My learned object: collections & curiosities by The University of Melbourne Museums & Collections publications

MY LEARNED OBJECT: COLLECTIONS & CURIOSITIES

COLLECTIONS & CURIOSITIES

The Ian Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne

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MY LeaRNeD ObJect

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Linda Marrinon (Australia, born 1959), Victorian woman with muff, 2006, tinted plaster, metal, 71 x 26.5 x 13 cm, the University of Melbourne Art Collection, purchased by the Ian Potter Museum of Art, 2006

Invoice for provision of Chinese medicine, c. 1920s, ink on paper, East Asian Rare Book Collection

Unknown photographer, Dr Fannie Gray examining a soldierâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s teeth, c. 1915, photograph, 57.3 x 47.2 cm, Henry Forman Atkinson Dental Museum

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MY LeaRNeD ObJect COLLECTIONS & CURIOSITIES

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Rammey Ramsey (Australia Gija, born c. 1935), Tranie Gorge, 2010, pigments and synthetic binder on board, 80.1 x 100.1 cm, the University of Melbourne Art Collection, purchased by the Ian Potter Museum of Art, 2011

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Owen Jones (Britain, 1809â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1874), The grammar of ornament, London: Day and son, 1856, Rare Books Special Collections

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FOREWoRD

Those of us privileged enough to work with collections both understand and are motivated by the extraordinary intellectual journeys that they can take us on; each object holding within it a multitude of possibilities for further research and different avenues of investigation, which can in turn influence the shape and future trajectory of the collection as a whole. At their best, collections demand (indeed, have a right to expect) much from those charged with their care—an individual must possess dedication to something larger than oneself, and a commitment to something that extends beyond the fashions of certain times and especially, personal biases, predilections and taste. At the heart of all astute collection development and care is a fundamental belief in the power of the object and a deep investment in the knowledge and experience that collections can provide future generations. The University of Melbourne’s Cultural Collections were largely established to fulfil specific teaching purposes for individual faculties. True to these origins, collection objects within the context of a twenty-first century university continue to take on an additional charge through their use; they assume an active, participatory role in research, learning and teaching. Rather than flattening out the complexity of objects and the histories and intentions contained within them, the university has a responsibility to ensure that these complexities are accessible and relevant to its students (our future leaders and decision makers), and, where possible in forums such as this, to share these objects with the widest possible audiences. As a result, object-based learning is becoming an increasingly important component of contemporary pedagogical practice; a discipline that the Potter’s Academic Programs curators have been actively involved in since the inception of the unit in 2010. By effectively ‘unlocking’ the collections, and acting as a guide, our Academic Programs curators provide an avenue for academics to explore, engage and inspire their students through object-based learning. This form of direct curriculum engagement uses artworks, artefacts and exhibitions in innovative teaching and research; and importantly, in our increasingly screen-based world, emphasises real world engagement: real art, not images; real encounters with other cultures, and real debates. Our Academic Programs also consciously allow the Potter to play an important role with regards to the Melbourne Curriculum and the University of Melbourne’s interdisciplinary degrees—by encouraging experimentation, intellectual excitement, a connection with social context, and an embrace of cultural diversity. The Potter is delighted that object-based learning will become a significant feature of the new teaching facilities of the Arts Faculty in its new Arts West building (opening in 2016), and that this will enable the extraordinary objects of the University’s Cultural Collections to be employed in this way. To this end, the exhibition My learned object: collections & curiosities and this accompanying publication both explores and draws upon the University of Melbourne’s thirty Cultural Collections—from Anatomy to Zoology; and from Archives, the Baillieu Library’s Special Collections and Print Collection to the Grainger Museum—presenting the delights, rarities and idiosyncrasies of the University’s diverse and largely unseen cultural holdings in a ‘Wunderkammer’-style display that encourages exploration and a sense of wonder. For both the University and the wider public, we hope this exhibition and publication conveys the value of these collections to the University community in terms of teaching, learning and research while highlighting the intellectual and cultural pursuits of academia and its broader contribution to our society.

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This handsome publication includes new writing by guest curator Dr David Sequeira and the various collection managers and faculty staff responsible for the University’s Cultural Collections. I thank them all for their contributions and the insights they contain and hope that this publication will inspire new interest in and research of their respective disciplines.

Unknown maker, Model of the brain, plaster, Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology

Congratulations and thanks are due to David Sequeira for his work on the exhibition and this publication as well as to all of the Potter’s staff, in particular the Collections Management team for their logistical expertise in coordinating the movement of literally hundreds of objects from around campus, and Curator Joanna Bosse, for equally helping to ensure the exhibition’s success. We also thank and acknowledge Adrian Collette, Vice-Principal (Engagement); Philip Kent, University Librarian and Executive Director Collections; Teresa Chitty, Director Research and Collections, University Library; and Jo-Anne Cooper, Manager, Cultural Collections, for their unwavering support of this ambitious project. Finally, we are indebted to Susie Shears, Cultural Collections Coordinator and our numerous colleagues from across the University’s Cultural Collections for their knowledge, enthusiasm and invaluable involvement (see full acknowledgements on p.137). This project would not have been possible without the assistance of the The Russell and Mab Grimwade Miegunyah Fund and we thank them warmly for their generous support.

Kelly Gellatly Director, Ian Potter Museum of Art

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My Learned Object: Collections & CuriositieS

The more I work in museums the more I am fascinated by the layering of values and meanings that takes place through the selection and display of objects.

Tasmanian Devil skull, Tiegs Zoology Museum

In 1970 my parents arrived in Australia with my brother and myself and $100. Apart from our clothes, we packed a small clock, a pair of scissors and some photo albums in our two suitcases. I can understand why we brought photo albums but I don’t really know why we brought a clock and scissors… to tell the time and to cut things I suppose, but surely there were clocks and scissors in Australia. So why that clock and those scissors? As an artist and curator these questions remain fertile ground for exploration. For me there is a sense of duality about these items. They are at once banal and profound. While they serve practical purposes that can be provided by any scissors and clock, they can also be understood as unique representations of my family’s history. They made the journey to Australia with us; they were part of our lives in India and they are part of our lives now. However, as symbolic as they are, there is no inherent value to our clock and scissors other than that imbued by myself and my family.

Dental excavator, c. 1840, gold, metal, gemstone, mother of pearl, 14.5 x 2.0 x 0.8 cm, courtesy of Odontological Society of Victoria, Henry Forman Atkinson Dental Museum

The content of the exhibition My learned object: collections & curiosities is drawn from the Cultural Collections of the University of Melbourne. Animal and plant specimens, scientific equipment, animal bones, musical instruments, taxidermy, furniture, medical apparatus, objects from antiquity, rare books, maps, decorative arts, paintings and sculptures have been collected since the University was established in 1853. Each collection is highly specialised, and as the exhibition’s guest curator, I have been on a steep learning curve. As an artist, much of my work has involved collecting books, vases, flower petals, leaves, orange domestic ware and plastic plates to make works of art about concepts surrounding language and information. Both as an artist in my studio and a curator in the museum my challenge is to maintain the aesthetic and conceptual ambitions of each object while generating new readings through their combination. Curating this exhibition has been about selecting and displaying aspects of the Cultural Collections such that new resonances can emerge. More specifically, the curatorship of this project has revolved around creating new layers of meaning that are only possible when objects from the various collections are combined. When invited to curate this exhibition the first question that arose was, ‘why is an art museum undertaking this type of project?’ Much of the Cultural Collections contain scientific and archival material. Surely these objects are more at home in a natural history or social history museum? Is it legitimate to consider and display the content of the University’s Cultural Collections within a museum dedicated to artistic practice, and what does this mean for the objects themselves? If I was confronted with these questions as an art curatorship student at the University in the early 1990s, I would have been paralysed by the debate around the changing nature, function and responsibilities of art museums. Now, many years later, and with more experience under my belt, I am much more interested in the expansive and exploratory opportunities these questions stimulate and energised by their possibilities.

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Oliver Byrne (Ireland, 1810–1880), The first six books of the elements of Euclid: in which coloured diagrams and symbols are used instead of letters for the greater ease of learners, London: William Pickering, 1847, Rare Books, Special Collections

Curating My learned object within the context of an art museum has provided an exciting freedom and flexibility that has allowed me to look at objects beyond the specificity of the collections in which they are normally understood and housed. Putting aside my own experience as an artist, and as an avid maker and consumer of art, I am not an expert in any of the disciplines represented in the exhibition. My interests lie in the artful processes of selection and display through which individual and collective understandings of objects are revealed by bringing them together. For me, the wonder and magic of collections lies in the concept that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

R Brendel and Co. (Germany, early 20th century), Papiermâché botanical model of Nasturtium flower (Tropaeolum majus), early 20th century, papier-mâché, the University of Melbourne Herbarium

Not all of the items included in the exhibition are highlights or treasures. Many of the objects have neither significant monetary value nor are they the ‘finest’ or best-preserved examples of their kind. Like my family’s clock and scissors, the importance of these items is derived more from what they represent rather than what they are. In addition to symbolising a lineage of learning, teaching and research, the Cultural Collections can be understood as embodying the values, ideals, morals and aspirations of the University. In part, My learned object: collections & curiosities is informed by the idea of ‘cabinets of curiosities’ (or Wunderkammer). From the sixteenth century, wealthy private collectors assembled collections of extraordinary objects in small rooms or cabinets as a way of capturing the wonders of creation. As the name suggests, the selection of objects is often borne from curiosity— about life and death, the known and the unknown, the natural and the man-made, the past and the future, the scientific and the superstitious. In addition to demonstrating social status and functioning as a form of entertainment, the cabinet of curiosity was also a device for creating, through the arrangement and juxtaposition of the objects within them, a sense of meaning and order. Cabinets were spaces of beauty, awe, repulsion and contemplation that revealed the collector’s personal understanding of their own place (and that of humanity) within the larger scheme of the cosmos. The title of the exhibition points to the value of objects in the processes of learning, teaching and research. While the University’s Cultural Collections are disparate, their origins are remarkably similar. The origin of many of the collections can be traced to a curious blend of strategic vision and unbridled passion demonstrated by singular academics deeply committed to object-based learning. Before collections were formally established, objects were often hoarded in offices until their value was more universally appreciated.

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Louis Auzoux (France, 1797–1880), Heart and aorta with removable parts, c. 1889, papier-mâché, 24 x 11 x 13 cm, Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology

The objects in the exhibition have been organised around four main themes: ‘people and personalities’, ‘same but different’, ‘chromatic progression’ and ‘mapping Melbourne’. Again, like the scissors and clock, the themes have no importance other than the significance that I (we) afford them. These are broad themes through which the idea of interconnectedness can be explored. For me these categories are natural or seemingly obvious considerations, however there are infinite ways of grouping the hundreds of objects that comprise the exhibition. ‘People and personalities' is a mixture of wax, plaster and papier mâché anatomy models combined with portraits collected by the University and a selection of items relating to some of the important personalities that have links to the University including Redmond Barry (1813–1880), Percy Grainger (1882–1961), Louise Hanson Dyer (1884–1962), Germaine Greer (1939– ) and Ned Kelly (1854–1880).1 In most cases material pertaining to the above individuals is housed across several of the Cultural Collections, and the combination of items drawn from different collections creates unique multi-dimensional interpretations of the complexities and intricacies of their accomplishments. The display of anatomical models amidst these highly personal items suggests that although self-expression may differ, underlying flesh and bone structure remains the same. ‘Same but different’ is a category that examines the idea of infinite variation within families of objects. Notions of change and repetition are integral to the processes of learning, teaching and research since scholarship is often concerned with the factors that cause change. The University’s Cultural Collections contain literally hundreds of timber samples, glass chemistry apparatus, models of rock structures, medical syringes, dentures and dental equipment, zoological specimens and classical pottery. Such taxonomies address the basic ways in which ideas and objects are recognised, differentiated and understood. ‘Chromatic progression’ highlights the use of colour as a way of classifying or organising large volumes of information at the University. Colour is incorporated into maps to highlight specific geological zones; anatomical cavities are cast in particular coloured resins and sections of domestic animal skull specimens are painted in specific colours to enable comparison and contrast. Although in these examples colour has a pragmatic use, its application has produced beautiful and poetic results that are aesthetically akin to art. Artists Josef Albers and Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack address colour from a different conceptual basis. Rather than using colour for classification purposes, they made works of art about the properties of colour itself.

1. Redmond Barry was the inaugural Chancellor of the University of Melbourne. Barry was the judge who presided over the trial of Edward (Ned) Kelly and subsequently sentenced him to death in 1880. Percy Grainger was a Melbourne born composer, pianist and arranger who established the Grainger Museum at the University in order to display his archive for scholars and the general public. Louise Hanson Dyer was an Australian music publisher and patron of the arts. Germaine Greer is an Australian writer and academic, famous for her book The Female Eunuch (1970). Edward (Ned) Kelly was a Victorian born bushranger who was outlawed for horse stealing, armed robbery and the fatal shooting of policemen. Kelly was sentenced to death by hanging by Redmond Barry in 1880.

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‘Mapping Melbourne’ focusses on the establishment of the University of Melbourne in the 1850s in direct correlation to the expansion of Melbourne during the Victorian gold rush. The function of the University can be linked with the requirements of a growing city. Maps, photographs, scientific equipment, musical instruments, public works of art, diaries and surveying equipment paint a picture of a maturing city rising to meet the new needs of its citizens. Largely developed as teaching collections assembled to give students first-hand experiences within particular disciplines, the Cultural Collections manifest the University’s commitment for over a century and a half to providing students with opportunities to interact with the real, the authentic, the actual—a powerful experience in any context (whether veterinary science, chemistry, forestry or the visual arts). Each of the items in My learned object contributes to the understanding of a particular discipline at a particular time. As the University’s teaching styles have progressed, the technologies associated with education have shifted and some of these items have become obsolete to the process of learning. Their relevance to teaching may have diminished over time, but through their appreciation as cultural material, these objects tell their own stories of time and place that extends their relevance into the now. The items in this exhibition contextualise the current philosophy of object-based learning, teaching and research within a lineage of collecting that stems from the 1850s. In this light, and particularly in our increasingly screen-based lives, My learned object is a timely and important celebration of, and investigation into, the ways in which collections and their display facilitate encounters with the real. Displayed together, the University’s Cultural Collections speak of a possible interconnectedness between everything and everyone.

Dr David Sequeira Guest curator, Ian Potter Museum of Art

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Girolamo Visconti (Italian, active mid-17th century), The Calzolari Museum, 1622, engraving, 23.8 x 25.5 cm, Baillieu Library Print Collection, gift of Dr J Orde Poynton 1959

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Percy Aldridge Grainger (Australia, 1882â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1961) and Ella Viola Grainger (Sweden, 1889â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1979), Towelling clothes outfit, c. 1934, machine and hand-sewn using manufactured bath mat and towels, Grainger Museum Collection

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UniVeRsitY OF MelbOURNe

CULt URaL COLLeCTiONS

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Keith Reid (Australia, 1906â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1999), A memorial library to Caxton, 1929, watercolour on paper, 77 x 92 cm, Architecture Building and Planning Library Rare Materials Collection

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ArchitectuRe Building And Planning LibRarY Rare MateriaLs COlleCtion

The Architecture Building and Planning Library Rare Materials Collection is an important collection that dates from the 1920s. Coinciding with the establishment of the School of Architecture, the collection has grown with the faculty as it has developed—particularly after 1946 when its inaugural Chair, Brain Lewis, was appointed. The first librarian was Eleanor Norris, a former faculty member and alumnus, and one of the first female architects in Melbourne in the 1930s, who held the post from 1951 to 1955. The collection includes nineteenth and twenieth century material including architectural texts, collections of material from major local architects and planners, scrapbooks, objects from the University's Architectural Atelier and theses dating from the 1960s to the present. Also of interest are the Architecture Revue Films. The collection comprises material from various sources including the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects Library, which was transferred to the University in 1969. Material from the Australian Planning Institute (Melbourne Committee) was donated in 1959, and significant personal collections have been donated to the University over a long period, particularly from the estates of deceased architects. Our collection includes items from the collections of Harold Desbrowe-Annear; AE Twentyman; AR and Walter R Butler; Bart Moriarty; Alec S Hall; Frank Heath; Robin Boyd; Bates, Smart, McCutcheon; and Alan R Murray.

Parkes postcard collection, Architecture Building and Planning Library Rare Materials Collection

The collection supports the research activities of the faculty and is used by the professional community, particularly in historical research. Some significant parts of the collection have been digitised and are available online; these include the glass slides, the University of Melbourne Architectural Atelier drawings, and Cross section magazine. Naomi Mullumby, Architecture Building and Planning Librarian; and Sarah Charing, Liaison Librarian Research Support

Parkes postcard collection, Architecture Building and Planning Library Rare Materials Collection

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John Martin (England, 1789â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1854), Creation of light, 1825, mezzotint, 19 x 27.9 cm, Baillieu Library Print Collection

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BailliEu LibRarY PriNT COLL ECtIoN

Brian Robinson (Australia, Torres Strait, born 1973), Up in the Heavens, 2015, linocut, 60 x 114 cm, Baillieu Library Print Collection

The birth of today’s Baillieu Library Print Room coincided with the construction of the University Library in the 1950s. Dr John Orde Poynton’s 1959 bequest of rare books for the new purpose built library included a series of old master prints that had been acquired by Dr Poynton and his father. The gift contained 3,700 prints representing almost all of the most important printmakers in Western art history, such as Albrecht Dürer, Jacques Callot, William Hogarth, Rembrandt and Heinrich Aldegrever. Dr Poynton remarked, ‘I hear a print room may be included in the next section of the library—an admirable idea—after which other gifts may help build up a comprehensive collection from which exhibits may be shown’.1 Over half a century later, this collection forms the nucleus of a group of over 8,000 works.

1. Letter from Orde Poynton to George Paton, 7 December 1959, Central Records, University of Melbourne, file no. 15-5-15. Cited in Jaynie Anderson, ‘Orde Poynton and the Baillieu Library,’ in Print matters at the Baillieu, ed. Kerrianne Stone and Stephanie Jaehrling, Cussonia Press, Parkville, 2011, p. 10.

The collection has broadened in this time and now holds prints from the fifteenth through to the twenty first century. The two most recent acquisitions illustrate this scope: an engraving by the early German master Martin Schongauer from c. 1490, and a 2015 linocut by Torres Strait Islander artist Brian Robinson. The fantastic breadth of the collection allows it to be presented in many different forms, each incarnation a reflection of the people who interact with it. In many cases this will be the student body, with prints frequently incorporated into the fine art curriculum, supplementing subjects and providing important research material for individual scholars. Unsurprisingly, the University of Melbourne produces some of the best early career print scholars. Along with being an important learning tool, the print collection is regularly seen on campus in exhibitions, both in conjunction with other Cultural Collections and in stand-alone exhibitions. Off campus, prints are regularly loaned to external exhibitions at state institutions.

Callum Reid, Acting Curator

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Martin Schongauer (German, c. 1450–1491), Christ blessing the Virgin, c. 1480–90, engraving, 15.6 x 16.1 cm, Baillieu Library Print Collection

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Hendrik Goltzius (Netherlands, 1558â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1617), The dragon devouring the companions of Cadmus, 1588, engraving, 25.1 x 21.7 cm, Baillieu Library Print Collection, gift of Dr J Orde Poynton

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The Amykos Painter (Greece, active 430-400 BCE ), Red figure krater with pursuit scene, 420 BCE, ceramic, 37.8 x 40 x 38.6 cm, the University of Melbourne Art Collection. Gift of David and Marion Adams, 2009

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Classics and Archaeology Collection

The Classics and Archaeology Collection is one of the oldest antiquities collections in Australia. The collection grew through the efforts of particular staff members, and its shape largely reflects their specific teaching and research interests. The life of the collection began in 1901 when the Egypt Exploration Society, presumably with the intention of spreading culture to the distant colonies, donated five papyri to the University of Melbourne. In the early 1920s, this donation was followed by further gifts of papyri and other Egyptian objects.

Roman, Coin Denarius: bust of Mercury wearing winged petasos, caduceus and control letter C, 82 BCE, silver, the University of Melbourne Art Collection, Classics and Archaeology Collection, purchased Münchener Num. Antiq. Frühling

Between the wars, the main inspiration for the development of the Classics and Archaeology Collection came from Jessie Webb (1880–1944) Senior Lecturer in the School of History and Cecil Scutt (1889–1961) Professor of Classical Philology. Jessie Webb gained regular grants from the University to buy ancient coins for teaching purposes, building up a collection of more than 100 Greek coins. Cecil Scutt was responsible for the acquisition of a classics collection in memory of John Hugh Sutton, a classics student killed in a motorcycle accident in 1925. In the 1930s–60s very few items were acquired. This changed in 1969 when Peter Conner began his twenty-five year tenure as curator. Forty-nine Greek vases in the collection stand as a monument to his systematic program of research, publication, exhibitions and collection development. The collection also includes 18 medieval manuscripts purchased by then Classics lecturer John Martyn, between 1960 and 1975, for the purpose of teaching palaeography to students of Latin and Greek. A separate collection of Middle Eastern antiquities emerged alongside its classics counterpart. Many items were purchased to meet specific research or teaching needs, such as palaeography professor John Bowman’s collection of over 100 Persian and Arabic manuscripts or the Middle Eastern Studies’ collection of ceramics from Kathleen Kenyon’s excavations at Jericho and Jerusalem. Other artefacts include pottery, coins and bronzes obtained as donations from private collections and assemblages from sites like Bab ed Dhra in Jordan. The creation of the Virtual Museum marks an important milestone in the history of the Classics and Archaeology Collection. This ambitious project has created online access to the university's valuable collections of antiquities. Over the decades the Classics and Archaeology Collection has been expanded by significant donations. This legacy of outstanding generosity has made the collection one of the most significant in Australia. Widely used in teaching as a tool for the development of object-based learning, the artefacts give a sense of reality and immediacy to what may otherwise seem a remote past disconnected from modern life.

Dr Andrew Jamieson, Senior Lecturer and Curator, Classics and Archaeology

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Unknown maker (Greece), Red figure bell krater with scene of female head, head of horned male on reverse, c. 350 BCE, ceramic, 22.6 x 23.2 x 23.4 cm, the University of Melbourne Art Collection. Gift of David and Marion Adams, 2009.

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CreSwicK CampUS HistORicaL CollECtioN

The Creswick Campus Historical Collection contains an estimated 12,000 objects, documents and photographs relating to the more than 100 years of forestry education at the University of Melbourneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Creswick Campus. It was started by the founders of the Victorian School of Forestry in the early 1900s, John Johnstone and Thomas Hart, as an integral part of the school curriculum and practice. Melbourne University established a forestry school at Creswick in 1943 and the two institutions worked well together, eventually amalgamating in 1980. Over the years items of significance to forestry education have been added by various sources. Creswick staff and alumni began the work of re-organizing and maintaining the collection about 2005.

1. Baron von Mueller was a German born physician, geographer and botanist who was appointed government botanist for the colony of Victoria by Governor Charles LaTrobe in 1853. He also founded the National Herbarium of Victoria and was the inaugural director of the Royal Botanical Gardens.

The collection recounts the personal and professional histories of those who have studied, worked and lived at the forestry school. Notable items include numerous examples of staff and student work, countless photographs, and several natural history collections including insect and seed collections. A substantial school herbarium contains specimens collected by former staff and students as well as esteemed scientists including Baron von Mueller (1825â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1896)1. Unique within Australia, the collection has strong links to the Creswick community and is continuing to grow as alumni make contact and donate items of significance.

Gerard Fahey, Liaison Librarian, Science and Engineering

Insect specimens, Creswick Campus Historical Collection

HT Wardle Wood Specimen Collection, Creswick Campus Historical Collection

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Unknown maker (Australia, Walamangu group, eastern Arnhem Land, early 20th century), A bark container used for collecting water, 1936, the Donald Thomson Collection, on loan to Museum Victoria from the University of Melbourne

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Donald Thomson Collection

The Donald Thomson Collection has been described as one of the most comprehensive and significant collections of Aboriginal cultural heritage material in the world. The collection was amassed by Professor Donald Thomson OBE (1901–1970), ‘a man of action and a distinguished scholar’, during his remarkable career as an anthropologist and biologist, spanning more than four decades.1 Bringing together material acquired from the Cape York Peninsula, Arnhem Land and the Great Sandy and Tanami deserts, the collection also includes a small amount of material originating in the Solomon Islands and West Papua.

1. Howard Morphy, 'Thomson, Donald Finlay Fergusson (1901–1970)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, <http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ thomson-donald-finlayfergusson-11851/text21213> 2. For the contents and history of the collection, see Lindy Allen, ‘Tons and tons of valuable material: The Donald Thomson Collection’, in Peterson, N; Allen, L; and Hamby, L (eds), The makers and making of Indigenous Australian museum collections, Melbourne University Press, 2008, pp. 387–418.

The richness and comprehensiveness of this unique collection can be conveyed by a simple description of its contents. It includes approximately 7,200 artefacts, accompanied by 5,300 pages of field notes and 11,000 pages of transcriptions; 10,580 photographic prints, negatives, glass plates and transparencies; 6,000 metres of colour film and various sound recordings; approximately 2,000 natural science specimens; 400 maps; and over 300 scientific illustrations. There are a quantity of language notes, genealogies, diaries and natural science notebooks; plus newspaper clippings, correspondence, reports and manuscripts relating to Thomson’s academic career and social justice work.2 Not surprisingly, the collection is particularly valued for ‘its careful interweaving of various sources of information and documentation and images’.3 For much of his working life, Thomson was associated with the University of Melbourne, working as a Research Fellow attached to the Department of Anatomy (1932–37 and 1945–53) and later as a Senior Research Fellow (1953–64), before his appointment as Professor of Anthropology in 1964.

3. National Library of Australia, ‘The Donald Thomson Collection’, Museum Metadata Exchange, <http://trove.nla. gov.au/work/182394629>

Following Professor Thomson’s death in 1970, the Donald Thomson Collection was officially established under a tripartite agreement between Mrs Dorita Thomson, the University of Melbourne and Museum Victoria. The ‘literary estate’, (comprising field notes, diaries, drawings, photographs, film and recordings), is owned by the Thomson family, while the artefacts became the property of the University of Melbourne, and both were transferred on long term loan to Museum Victoria in 1973.

Associate Professor Alison Inglis, School of Culture and Communication

Unknown maker (Australia, Pintubi group, Lake Mackay, mid-20th century), A wooden spearthrower with a stone embedded in one end and wooden peg at the other and decorated with a series of circles interconnected with lines, 1957, the Donald Thomson Collection, on loan to Museum Victoria from the University of Melbourne

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Unknown maker (Australia, eastern Arnhem Land, early 20th century), Naytjin or triangular skirt painted with broad bands of colour using natural pigments, 1936, the Donald Thomson Collection, on loan to Museum Victoria from the University of Melbourne

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Unknown maker (Australia, Kuukuya'u group, eastern Cape York), A necklace with a segment of shell tied to a single strand of vegetable fibre string, 1929, the Donald Thomson Collection, on loan to Museum Victoria from the University of Melbourne

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Agriculture students, c. 1930s, Dookie Campus Historical Collection

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Dookie Campus Historical Collection

The Dookie Campus Historical Collection is located at Victoria’s oldest agricultural college near Shepparton in north-east Victoria. The collection comprises documents, photographs and artefacts that relate to the history of the Dookie campus of the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, now a focal point for key research, training and technology development. The Dookie campus comprises 2,240 hectares and consists of a high technology robotic dairy, broad-acre farming crops and 5,000 merino sheep. The University of Melbourne’s association with the Dookie campus began in 1910 when Bachelor of Agricultural Science students spent a year at Dookie as part of their degree studies; similarly today’s students spend a semester at Dookie during their undergraduate degree program. The collection numbers 1,500 items and consists of photographs, registers, correspondence and diaries beginning in 1879 from the earliest days of the college, rare agricultural machinery and a range of sporting memorabilia and administrative materials relating to the experimental farm, Dookie Agricultural College. The Dookie Campus Historical Collection also encompasses research material including geological surveys, rock samples, maps, photographs and records of soil types and rainfall data, and weed and animal specimens. Daily life at Dookie is documented in the collection, reflecting its role within the regional community and its relationships with local industry, farmers and manufacturers. The impacts of WWI and WWII on agriculture, the changing role of women in agriculture and the development of agricultural education, agricultural industry, farming methods and land use in Australia since the first days of the experimental farm are highlighted within the collection. The Dookie Campus Historical Collection continues to grow through donations from Dookie alumni, past and present staff members, and the families of those connected to Dookie, by whom it continues to be highly regarded.

Susie Shears, Cultural Collections Co-ordinator

The Dookie Agricultural College football team, c. 1899, Dookie Campus Historical Collection

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繡像第六才子書 : 聖嘆先生評點 (Xiu xiang di liu cai zi shu), 西厢记 (Chinese drama), c. 1720, printed on traditional paper, 10 x 15 cm, East Asian Rare Book Collection

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EAst ASIaN RarE BOOK Collection

The East Asian Rare Book Collection comprises both Chinese and Japanese rare books. The Chinese collection has 7,000 volumes dating from the 1600s. The collection is strong in the areas of history, literature, archaeology, art and medicine. The collection materials include books, facsimiles, paintings on scrolls, calligraphy, tablet rubbings, as well as some rare magazines published in the early twentieth century. The collections also include generous donations from linguist Professor Emeritus Harry Simon, Foundation Professor of Oriental Studies and later Dean of Arts and Dr RF Price OAM, a scholar of comparative education, which add a greater dimension to the overall collection. The Japanese collection has a focus on history, art, architecture, language learning, teaching and popular culture. There is a comprehensive collection of kokuho shuri hokokusho (restoration reports of ‘national treasure’ temples and other buildings); items relating to the Kanto earthquake of 1 September 1923 (Kanto Daishinsai); pamphlets and booklets advising the populace on how to prepare for American air raids during the Second World War; and ephemera from Japan’s occupation of Manchuria in the 1930s.

Arts and Life Monthly magazine, 1934–37, East Asian Rare Book Collection

The East Asian Rare Books Collection was established after Professor Harry Simon was appointed by the University as the Foundation Professor of Oriental Studies (currently, The Asia Institute) in the early 1960s. Since then, the collection has expanded to its present form with a program of new acquisitions by the University Library. In recent years, the Library has purchased important manuscripts of the Chinese Revolution— personal diaries that have attracted research interest from overseas. With the ongoing rise of the importance of Asia to Australia, the collection will continue to grow to support our research community.

Chen Chen, Cultural Collections Officer

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Hiroshi Higuchi (China, 1905–1982) 中国版画集成 Historical sketch of Chinese woodblock prints, 1967, woodblock, 26 x 38 cm, East Asian Rare Book Collection

Japanese matchboxes, c. 1920–40, copper-plate printed card, East Asian Rare Book Collection

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FA Singleton Earth Sciences Collection

Frederick Alexander Singleton was a leading Australian palaeontologist and authority on Australian tertiary molluscs. He joined the staff of the University of Melbourne’s Department of Geology in 1920 and became Associate Professor in 1945. He continued the work of his predecessor Professor Sir Frederick McCoy (Founding Professor of the School of Natural Sciences) in researching the geology of the Australian continent.

Rock specimen containing gold, FA Singleton Earth Sciences Collection

The collection which bears his name relates to the history of teaching geology, palaeontology and earth sciences in Victoria. As well as objects and geological and scientific samples, it includes archival material such as maps, books, photographs and staff memorabilia. Selected items from the collection are displayed in the main foyer of the McCoy Building on Elgin Street, Carlton. The FA Singleton Earth Sciences Collection encompasses a broad range of material, including more than 12,000 geological thin sections, nearly 7,000 individual geological specimens from diverse regions of Australia dating from the 1930s, fossils, stone tools used by Indigenous people, late nineteenth/early twentieth century geological survey instruments including gold bullion scales dating from the Victorian gold rush of the early 1850s, gems, gold crystals and alluvial gold, botanical specimens, mineral samples, and paleontological plaster casts of fossil bones and teeth. One of the most important aspects of the collection is the marine fossil collection on which FA Singleton based his groundbreaking and influential research on Australian tertiary molluscs. This collection contains meticulously labelled fossils, which suggests the extraordinary breadth and detail of Singleton’s research, and is an excellent example of the rigorous scientific methodology of the early twentieth century. The significance of this collection is supported by Singleton’s prominence within the School of Earth Sciences and the broader Australian and international scientific community.

Susie Shears, Cultural Collections Co-ordinator Crystal form models, mid-20th century, timber, various dimensions, FA Singleton Earth Sciences Collection Shell specimens, FA Singleton Earth Sciences Collection

Specimen drawer, precious and semi-precious gemstones, FA Singleton Earth Sciences Collection

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Plait of Rose Graingerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hair, c. 1928, hair, cardboard, ink, graphite, 40 x 5.5 x 1.5 cm, Grainger Museum Collection

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Grainger Museum

‘Destroy nothing, forget nothing, remember all, say all,’ stated Percy Grainger (1882–1961), the Australian-born concert pianist, composer, social commentator, flagellator, clothes designer and ‘autoarchivist’. This simple tenet guided the collecting philosophy of an omnivorous mind that in turn built a complex multi-disciplinary collection. Grainger’s creative output as a composer and arranger is the core of his collection. He wanted future generations to comprehend his experiences of the creative process. Advanced in his thinking, Grainger had an innate understanding of the concept that art did not occur in a cultural vacuum. So in the early 1930s he set about selecting objects and documents that he believed described aspects of his world, and that of his intimates and fellow artists. He believed that family and fellow creative thinkers were influential in shaping an artist’s concepts. Grainger was an inveterate letter writer and communicated with cultural luminaries across the globe. Later in life he kept copies of all outgoing letters and encouraged his correspondents from the past to return copies of his letters. In so doing he was able to plot actual dialogues—often intense intellectual discourses. The Grainger Museum archive holds approximately 50,000 letters, a resource of immense value to current and future researchers. Grainger collected items of his friend’s clothes and preserved his mother’s entire wardrobe. He wanted future generations to see what furniture he sat on, the artworks he stared at when entering a room and the decorative items collected over a lifetime. The Grainger Museum contains significant fine arts and decorative arts collections. Grainger’s business archive and his vast collection of ephemera live up to his utterance of ‘destroy nothing’. For example, researchers can spend many hours reading through his tax returns, and then if motivated, move on to his concert programs that document the main source of his income, as well as a punishing life of performance. The Grainger Museum collection is continuously evolving through judicious acquisitions and access is streamlined by a detailed online catalogue <http://grainger.unimelb.edu.au/>.

Brian Allison, Exhibitions Coordinator

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Percy Aldridge Grainger (Australia, 1882â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1961), Illustration of oscillator-playing tone tool, 1951, watercolour, ink, and graphite on paper, Grainger Museum Collection

Percy Aldridge Grainger (Australia, 1882â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1961), Decorative beadwork chest piece made by Percy Grainger on tour in Australia and at home in England, 1909, beads, cotton, collar 6 cm wide, tassels 34 cm, Grainger Museum Collection

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Maison Tramond (France, est. mid-19th century), Wax model (life-size) of a newborn with viscera exposed, 1800s, Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology

Franz Josef Steger, sculptor (Germany, 1845â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1938); Wilhelm His, anatomist (Switzerland, 1831â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1904), Series of 4 models showing thoracic and abdominal dissection, c. 1900, plaster, 86 x 27.3 x 21.7cm, Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology

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Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology

From dissected body parts to death masks, wax moulages to anatomical models, this diverse teaching collection represents a fascinating exploration of the human body. The Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology is Australia’s largest collection of human tissue specimens, providing valuable educational resources and a dynamic study space to students in the medical and related disciplines. The museum is named after renowned pathologist Sir Harry Brookes Allen (1854–1926) who was instrumental in establishing the collection. When appointed Professor of Descriptive and Surgical Anatomy and Pathology in 1882, Allen wrote to the ViceChancellor and University Council stating: 'One of the final objects which I set before myself is the creation of a large and efficient Museum of Anatomy and Pathology in the Medical School, a small but valuable nucleus being already in place’. Allen succeeded in this quest and his legacy continues today, with the museum collection now including objects of both cultural and educational significance. Highlights include Egyptian mummified remains, collections of rare French anatomical models constructed from wax and papier-mâché, the death masks of notorious Australian bushrangers Ned Kelly (1855–1880) and Dan Morgan (1830–1865), and examples of the rare pathologies sirenomelia (mermaid syndrome) and fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva. Also included are the former pathology collections of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and the Royal Melbourne and Austin Hospitals, along with original WWI specimens and the extensive comparative anatomy collection of Professor of Anatomy Frederic Wood Jones (1879–1954).

Franz Josef Steger (Germany, 1845–1938), c. 1900, Bust showing dissected right side of face, neck and thorax. Superficial dissection of brachial plexus, carotid artery and some muscles of facial expression, gypsum, paint, 36 x 25 x 20 cm, Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology

This unique museum continues to evolve via interdisciplinary engagement programs, development of innovative educational resources, such as virtualreality models for student learning, and new scientific discoveries through collaborative research.

Dr Ryan Jefferies, Curator

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Crimean teeth c. 1850s, human teeth and wire, 3 x 4 cm, Henry Forman Atkinson Dental Museum

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Henry Forman Atkinson Dental Museum

The Henry Forman Atkinson Dental Museum is the most significant and oldest dental collection in Australia, tracing its origins back to the Odontological Society of Victoria established in 1884. The museum collects, conserves, manages, exhibits and promotes the history and material culture relating to the development of dentistry and dental education in Victoria, while reflecting more broadly the history and development of dentistry in Australia.

Unknown designer (Rochester, United States), Taftâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Dental Rooms card, c. 1910, printed paper, 10.1 x 7 cm, Henry Forman Atkinson Dental Museum

Objects in the collection date from the early 1700s and provide key insights into the material culture, pedagogy, professional context, changes and developments in the dental profession and its striving to improve the standard of dental education, dental health and dental care within Victoria. This intriguing collection contains examples of surgical and laboratory instruments and equipment, hand-operated and hydraulic dental chairs, free-standing dental units, x-ray units from the early 1920s, flattening rolls, vulcanisers, flasks and hot presses. Other material includes a comprehensive series of dental catalogues dating from the 1850s, a fascinating range of dentures made from bone, ivory, porcelain and vulcanite, some which have springs and include human teeth. There are photographs of staff and students as well as the buildings and events from the history of the dental school. Exhibitions are drawn from the collection to meet the curriculum needs of dental students. Other audiences include University staff and students, visitors to the Royal Dental Hospital of Melbourne, and the general public with an interest in the history of dentistry and the social history of health care in Victoria. The museum is named after Professor Atkinson who held various positions at the University from 1953 and was Dean of the Faculty of Dental Science from 1968 to 1978. He has worked as an honorary curator with the museum for over 30 years. The museum is an intrinsic part of Melbourne Dental School in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences.

Dr Jacqueline Healy, Curator

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Unknown photographer, Dental students, 1906, photograph, 21 x 30 cm, Henry Forman Atkinson Dental Museum

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Rudall Rose Carte & Co., (United Kingdom, 1852â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1871), Cor anglais (modified Brod system), c. 1908, Faculty of the VCA & MCM, the Melba Gift collection

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Instruments Collection: Rare and HiSTORIC EXAMPLES

The thirty-six instruments within this collection are some of the earliest surviving examples of the development of a musical cultural identity in Melbourne in the early twentieth century. A significant element of the collection are instruments that were made by acclaimed instrument makers, such as Fred Morgan (1940–1999) and Charles Darley Hume (1865–1949), and renowned companies including Boosey and Co Ltd. Also included is a group of wind instruments for children comprising recorders and flageolets—part of the 1930s movement to enable disadvantaged children to have access to making and appreciating music supported by patrons such as Louise Hansen-Dyer.1 Held by the Faculty of VCA & MCM, the collection includes a number of the wind instruments which are associated with the adoption of a standardised or ‘normal’ pitch for music in Victoria and across Australia. These were purchased by Dame Nellie Melba (1861–1931) for the use of orchestras as well as conservatorium students, and are now known as the Melba Gift. Dame Nellie was a benefactor and champion of the campaign for Melbourne’s orchestras, schools and other performers of music to adopt the ‘normal’ pitch of 440 hertz as part of the international move towards standardisation (her interest in the campaign keenly driven by her own preference to sing at this pitch). The driving force behind the campaign for a standardised pitch was the University of Melbourne’s second Ormond Chair of Music, Professor Franklin Peterson (1861–1914), and thus the University and the conservatorium were positioned in the epicentre of this move towards standardisation of pitch in Australian music history.

1. Louise Hansen-Dyer (1884–1962) was a music publisher and generous patron of the arts who was involved in the establishment of the British Music Society of Victoria in 1921. After moving to Paris in 1928 with her husband James Dyer, Hansen-Dyer founded Éditions de l’Oiseau-Lyre in 1938, which specialised in printing historic musical editions and the recording of live performances. In 2006, the University founded the Lyrebird Press to continue the work of Éditions de I’Oiseau-Lyre.

The Instruments Collection: Rare and Historic Examples also includes two gamelan sets: a Central Javanese gamelan with a complete set of shadow puppets, and a bronze Sundanese gamelan, said to be the finest sounding of all the gamelan in Australia.

Susie Shears, Cultural Collections Co-ordinator

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EJ Albert (Belgium, 1816â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1890), Clarinet (Albert system), c. 1890, Faculty of the VCA & MCM, the Melba Gift collection

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Rudall Rose Carte & Co., (United Kingdom, 1852â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1871), French horn, c. 1908, Faculty of the VCA & MCM, the Melba Gift collection

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Law Rare Book Collection

The Law Rare Book Collection is an important public collection of rare and early legal texts. The collection is of research significance not only to lawyers, but also to researchers of legal, social and cultural history. It has particularly strong holdings of early printed law texts, law reports, seventeenth-century political pamphlets, classic legal texts and material relating to Australian Federation and the early years of the Commonwealth. Its nineteenth-century holdings are a good representative example of a colonial lawyer’s library and is significant for what it can tell us about the practice of law in early Victoria.

True lover of God and King Charles (Britain), Truth and peace honestly pleaded, and rightly sought for, or, A loyall subjects advice: usefull to confirm convince calme condemne honest ignorant passionate malicious men, London, 1642, Law Rare Book Collection

A particularly significant highlight is the material relating to Australian Federation and the early years of the Commonwealth, as are the political pamphlets dating from the English Civil War. Other notable holdings include the first printed edition of Henry de Bracton’s De legibus & consuetudinibus Angliae libri quinque (the first systematic textbook of English law) and several early editions of William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England (1768, 1771, 1773 and 1775). The collection also includes texts that tell the story of Ikey Solomons, the real-life model for Fagin in Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist, and the trials of Charles I, Andrew Johnson and the Tichborne Claimant. The collection’s links to the beginnings of the University of Melbourne—via the collections of individuals such as William Edward Hearn (1826–1888), the first Dean of Law, and Sir Redmond Barry (1813–1880), founder and the first Chancellor of the University—make it of particular significance to Melbourne Law School and the University community more broadly.

Carole Hinchcliff, Law School Librarian

Parliament of Great Britain, Ephemeris Parliamentaria; or a faithful register of the transactions in Parliament in the third and fourth years of the reign of our late Sovereign Lord King Charles, containing the severall speeches, cases and arguments of law transacted between His Majesty and both Houses, together with the grand mysteries of the Kingdom then in agitation, London: John Williams and Francis Eglesfield, 1654.

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Select trials at the Sessions-House in the Old-Bailey, for murder, robberies, rapes, sodomy, coining, frauds, bigamy, and other offences: to which are added, genuine accounts of the lives... and dying speeches of the most eminent convicts, London: J Applebee, for James Hodges, 1742.

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Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr (Germany, 1677–1750) & Johann Baptist Homann (Germany, 1664–1724), Hemisphaerium coeli australe in quo fixarum loca secundum eclipticae ductum ad anum (Hemispherical celestial map showing zodiacal southern constellation), 1730, plate 19 from ‘Atlas coelestis’, Nurnberg: Sumptibus Heredum Homannianorum, 1742, 54 x 61.9 cm, Maps Collection: Rare and Historical Maps

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Maps Collection: Rare and Historical Maps

HEC Robinson Ltd (Australia, active 1948–1971), Map of centenary air, MacRobertson international air races, London to Melbourne, also graph showing nominator, section, number & name of plane, name of pilots & landing places, 1934, printed paper, 39 x 71 cm, Maps Collection: Rare and Historical Maps

The Maps Collection was assembled in 1965 to centralise resources from departmental collections and meet the growing demands of the University. Mrs Dorothy Prescott OAM was appointed as the inaugural Curator to bring order to what was then chaos. Fifty years later, the collection contains more than 120,000 sheet maps covering the world, plus many shelves of atlases and books. A significant part of the collection is the rare maps material, which comprises ancient worlds of knowledge from hundreds and thousands of years ago. Attached to no single department or faculty, the collection is used for a range of purposes. These vary from helping to locate a missing piece of archaeology in South Africa, to finding likely lava flows out of volcanos in Japan, to locating digital spatial road, aerial photography, and tree data for urban design architecture. We have also tracked sea currents and shipping routes around the globe for staff in the Department of Economics, retrieved an annotated original soldier’s trench map of Gallipoli in 1915 to assist in family research, and a fascinating London to Melbourne air race map from 1935 brings the past to life. Located in the Eastern Resource Centre Physical Sciences Library, we also run classes for students, research consultations for postgrad students and staff, and hold the occasional exhibition for the University community.

David B Jones, Maps Officer Claudius Ptolemy (Egypt, Roman Empire, c. 100–c. 170), Tertia Africae tabula (Northern Africa inc. Egypt), c. 2nd century, woodcut, Maps Collection: Rare and Historical Maps

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Alfred G Fryett (Australia, 1862â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1931), Stereo-skiagram: Coronary arteries of heart, left view, c. 1900, photograph, cardboard, pencil and ink, 21.7 x 16.5 cm, Medical History Museum, gift of Mr Alfred G Fryett, 1905

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Medical History Museum

The Medical History Museum has the oldest and finest collection of its type associated with a medical school in Australia. It was established in 1967 by Kenneth Russell (1911â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1987), a former Professor of Anatomy with support from the Wellcome Trust, London. The purpose of the Medical History Museum is to encourage appreciation and understanding of the history of medicine and its role in society through direct engagement with the collections.

Italian, Sprouted jar for elderflower water, c. late 16thâ&#x20AC;&#x201C; early 17th century, earthenware, 24 x 17.5 x 22.8 cm, Medical History Museum, gift of the Estate of Graham Roseby, 2009

Since its inception, the Medical History Museum has developed a diverse and varied collection of over 6,000 items encompassing documents, photographs, artefacts, pharmacy jars, artworks, ceremonial objects, medical and scientific equipment as well as associated research material. The core of the collection began with material related to the history of the Melbourne Medical School but has expanded to encompass the history of medicine in Victoria and Australia, as well as internationally. Since the initial grant from the Wellcome Trust and the gift of The Savory and Moore Pharmacy in 1971, the collection has continued to grow due to the generosity of benefactors associated with the Melbourne Medical School. Major gifts to the collection have come from the Australian Medical Association, the Pharmaceutical Society of Victoria, medical alumni, their families and many others. Items range from Roman surgical instruments to student photographs, the earliest dated 1864, showing students in the anatomy dissecting room. Of national heritage significance is a petition from medical practitioners in the District of Port Phillip to the Governor of New South Wales in 1841 requesting a Medical Board of Victoria. Exhibitions have focussed on historical and contemporary issues examining the role of medicine in society. The museum is a valued part of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences participating in the curriculum for various courses across faculties at the University of Melbourne and other institutions. It provides opportunities for secondary and tertiary students, alumni, community groups and the general public to engage in the history of medicine.

Dr Jacqueline Healy, Curator

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Felton, Grimwade & Co., (Australia, 1867â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1930), Chloride of lime antidote for snakebite, c. 1895â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1900, glass, metal, leather, wood, paper, and cloth, loan from Australian Medical Association Victoria, 1994, donated 2011, Medical History Museum

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England, Specie jar, c. 1880, glass, gold leaf, transfer and paint, 66 x 24 cm, loan from the College of Pharmacy, 1964, donated 1986, Medical History Museum

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Bartolomeo Scappi (Italy, c. 1500â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1577), Opera dell'arte del cucinare, Venetia: Presso Alessandro Vecchi, 1610, Rare Books, Special Collections

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Rare Books, Special Collections

Rare Books holds a significant collection of books, journals and ephemera. Strengths of the collection include printing history, Greek and Roman classics, private presses, English literature, social and political thought, children’s books, Australiana and book arts. These items are housed in special conditions for reason of age, value or uniqueness and in order to ensure their care and preservation for current and future generations of scholars and researchers. The AX Collection, an extensive collection that forms the hub of the Australiana collections in Rare Books, originated from books that were formerly on the library’s open shelves. Other significant collections of Australiana are the McLaren, Meanjin, Grimwade, Nicholson and Willis collections originating from the private libraries of these donors. Rare Books also holds works that have emanated from the University of Melbourne, the Masters and PhD Thesis Collection and the Melbourne University Press Collection. The BX Collection of non-Australian books and journals originated from international books which were formerly on the library's open shelves. Other collections are based on the private libraries of individuals Dr Orde Poynton (1906–2001), Dr Pierre Gorman (1924–2006), George McArthur (1842–1903) and Frederick Morgan (1878–1978). Rare Books holds around 350 artists’ books, the majority of which are Australian-made with many created by Melbourne artists. The collection aims to demonstrate the history and development of artists’ books both within Australia and internationally. Large art reference donations are the Dr Gerard Vaughan and Rose Flanders, Ray Wilson OAM and Ian Brown Collections. Some significant works in the Rare Books collection are: a leaf of the Gutenberg Bible (c. 1454–55); Vulgate Bible [Biblia Latina] printed by Peter Schoeffer in Mainz (1472); Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, an early printed book published in 1499 in Venice by the venerated printer Aldus Manutius; Mr William Shakespeare’s Comedies, histories and tragedies (second folio, 1632); James Cook, A voyage to the Pacific Ocean (1784); a collection of folio works by Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1761–1807); John Gould, The birds of Australia (1848) and The Mammals of Australia (1863); Owen Jones, Grammar of Ornament (1856); Tristan Tzara and Joan Miró, Parler seul: poème (1950); and El Lissitzky, Dlia Golosa (1923).

Susan Millard, Special Collections Librarian

Robert Jacks (Australia, 1943–2014), A family of forms: a book of original serigraphs, Melbourne, Townsville: Lyre Bird Press & Zimmer Editions, 1999, Rare Books, Special Collections

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Owen Jones (Britain, 1809â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1874), The grammar of ornament, London: Day and son, 1856. Rare Books, Special Collections

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Ennemond Gaultier (France, 1575–1651), Album für die Laute, c. 1700, Rare Music, Special Collections

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Rare Music, Special CollectionS

Catholic Church (possibly Northern France), Fragment from a sanctorale, 13th or early 14th century, coloured ink on vellum, Rare Music, Special Collections

The Rare Music collections contain a wealth of notated music, in print and manuscript, with the earliest example dating from the late thirteenth century. The collection also contains books about music, personal and business archives and other music-related materials such as photographs and concert programs. These items, previously part of the Louise Hanson-Dyer Music Library, are now managed and made accessible in the Baillieu Library as part of Special Collections. They continue to grow, but after a period of rapid expansion, the current policy is one of careful evaluation of potential donations and strategic acquisitions that play to our existing strengths. The name Louise Hanson-Dyer is seldom absent from a discussion of the riches of these collections. In 2006, an extraordinary collection of early imprints and music manuscripts from the fifteenth to the early nineteenth centuries, originally purchased by Hanson-Dyer around 1930, came to the University. As her interests were primarily in French opera, British music, the Italian Renaissance and early music theory, these remain priorities for our European acquisitions. Students find the early volumes most compelling—music notation on parchment exquisitely handwritten by scribes in different coloured inks; music printed using movable type, with woodblock illustrations; volumes bound with vellum and lined with silk. Our dedication to preserving Australia’s music—popular as well as high-art—is also reflected in our collections. One unusual donation in 2015 comprised a collection of player-piano rolls, recorded and manufactured by two major Australian firms who employed their own ‘pianola pianists’. Our current cataloguing priority is the archive of Éditions de l’Oiseau-lyre, the music press Hanson-Dyer founded in 1932 and ran with inexhaustible energy in Paris and then Monaco until her death in 1962. This is our largest single collection to date. Pioneering and scholarly editions of early music, stylishly bound, were the speciality of the press. Hanson-Dyer also published the music of contemporary composers, including those who were part of her glittering social circle in France, such as Darius Milhaud. Once listed and catalogued, the archive’s holdings—both business and personal—will further strengthen the Rare Music collection and are anticipated to generate interest from scholars, students and exhibition curators alike.

Dr Jennifer Hill, Curator, Music

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Guidonian hand from Giuseppe Frezza dalle Grotte (Italy, active late 17th century), Il cantore ecclesiastico, Padua, 1713, Rare Music, Special Collections

Florian Pascal (Britain, 1847â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1923), Arthur Grenvilleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s New velocipede galop, London, c. 1890, Rare Music, Special Collections

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Crystalline specimens, date unknown, box of 26 glass specimens, 42 x 36.5 x 7 cm, School of Chemistry Collection

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School of Chemistry Collection

As a dedicated collection of chemistry items, the School of Chemistry Collection is unique in Australia. Comprising more than 600 items, with the majority dating from the 1850s to the 1960s, the collection documents the first century of chemistry teaching and research at the University of Melbourne. Included in its holdings are bottles of chemicals, balances, glassware, burners, apparatus for the measurement and investigation of gases, paper-based materials, photographic film, slides, catalogues and lecture notes. Many of the items are of historical significance due to their association with key figures in the history of Australian science, such as Sir Frederick McCoy (1817–1899), Ernst Johannes Hartung (1893–1979), David Orme Masson (1858–1937), and Dr John MacAdam (1827–1865), and key historical events such as Antarctic expeditions, World War II research, and local efforts in Melbourne to improve the health and living standards of its citizens. While researching her 1978 book, The Chemistry Department of the University of Melbourne: its contribution to Australian science, 1854–1959, Dr Joan Radford, a member of the School of Chemistry from 1956 to 1980, recognised the cultural value of much of the unused equipment in the chemistry store. She consequently described and documented the objects, their uses and associations, effectively establishing the collection with her assessment. In 1980, Joan organised for the collection to be placed on long-term loan with the Science Museum of Victoria, now part of Museum Victoria. After 27 in the care of Museum Victoria, the collection was returned to the university in 2007. A small selection of items can be viewed at any time on the ground floor of the School of Chemistry building, as part of a series of rotating exhibitions designed to educate a broad audience, including current students. The collection has recently been used for teaching and artist-in-residence programs. The collection can be accessed through the virtual museum <http://www.museum.chemistry.unimelb.edu.au>

Dr Renee Beale, Curator

Unknown maker, Crystal axis models, 19th century, wire on wooden base, 27 x 6 x 12 cm, School of Chemistry Collection

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Edward Hope Kirkby, Inventor (Australia, 1853–1915), Dove’s siren, 20th century, metal, 15.5 x 7.5 x 7 cm, School of Physics Museum

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School of Physics Museum

The collection of the School of Physics Museum at the University comprises some 350 items of historical and scientific interest, concentrating on scientific apparatus constructed by former professors and staff for research purposes. It includes equipment and photographs spanning the history of the School of Physics, which was established as the School of Natural Philosophy in the 1880s. There are significant holdings of ruling engines and diffraction gratings developed by Professor Henry Grayson (1856–1918) and Professor TR Lyle (1860–1944), Head of the school from 1899 to 1915, as well as apparatus emerging from optical munitions research directed by Professor Thomas Laby (1880–1946) during the WWII. Many of the displays have been photographed as virtual reality objects, which allows the user to view the object interactively as a three dimensional computer image. The School of Physics Museum owes its creation to the dedication and forethought of Associate Professor Ed Muirhead, Chairman of the School of Physics from 1980 to 1986, who initiated the current displays in the 1980s. The collection was catalogued with the aid of museum Curator Ms Anna Fairclough and the museum displays established with a grant from the Ian Potter Foundation. In 2008, the Friends of the Physics Museum was initiated by colleagues and past students of Ed Muirhead in recognition of his contribution.

Phil Lyons, Curator

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TC Robinson (English), Magnetic dip circle, c. 1830, brass, glass and steel, 29 x 12 cm, School of Physics Museum

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A Newton Electrical Engineers Melbourne, Current meter, 20th century, School of Physics Museum

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Surveying and Geomatic Engineering

During the entire period of European occupation of Victoria, including the settlement of land and the development of infrastructure, there has been continuing evolution in the nature and precision of measuring instruments. The Surveying and Geomatic Engineering Collection illustrates the development of measuring instruments available to the surveyor over this time. Degrees in engineering were first awarded at the University of Melbourne in 1884. Surveying remained a substantial part of the bachelor course and in the first half of the twentieth century, the development of practical surveying skills through fieldwork was increasingly emphasised. In 1949 the Department of Surveying was formed and in 1953 the first students graduated with a degree in surveying. Once established, the department set about purchasing classic surveying instruments used in measurement science, such as the Tellurometer—the first successful electronic distance measuring instrument—in 1957, positioning itself as a centre for surveying expertise. The collection is today considered to be the most comprehensive in Victoria. The Surveying and Geomatic Engineering Collection includes examples of each of the types of instrument used for astronomical, angular and distance measurement, together with instruments for the computation, plotting and presentation of the survey data. The collection of theodolites is the most comprehensive and includes the standard brass Troughton and Simms theodolite of the late 1800s and early 1900s, as well as an example of a mining version of this theodolite with an auxiliary telescope. The collection comprises examples of both mechanical and optical micrometer theodolites. Specialised theodolites include an auto reduction tachometer, a large, relatively modern, high precision astronomical instrument and a gyroscope attachment for finding true north in a remote or underground location.

Pauline Woolcock, Department Administrator, Department of Infrastructure Engineering

Troughton and Simms (England, 1860–1915), Theodolite, c. 1880, brass, Surveying and Geomatic Engineering Surveyor’s or Gunter’s chain, steel, 100 links 7.92 cm, approx. 20 metres, Surveying and Geomatic Engineering

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Emu skeleton (Dromaius novaehollandiae), and South Island giant moa skeleton (Dinoris robustus), Tiegs Zoology Museum

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Tiegs Zoology Museum

Dugong foetus (Dugong dugon), Tiegs Zoology Museum

The Tiegs Zoology Museum is comprised of many varieties of zoological specimens: whole animals preserved in fluid-filled jars, mounted skeletons, taxidermied specimens, fossils and models. The collection was started in the late 1880s by Sir Baldwin Spencer (1860–1929), the University’s first Chair of Biology, with the intention of creating a teaching resource. At this time, the collections of the National Museum of Victoria were right next door to the department, but the specimens were considered too valuable to be subjected to handling by students. Specimens continue to be added to the collection, although the rate of accumulation has slowed considerably over the last few decades. The most recently acquired specimen is a pair of parasitic crustaceans found in the mouth of a fish that was being dissected during an undergraduate physiology subject in 2014. The collection has incredible value as a legacy of the museum tradition of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As a corollary to this, the collection is notable for a number of specimens of historically extinct species—such as its centrepiece, an articulated mounted skeleton of a South Island Giant Moa (Dinornis robustus) and several skulls of the Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus). Some specimens are exquisite examples of pre-modern preservation techniques—the majority of the collection comprises spirit-preserved specimens housed in handmade glass jars. There are also some hard to categorise items, such as small plaster replicas of the first-ever dinosaur models created in the mid-nineteenth century and a gynandromorph insect specimen (an animal which displays male characteristics on one side of its body and female on the other). The Tiegs Zoology Museum collection remains an integral part of teaching zoology at the University and is used throughout the year in subjects such as Australian Wildlife Biology and Animal Structure and Function. There are many aspects of zoology that cannot be truly conveyed without a specimen on hand and in this respect the Tiegs is an invaluable resource to our students.

Rohan Long, Technical Officer, Zoology

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Indian porcupine (Hystrix indica), Tiegs Zoology Museum

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Tri-spine horseshoe crab (Tachypleus tridentaus), Tiegs Zoology Museum

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Tommy McRae (Australia, Kwatkwat, c. 1835â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1901), Corroboree, c. 1890, ink on paper, University of Melbourne Archives, Foord Family Collection

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University of Melbourne Archives

Indenture between Richard Meyler and Anthony Stubbs, 19 January 1666, Perpetual Calendar for the years 1699–1726, University of Melbourne Archives, Bright Family Collection

‘It’s in the archive’ is a phrase that has become popular in the media. Archivists have two responses when they hear these words: the first is sceptical and slightly anxious (perhaps the document is not in the archive or, if it is, where exactly is it?!) and the second is a sense of boundless curiosity, or as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry put it, a ‘long[ing] for the endless immensity of the sea.’1

1. ‘If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.’ Antoine de Saint Exupéry (1900–1944)

An archive is an ark, a receptacle of samples, the papery remains of the past. The archivist cares for documents in waiting. The records are waiting for their time, their turn, or for the researcher who can place the record in an unforseen way and enmesh its connectedness with others. No collection is innocent or neutral, and new understandings or connections can make even a familiar collection strange. We all think we know the story of Ned Kelly. However three unique records drawn from the University of Melbourne Archives (a collection with a 20km footprint) form a nuanced dialogue of our recent history that tells new perspectives: the official court proceedings of ‘The Queen versus Edward Kelly’ combines with the recollections of a frontier colonial policeman Francis Hare (1830–1882) and those of Wurundjeri man William Barak (1824–1903) who was helping track the Kelly Gang. These three records create a shifting dialogue on memory, mythologies and the nature of history itself. Collecting institutions offer a unique opportunity to engage with our past and with our perceptions of the past. The archive is an organic, breathing past, metamorphic matter that is abraded by use, and is changed by the intellectual work of researchers.

Bates, Smart and McCutcheon, The Melbourne International Exhibition building, part south elevation, 1879, University of Melbourne Archives, Bates, Smart & McCutcheon archives

Denise Driver, Archivist – Collection Management

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Ralph Balson (Australia, 1890â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1964), Untitled, 1954, oil on board, 76.2 x 101 cm, the University of Melbourne Art Collection, gift of Sir Roy and Lady Grounds 1955

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University of Melbourne Art Collection

Extraordinary in its breadth and strikingly idiosyncratic in its depth, the art collection comprises approximately 16,000 works of art and artefacts that have been donated and purchased by individuals associated with the University throughout its 150-year plus history. In terms of sheer volume, it is the second largest art collection in the state; however unlike many art collections of its scale, the collection is not encyclopaedic. Instead it is uniquely tied to the University’s endeavours via personal and practical connections, whether through a bequest, portrait commission, artist-in-residence program, teaching activities or field research. In recent years the development of the collection has extended beyond this foundation to reflect the broader community and the role of the University as a place of learning central to the cultural life of Melbourne. The scope of the art collection ranges from classical antiquities and international and Australian Indigenous material culture to painting, sculpture and works on paper by major Australian artists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as well as current practitioners. The collection has significant holdings in late nineteenth and twentieth century Australian art, having received major donations from benefactors Dr Samuel Arthur Ewing (1938), the Rupert Bunny Estate (1948), artist Norman Lindsay (1969), Mrs Olive Hirschfeld (1971) and Sir Russell and Lady Grimwade (1973). This strength encompasses several artist studio collections, which offer special opportunities for research into the artist’s process. Holdings of contemporary art are supplemented by the long-term loan of 124 works by 48 Australian artists that form The Vizard Foundation Collection of the 1990s, and the recent exceptional donation of the Michael Buxton Collection—a significant collection of contemporary art by leading Australian artists that seeks to reflect the development of artists’ practices, and the scope of current visual arts practice in Australia. This donation coincides with the founding of a new purpose-built museum located on the University’s Southbank campus of VCA & MCM (scheduled for completion in 2017).

Unknown maker (Australia, Groote Eylandt, mid-20th century), Armband, mid-20th century, parrot feathers and natural fibres, the University of Melbourne, the Leonhard Adam Collection of International Indigenous Culture

Since 1972, the art collection has been housed, managed, researched, interpreted and displayed by the University’s art museum, the Ian Potter Museum of Art, which integrates the collection within a dynamic exhibition program and facilitates its use for object-based learning across multiple disciplines.

Joanna Bosse, Curator, Ian Potter Museum of Art

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Nicholas Chevalier (Russia, 1828–1902), Buffalo Range from the west, 1862, oil on milled board, 36.9 x 54.8 cm, the University of Melbourne Art Collection, gift of Dr Samuel Arthur Ewing 1938.

John Brack (Australia, 1920–1999), The Queen, 1988, oil on linen, 137 x 106.5 cm, the University of Melbourne Art Collection, gift of Helen Brack 2012, donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program

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Les Fils d’Emile Deyrolle (France, est. 1831), Borage, c. 1900, papier mâché, wood, metal, 53.5 x 46.5 cm, University of Melbourne Herbarium

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University of Melbourne Herbarium

The University of Melbourne Herbarium (MELU) is a teaching and research collection of international significance. The collection was established in 1926 with a donation of 3,000 specimens by Reverend Herman Montague Rucker Rupp (1872–1956). It is now the largest university herbarium in Australia, with an estimated 150,000 specimens of plants, algae and fungi, as well as historic botanical objects and artworks.

R Brendel and Co. (Germany, late 19th to early 20th century), Papier-mâché botanical model of the flower of the chocolate tree (Theobroma cacao), late 19th to early 20th century, papier mâché, wood, metal, University of Melbourne Herbarium

The herbarium is an invaluable resource for scientists, underpinning research on taxonomy, systematics, ecology and conservation. MELU facilitates the research of postgraduate students, staff and associates in the School of BioSciences, Faculty of Science, and is an integral part of eight undergraduate courses. MELU plays a key role in training the future scientists, curators and collection managers of the larger state and territory herbaria of Australia, with which we maintain strong collaborations, in particular the National Herbarium of Victoria. The University of Melbourne Herbarium is a vibrant and active collection with new material continually being accessioned and imaged, which contributes to national and international biodiversity data. The collection is also a significant research archive for the University and record depository for research grants and quarantine compliance.

Dr Gillian Brown, Curator

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Specimen of red algae (Rhodocallis elegans), collected 1995 near Warrnambool, Victoria, University of Melbourne Herbarium

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VCA Art Collection

The VCA Art Collection includes a wide range of works spanning the entire history of the Victorian College of the Arts and the National Gallery School (established 1867). Comprising painting, sculpture, photography and works on paper, the collection reflects the diversity and depth of the activity at the Victorian College of the Arts, both currently and historically. Most works are by students, staff or alumni of the school, and the collection continues to grow through gifts and acquisitive awards, ensuring that each year a number of graduating students’ work is added to the collection. Such notable practitioners as John Brack (1920–1999), John Vickery (1906–1987), Jan Nelson (b. 1955), Jon Campbell (b. 1961) and Sally Smart (b. 1960) are represented.

Toni Warburton (Australia, born 1951), Tripod bowl with mollusc and Hormosira Banksi, Neptune’s necklace motifs, 1998, ceramic, 15.7 x 21.7 x 23 cm, VCA Art Collection, Faculty of the VCA & MCM

The collection also includes a large number of life paintings and drawings from the early days of its origins as the National Gallery School of Art. These works are by some the most prominent alumni of the college, among them Hugh Ramsay (1887–1906), Charles Wheeler (1880–1977), Grace Joel (1865–1924) and Constance Stokes (1906–1991). In 2004, the Margaret Lawrence Australian Ceramics Collection (MLACC) was bequeathed to the collection. Comprising some 500 pieces, the MLACC is a unique collection of Australian ceramic work from the 1920s through to 2004 and was one of the largest private collections of Australian ceramics.

Scott Miles, Acting Director, Margaret Lawrence Gallery Victorian College of the Arts

Constance Stokes (Australia 1906–1991), Life Study, seated man, three quarter length, from side, 1926, oil on canvas, 92.6 x 71.8 cm, VCA Art Collection, Faculty of the VCA & MCM

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Ross Coulter (Australia, born 1972), Aftermath, 2012, type C photograph, 120 x 150 cm, VCA Art Collection, Faculty of the VCA & MCM

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Susannah Collins & Jesse Hatter, ‘The seed’, 2015, production still, VCA & MCM School of Film and Television Archives

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VCA & MCM School Of Film and TelevisioN ArchiveS

The School of Film and Television, Faculty of VCA & MCM, is Australia's oldest film school. It commenced its dedicated film production courses in 1966 after significant campaigning and championing by Hon. Barry Jones AC, Phillip Adams AO and acclaimed film director Fred Schepisi AO.

Chloe Pisani, ‘Out of the woods’, 2015, production still, VCA & MCM School of Film and Television Archives

The school has launched the careers of numerous acclaimed film directors, including Gillian Armstrong (Love, lust and lies), David Michod (Animal kingdom), Ariel Kleinman (Partisan), Sarah Watt (My year without sex), John Hillcoat (The road), Justin Kurzel (Snowtown, Macbeth), Jonathan Auf der Heide (Van Diemen’s Land), and Adam Elliot (Harvey Krumpet, Mary and Max). Editor Jill Bilcock (The dressmaker, Red dog, Moulin Rouge!, Muriel’s wedding) and cinematographer Adam Arkapaw (True detective, Top of the lake, Snowtown, Lore) are also alumni of the school.

Marleena Forward, ‘A day in colour’, 2015, production still, VCA & MCM School of Film and Television Archives

The school’s archive of student films from the past 50 years has recently joined the University of Melbourne’s Cultural Collections. This archive contains individual stories told from many different perspectives from across half a century of Melbourne-based filmmaking. However, the films tell more than simply the stories visible on the screen; they also hold within them the story of their filmmakers’ passion, ambition, collegiality and unique point of view on the world around them. The films thus provide an insight into the emerging talent and creativity of the School's students, many of whom have gone on to become significant screen-based storytellers. By making this collection available more widely for the first time, the school hopes to contribute towards a new means of remembering, understanding and learning from the past—in order to start conversations about the present, and of course the future.

Nicolette Freeman, Head, School of Film and Television, Victorian College of the Arts

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Stephanie Parsons, ‘Adam’, 2014, production still, VCA & MCM School of Film and Television Archives

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Natalie Ryan (Australia, born 1981), Untitled (stomach), 2015, type-C photograph (artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proof), courtesy the artist and Lindberg Galleries, Melbourne. Part of a project photographing items in the Veterinary Anatomy Collection

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Veterinary Anatomy Collection

The Veterinary Anatomy Collection’s historical significance lies with its association with the oldest veterinary school in Australia and the history and practice of veterinary education in Victoria. The collection was established in the mid-1960s, soon after the re-opening of the school of Veterinary Science at the University of Melbourne in 1963, and is now housed in a dedicated museum space within the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences at the faculty’s main campus in Parkville. The Veterinary Anatomy Collection comprises skeletons and wet specimens acquired over the past 50 years. It was created by Emile Polloni, veterinarian and laboratory manager in the faculty, whose background as a practicing veterinarian defined the emphasis on the applied nature of the collection. Consisting of 214 items, this small collection encompasses skeletons, dissected organs, mounted limbs and cross-sections of a wide range of domestic, production and exotic animals. The collection includes assembled, free standing and wall mounted skeletons of animals such as the dog, cow, pig, chicken and sheep, and various skulls and limbs of exotic species such as the giraffe and lion, which were acquired from the nearby Melbourne Zoo. Amongst this section of the collection is a rare dissected equine spine, unique in a university collection in Australia. There is also a wide range of dissected and preserved internal body organs and an extensive range of preserved cross sections (commonly referred to as pots) of the dog, cat, horse, sheep and ox arranged in anatomical display cabinets, including a rare cross-section of an entire pony and the heart of a 52-year-old horse. The unique status of the Veterinary Anatomy Collection is reflected in its interpretative potential, provenance and rarity. The collection provides a focus for the curriculum of the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Science, and plays an integral role in its teaching and learning outcomes.

Susie Shears, Cultural Collections Co-ordinator

Natalie Ryan (Australia, born 1981), Untitled (horse heads), 2015, type-C photograph (artist’s proof), courtesy the artist and Lindberg Galleries, Melbourne. Part of a project photographing items in the Veterinary Anatomy Collection

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Robert Rooney (Australia, born 1937), Kind-hearted kitchen garden IV, 1968, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 168 x 168 cm, the University of Melbourne Art Collection, purchased with assistance from the Visual Arts Board, Australia Council 1985

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Acknowledgements

The exhibition and accompanying catalogue would not have been possible without the contributions of the curators, collection managers and staff of the University of Melbourne’s Cultural Collections.

My learned object: collections & curiosities

In particular the Ian Potter Museum of Art acknowledges the invaluable assistance provided by our colleagues Brian Allison, Peter Attiwill, Dr Renee Beale, Jason Benjamin, Dr Gillian Brown, Sarah Charing, Chen Chen, Lindy Cochrane, Dr Katrina Dean, Denise Driver, Gerard Fahey, Nicolette Freeman, Dr Jacqueline Healy, Donna Hensler, Dr Jennifer Hill, Carole Hinchcliff, Dr Andrew Jamieson, Assoc. Professor Alison Inglis, Dr Ryan Jefferies, David B Jones, Brendan Kehoe, Astrid Krautschneider, Rohan Long, Philip Lyons, Lee McRae, Scott Miles, Susan Millard, Pat Millman, Naomi Mullumby, John Pederick, Callum Reid, Susie Shears, Jenny Smith, Kerrianne Stone, Philip Taylor-Bartels and Pauline Woolcock.

Published by the Ian Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne, on the occasion of the exhibition My learned object: collections & curiosities, 4 December 2015 – 28 February 2016

We are also grateful to staff in the Indigenous Cultures Department at Museum of Victoria and the Thomson family for facilitating the inclusion of objects from the Donald Thomson Collection. Designer Marianna Berek-Lewis from 5678 Design deserves special thanks for her outstanding work on the catalogue.

Guest curator Dr David Sequeira Editor Joanna Bosse

Text © 2015, the authors and the Ian Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne. Images © the artists and the University of Melbourne This catalogue is copyright. Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means without the prior permission of the publisher. ISBN 978 0 7340 5187 5 Design by 5678 Design Printed by Bambra Press, Melbourne The Ian Potter Museum of Art The University of Melbourne Victoria 3010 Australia Email potter-info@unimelb.edu.au www.art-museum.unimelb.edu.au

Patron Lady Potter AC

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Hector Burton (Australia, Pitjantjara, born c. 1937), Punu ngura, 2013, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 196.5 x 196.5 cm, the University of Melbourne Art Collection, purchased by the Ian Potter Museum of Art, 2013

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COVER LEFT–RIGHT

Unknown maker, Crystal display, c. 1920s, cupric potassium sulphate encased in glass on cork base, 5.5 cm diameter, School of Chemistry Collection J Carney, Corrosion cast of the kidney blood vessels, 1968, resin, Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology Girolamo Visconti (Italian, active mid-17th century), The Calzolari Museum, 1622, engraving, 23.8 x 25.5 cm, Baillieu Library Print Collection, gift of Dr J Orde Poynton 1959 Japanese matchboxes, c. 1920–40, copper-plate printed card, Special Collections, Baillieu Library

INSIDE COVER LEFT–RIGHT

Franz Josef Steger (Germany, 1845–1938), Bust showing dissected right side of face, neck and thorax. Superficial dissection of brachial plexus, carotid artery and some muscles of facial expression, c. 1900, gypsum, paint, 36 x 25 x 20 cm, Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology Unknown photographer, First women students admitted to Melbourne Medical School, 1887 (detail), photograph, 28 x 33 cm, Medical History Museum Arts and Life Monthly magazine, 1934–37, Special Collections, Baillieu Library Unknown maker (Italian, 17th century), Albarello for ointment of black poplar buds, 1682, earthenware, 20 x 13 cm, Medical History Museum, gift of the estate of Graham Roseby, 2009

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MY LEARNED OBJECT: COLLECTIONS & CURIOSITIES

COLLECTIONS & CURIOSITIES

The Ian Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne

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MY LeaRNeD ObJect