Corporate Body
National Herbarium of Victoria (1896 - )
National Herbarium of Victoria, 23 January 2013
Details
- From
- December 1896
South Yarra, Victoria, Australia - Functions
- Collection management and Plant science
- Website
- https://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/science
- Location
- Birdwood Avenue, South Yarra, Victoria 3141
Summary
The National Herbarium of Victoria dates from December 1896 when the change of name from the Botanical Museum of Melbourne was gazetted. It is one of Australia's largest and most significant botanical collections, holding over 2 million specimens including large numbers of Australian type specimens. Since 1925 the Herbarium has been a constituent part of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens (later Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne). With the passing of the Royal Botanic Gardens Act in 1991 (with effect from 1 July 1992) the Herbarium, its Chief Scientist and its collections including the library and archives (which were designated the State Botanical Collection) were given legislative definition. In 1935 the Herbarium moved from its original home in the Domain to a site within the Botanic Gardens. The senior officer of the Herbarium is the Government (later Chief) Botanist.
Details
The Herbarium has been administered by these Victorian Colonial and State Government authorities:
December 1896 - 1902 Chief Secretary's Department
1902 - 1913 Department of Agriculture
1913 - 1925 Chief Secretary's Department
1925 - 1983 Department of Crown Lands and Survey
1983 - 1990 Department of Conservation, Forests and Lands
1990 - 1992 Department of Conservation and Environment
1992 - Royal Botanic Gardens Board.
Those holding office as Government (late Chief) Botanist were:
1896 - 1904 Johann Luehmann (styled Curator 1896 - 1900)
1906 - 1921 Alfred Ewart (part-time; concurrently Professor of Botany at the University of Melbourne)
1921 - 1925 William Laidlaw (concurrently Director of the Melbourne Botanic Garden 1924 - 1925)
1925 - 1941 John Rae (concurrently Director of the Melbourne Botanic Garden)
1941 - 1957 Alexander Jessep (concurrently Director of the Melbourne Botanic Garden)
1957 - 1970 Richard Pescott (concurrently Director of the Melbourne Botanic Garden (later Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne))
1971 - 1991 David Churchill (concurrently Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne)
1993 - 2005 James Ross (styled Chief Botanist)
2005 - David Cantrill
Related entries
Timeline
1853 - 1896 Botanical Museum of Melbourne
1896 - National Herbarium of Victoria
Participates in
Superior
Published resources
Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions
- McCarthy, Gavan; Smith, Ailie; Moje, Christine; Rigby, Rebecca, The Study of Australian Eucalypts, eScholarship Research Centre, 2013, http://www.eoas.info/eucalypts/index.html. Details
Books
- Cohn, Helen M.; and Thurlow, J., Nature's art revealed: 150 years of botanical art at the National Herbarium of Victoria 1853-2003 (South Yarra, Vic.: National Herbarium of Victoria, 2003), 32 pp. Details
Book Sections
- Maroske, Sara, 'Germans at the Melbourne Botanic Garden and Herbarium, 1853-96' in Baron von Mueller's German Melbourne, Ellen I. Mitchell, ed. (Bundoora, Victoria: La Trobe University, 2000), pp. 24-34. Details
Journal Articles
- Aston, H. I., 'The herbarium and plant collections of Norman A. Wakefield (1918-1972)', Muelleria, 4 (1972), 251-63. Details
- Cohn, Helen M., '150 Years: the National Herbarium of Victoria, 1853-2003', Muelleria, 17 (2003), 3-14. Details
- Cohn, Helen M., 'Watch Dog Over the Herbarium: Alfred Ewart, Victorian Government Botanist, 1906-1921', Historical Records of Australian Science, 16 (2) (2005), 139-167. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR05009. Details
- Cohn, Helen M., 'The Close Union Between the Herbarium and the Naturalists', The Victorian naturalist, 122 (2005), 281-9. Details
- Grimes, James W., 'Identified types in the Wilhelm Hillebrand collections in the Herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne', Muelleria, 14 (2000), 41-49. Details
- Hewish, Marilyn, 'Biographical Notes on George Lyell, Victorian Lepidopterist [Part 1]', Victorian Entomologist, 44 (5) (2014), 96-106. Details
- Le Get, Rebecca; Macheda, Rita; Pacitti, Eugenia; and Vaughan, Luke, 'An update on the Foreign Collection Project at MEL', Australasian Systematic Botany Society newsletter, 188 (2021), 45-9. Details
- Maroske, Sara and Vaughan, Alison, 'Ferdinand Mueller's Female Plant Collectors: a Biographical Register', Muelleria, 32 (2014), 92-172. Details
- Milne, Pina, 'Retracing history through herbarium specimens', Studies in Western Australian history, 35 (2020), 75-87. Details
- Parnell, John A. N.; Womersley, H. Bryan S.; Sinkora, Doris, Vaughan, Alison and Huisman, John M., 'W. H. Harvey's Australian Travelling Set of Algae in the Herbarium of Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and the National Herbarium of Victoria (MEL), Australia', Biology and Environment: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 110B (2) (2010), 119-61. Details
- Sinkora, Doris, 'The phycological collections of the National Herbarium of Victoria', Australasian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter, 174 (2018), 10-2. Details
- Thies, A. W., 'Moss collections from Lord Howe Island in the National Herbarium of Victoria (MEL)', The Victorian naturalist, 117 (2000), 10-13. Details
- Vaughan, Alison, 'The Eileen Ramsay collection at the National Herbarium of Victoria', Australasian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter, 171 (2017), 18-22. Details
- Willis, J. H., 'The Botany of the Victoria Exploring Expedition (September 1860-June 1861) and of Relief Contingents from Victoria (July 1861-Noveber 1862)', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 75 (1962), 247-268. Details
Resources
- Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-613667. Details
Resource Sections
- 'Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller Project', National Herbarium of Victoria, South Yarra, 2021. https://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/science/library/correspondence-of-ferdinand-von-mueller-project/. Details
See also
- Cowley, K. J.; West, J. G, Resources of Australian Herbaria: a Guide to Herbaria Located in Australia (Canberra: Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, 1999), [84] pp. Details
- Cowley, K. J.; West, J. G, Resources of Australian Herbaria [online], with Council of Heads of Australian Herbaria, Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, 2002, http://www.anbg.gov.au/chah/resources/intro/index.html. Details
- Dowe, John Leslie, Wendland's palms: Hermann Wendland (1825 - 1903) of Herrenhausen Gardens, Hannover: his contribution to the taxonomy and horticulture of the palms (Arecaceae) (Berlin: Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, 2019), 137 pp. Details
- Presland, Gary, 'Arthur Wolfgang Thies, 10 October 1918 - 20 February 2013', The Victorian naturalist, 130 (2013), 86. Details
- Ross, J.H., 'The Legacy of Mueller's Collections', The Victorian naturalist, 113 (1996), 146-150. Details
Digital resources
- Title
- National Herbarium of Victoria
- Type
- Image
- Date
- 23 January 2013
- Place
- Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne
- Title
- National Herbarium of Victoria
- Type
- Image
- Date
- 23 January 2013
- Place
- Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne
Ailie Smith and Helen Cohn
Created: 23 July 2002, Last modified: 25 April 2024