also made history as the first Indigenous person to sign the book. The two women were at ANU to launch the Wiyi Yani U Thangani First Nations Gender Justice Institute – the first of its kind in Australia.

Since these historic signings, several female leaders have followed suit, including the Rt Hon Helen Clark, Minister Clare O’Neil, Pat Turner AM, and Emma McKeon AM.

At the Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue building renaming ceremony, the Hon Sam Mostyn AC, Governor-General of Australia, penned a heartfelt message within the book’s pages.

“A rare and special privilege to witness the historic naming of the Lowitja O’Donoghue Culture Centre here at my alma mater – the mighty Australian National University,” she wrote.

“There could be no more fitting Australian to be celebrated and remembered here.”

The ANU Visitors Book now has more than 140 signatures.

Every new name scrawled in its pages adds to the story of the University.

It does make you wonder – what other weird and wonderful ANU objects might be hiding forgotten in cupboards across campus?