Rasmussen, Carolyn (1948 - )

Summary

Carolyn Rasmussen is an historian and biographer whose interests include the history of science and technology and the institutions associated with them.

Details

Educated at the University of Melbourne where she is currently an Honorary Fellow, her work as a public historian since 1985 has ranged over the history of Victorian public institutions, the history of science and technology, education history, the involvement of women in all of the above, and biography. She is chair of the Victorian Working Party of the Australian Dictionary of Biography. Science and technology publications include Vital Connections: Melbourne and its Board of Works 1891 to 1991, (with Tony Dingle), (1991), A Museum for the People: A history of Museum Victoria and its predecessors, 1854-2000 , (2001), Increasing Momentum: Engineering at the University of Melbourne 1861-2004 , (2004), Double Helix, Double Joy: David Danks the Father of Clinical Genetics in Australia, (2010).

Published resources

Books

• Rasmussen, Carolyn, Lauriston: 100 Years of Educating Girls, 1901-2000 (Wahroonga, N.S.W.: Helicon Press, 1999), 333 pp. Details
• Rasmussen, Carolyn, Milestones in the history of the Faculty of Science, University of Melbourne (Carlton (Vic.): University of Melbourne and ASUTEHC, 2003), 16 pp. Details
• Rasmussen, Carolyn, Increasing Momentum: Engineering at the University of Melbourne, 1861-2004 (Carlton: University of Melbourne, 2004), 244 pp. Details
• Rasmussen, Carolyn and Dingle, Tony, Vital Connections: Melbourne and its Board of Works 1891 - 1991 (Ringwood, Victoria: McPhee Gribble, 1991). Details
• Rasmussen, Carolyn et al., A Museum for the people: a History of Museum Victoria and its predecessor institutions, 1854-2000 (Carlton North, Victoria: Scribe Publications, 2001), 420 pp. Details
• Rasmussen, Carolyn; with Danks, Alister, Double Helix, Double Joy: David Danks, the Father of Clinical Genetics in Australia (Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 2010), 327 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Rasmussen, Carolyn, 'Science was so Much More Exciting: Six Women in the Physical Sciences' in On the Edge of Discovery: Australian Women in Science, Farley Kelly, ed. (Melbourne: Text Publishing Company, 1993), pp. 105-131. Details
• Rasmussen, Carolyn, 'Lush, Dora Mary (1910-1943), Bacteriologist' in Australian Dictionary of Biography, John Ritchie, ed., vol. 15 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2000), pp. 137-138. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A150169b.htm. Details
• Rasmussen, Carolyn, 'Tiegs, Oscar Werner (1897-1956), Professor of Zoology' in Australian Dictionary of Biography, John Ritchie and Diane Langmore, eds, vol. 16 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2002), pp. 393-394. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A160475b.htm. Details
• Rasmussen, Carolyn, 'Rubbo, Sydney Dattilo (1911-1969), Professor of Microbiology' in Australian Dictionary of Biography, John Ritchie and Diane Langmore, eds, vol. 16 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2002), pp. 143-144. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A160170b.htm. Details
• Rasmussen, Carolyn, 'Walcott, Richard Henry (1870-1936), Mineralogist and Museum Curator' in Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. Supplement (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2005), p. 394. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/AS10475b.htm. Details
• Rasmussen, Carolyn, 'Greenwood, John Neill' in Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 17 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2007), http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/greenwood-john-neill-12564. Details
• Rasmussen, Carolyn, 'A Metallurgist Looks at Russia: Professor J. Neill Greenwood and the Soviet Union' in Political Tourists: Australian Travellers to the Soviet Union in the 1920s-1940s, Fitzpatrick, S and Rasmussen, C, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2008), pp. 78 - 101. Details
• Rasmussen, Carolyn, '"Constructive Work": The Engineering Profession in Australia and World War I' in The First World War, the Universities and the Professions in Australia 1914-1939, Darian-Smith, K and Waghorne, J, eds (Carlton, Victoria: Melbourne University Press, 2019). Details
• Rasmussen, Carolyn; Dingle, Tony, 'Borrie, Edwin Fullarton (1894-1968), Civil Engineer and Town Planner' in Australian Dictionary of Biography, John Ritchie, ed., vol. 13 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1993), pp. 223-224. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A130254b.htm. Details

Conference Papers

• Rasmussen, Carolyn, '"Useless and undesirable'?" Reclaiming the achievements of Australia's first university-trained engineers', in Engineering Heritage Branch (Engineers Australia, 2005).. Details
• Rasmussen, Carolyn, 'Hardware and Health: The Danks family of Melbourne with special emphasis on Professor David Danks, 'Father of Clinical Genetics in Australia' and founder of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute', in Royal Historical Society of Victoria (2009)., https://www.academia.edu/23212028/Hardware_and_Health_The_Danks_family_of_Melbourne_with_special_emphasis_on_Professor_David_Danks_Father_of_Clinical_Genetics_in_Australia_and_founder_of_the_Murdoch_Children_s_Research_Institute. Details
• Rasmussen, Carolyn, '"Becoming Doctors" - an historical overview of women in medicine in twentieth century Australia', in Women in Medicine Symposium (Geoffrey Kaye Museum of Anaesthetic History, 2019).. Details

Journal Articles

• Rasmussen, Carolyn, 'A Tale of Two Bridges: The Hawthorn Bridge Controversy 1929-1930', Victorian Historical Journal, 63 (1) (1992), 31 - 44. Details
• Rasmussen, Carolyn, 'Science was so Much More Interesting: a Snapshot of Career Patterns for Women Graduating in Science and Medicine in Melbourne in the 1930s', McClintock Memos, 23 (1992), 28-32. Details
• Rasmussen, Carolyn, 'Professor Frederick McCoy and the National Museum of Victoria, 1856-1899', The Victorian naturalist, 117 (5) (2001), 230-239. Details
• Rasmussen, Carolyn, 'How Can a Museum Collect Dead Things and Remain Alive? Reflections on the History of Museum Victoria', Circa: the Journal of Professional Historians, 2102 (3) (2012), 63-73. Details

Newspaper Articles

• Rasmussen, Carolyn, 'Increasing momentum: the origins of engineering at the University of Melbourne', UniNews (2004), 4-5, http://uninews.unimelb.edu.au/view.php?articleID=1810. Details

Resources

• Faculty of Science at the University of Melbourne: A Historic Compendium, 2003, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/umfs/umfshome.htm. Details

Resource Sections

• Rasmussen, Carolyn, 'Medicine', in The Encyclopaedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia, 2014, http://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/biogs/WLE0133b.htm. Details
• Rasmussen, Carolyn, 'From the Significant to the Indispensible: The Working Lives of Seventeen Figures in the History of the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works', in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian National University, 2019, http://adb.anu.edu.au/essay/20. Details
• Rasmussen, Carolyn and Tropea, Rachel, 'Cameron, Donald, Biographical Entry', in Faculty of Science at the University of Melbourne, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/umfs/biogs/UMFS257b.htm. Details