Augustus Henry Tulk (1810 - 1873) was the first librarian of the State Library of Victoria, Australia. He also campaigned for the establishment of an art gallery in Victoria.
Tulk was born in Richmond, Surrey, England and emigrated from England to Australia for medical reasons in 1854 after receiving a solid classical education at the Winchester School.[1]
Tulk was chosen from a short-list of forty eight applicants, and began his new job on the 5 May 1856. His legacy includes the notable collection of some 80,000 volumes he collected and a relatively advanced system of classification according to books' subjects. Tulk turned down offers of appointment from other libraries in Sydney and abroad, staying with the library he had been with since the beginning. A highly noted linguist, Tulk continued his study, adding native Fijian and Aboriginal languages to his repertoire.[1]