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Author: Catriona Donnelly

24 May 2017

Seaweed projections at IlluminARTe

On Saturday 29th April, the village of Picton came alive with the annual IlluminARTe Wollondilly Festival. The festival had a family atmosphere and featured market stalls, street musicians, a lantern parade, fireworks and building projections. A number of artists were invited to create projections onto the buildings including Julie Ryder, our artist-in-residence from 2016. Julie chose to use images from our seaweed album and related collections to inform her artwork.
Categories Uncategorised
4 May 2017

Freewheeling spins into Canberra

The National Museum of Australia celebrated the history of cycling in Australia with the official launch on the 13th April of its exhibition Freewheeling: Cycling in Australia. The exhibition has been travelling around Australia since November 2014 and this is the final venue of the tour. It was a privilege to host Michael Milton, paralympic cyclist, and Gillian Helyar from Pedal Power ACT as the guest speakers at the launch. Michael and Gillian enjoyed a preview...
Categories Cycling/Uncategorised
12 August 2016

Mapping a rugged landscape

In 2012 the Museum acquired a small collection associated with the distinguished career of the Surveyor-General of Hobart, James Sprent. The collection includes a large and very early map of Tasmania, Sprent’s degree certificate, a Reeves parallel ruler, three small certificates for short courses at the University of Glasgow and a wooden box which is likely to have held Sprent’s drawing instruments. The map was the first accurate map of the colony and the first to reflect the colony’s...
Categories Landscapes/Science/Uncategorised
27 July 2016

Introducing Julie Ryder, our artist-in-residence for 2016

I am excited to introduce Julie Ryder, our artist-in-residence for 2016. Julie is an accomplished textile artist who draws inspiration from the natural world, combining her scientific background and creativity to produce innovative artworks. Julie has started a six month residency at the National Museum of Australia and has received support for her project from the Australia Council for the Arts. Our artist-in-residence program provides opportunities for artists to work with objects in...
Categories Art/Plants/Seaweed/Textiles/Uncategorised
16 June 2016

A prickly invasion

The act of nurturing a single pot plant would appear to be a fairly benign activity. However, when Navy surgeon, Dr William Bell Carlyle, entrusted a prickly pear cutting to the care and protection of his servant, Mary Sutton, no one could have predicted the devastation which would result. In a period of less than 100 years the prickly pear multiplied and occupied over 60 million acres of Queensland and New South...
Categories Agriculture/Gardening/Landscapes/Science/Uncategorised
3 September 2015

Prize winning potatoes

These three medals are some of the earliest agricultural medals in the Museum’s collection. They were awarded to Robert Laidlaw, Mr. Bostock and Jas (probably James) Bryden at the Victoria Agricultural Society show on the 21st April 1858. The medals were purchased by the Museum in 2014 and can be traced back to John Pascoe Fawkner who was the President of the society at the time. During the nineteenth century, agricultural and industrial associations...
Categories Agriculture
14 May 2015

To the curious observers of natural phenomena

One of the Museum’s latest acquisitions is this late 18th century halfpenny token which features images of three exotic animals, ‘The Kanguroo, The Armadillo and The Rhinoceros’. Thomas Hall, a taxidermist and curiosity dealer, produced these tokens to advertise his ‘house of curiosity’, otherwise known as the Finsbury Museum, which he operated from his home at 10 City Road, London. The token illustrates the fascination and curiosity shown by the British public in the late 18th...
Categories Art/Uncategorised
4 May 2015

An artistic interpretation

One of the most interesting aspects of working as a curator is observing how different people interpret objects in different ways. Some people may look at a writing box and see a functional object made to serve a specific purpose, others may view it as an object which tells the story of a person, place or event, and some may even experience an emotional response. Last week, I was privileged to gain an insight into how a contemporary artist is interpreting...
Categories Art/Landscapes/Museum practice/Uncategorised
2 December 2014

The scandalous Mr Wakefield

Imagine yourself, for a minute, as a 15-year-old girl at boarding school in England in 1826. An urgent message arrives to inform you that your mother has taken ill and you must come to her at once.  The concern for your mother’s condition weighs heavily on your mind as you rush off in an awaiting carriage. When your carriage stops to change horses, you are informed by a charming gentleman that your mother is not...
Categories Museum practice/Uncategorised
11 June 2014

A frosty reception

Hobart and Canberra rank as two of the coldest cities in Australia. As winter temperatures set in, spare a thought for our latest acquisition, the Forester kangaroo taxidermy specimen. In late 2013, this female kangaroo died of natural causes within the Boronong Wildlife Sanctuary in Brighton, Tasmania. The taxidermy was commissioned by the National Museum of Australia and prepared by Tom Sloane from the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. The kangaroo has...
Categories Museum practice
4 March 2014

A crash course in taxidermy

WARNING: This blog post contains images which may be upsetting to some readers The role of an assistant curator in a museum encompasses many different tasks, but one, which I had not envisaged is the procurement of taxidermy specimens. When asked to investigate the possibility of commissioning a specimen of a Forester kangaroo for our Landmarks gallery, I was slightly apprehensive. My knowledge of taxidermy, as I imagine for most...
Categories Museum practice/Uncategorised
4 December 2013

Light’s vision hit for six

As the second Ashes test on Australian soil for the 2013-14 series begins in Adelaide tomorrow, I wonder what Colonel Light would think of the growth of his city and in particular the re-development of Adelaide Oval. Since 1938, the statue of Colonel Light has watched over the city of Adelaide, perfectly positioned on Montefiore Hill. The view towards the city, with Adelaide Oval in the foreground, is known as Light’s Vision and has for many...
Categories Landscapes/Uncategorised
9 October 2013

An early morning view of Melbourne

The installation of new objects to our galleries is often done in the mornings, before the Museum opens to the public. Staff members from curatorial, conservation, registration and exhibitions are all involved in the process. A recent addition to our Landmarks gallery is this wood engraving showing a panoramic view of Melbourne by the artist, Thomas Carrington. It was originally published as a supplement to the Melbourne weekly paper, The Australasian, and shows the rapid expansion...
Categories Uncategorised
25 September 2013

Everybody had an ‘Aunty Ivy’

…or an Aunty Hilda or an Aunty Edna. There is something very familiar and comforting about ‘Aunty Ivy’. The character was introduced to the ‘Life. Be in it.’ public health campaign in the late 1980s, as a contrast to couch potato, ‘Norm’, who spent his days watching television. ‘Aunty Ivy’ was energetic and encouraged people to get out into the garden, enjoy the fresh air and, without even realising it,...
Categories Gardening