Corporate Body

Museum of Natural History (1854 - 1858)

Colony of Victoria

From
1854
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
To
1858
Functions
Collection Management, History of Australian Science and Museum

Summary

The Museum of Natural History was established in 1854 as part of the Surveyor General's department. Together with the Government's geological specimens, the natural history collections were housed in the Assay Office. The first appointee was William Blandowski, Government Zoologist. He added considerably to the Museum's collections as a result of his several expeditions through parts of Victoria. When economic problems hit the colony in the mid-1850s, Blandowski was directed to pack up the specimens for transfer to the University of Melbourne in 1856. Here they came under the control of Frederick McCoy. On Blandowski's return to Melbourne from the Murray River Expedition in 1857, his relations with McCoy soured. In 1858 the Museum was renamed the National Museum of Victoria when McCoy was formally appointed Director. The following year Blandowski left Australia while his retention of material from the Expedition remained in dispute.

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Timeline

 1854 - 1858 Museum of Natural History
       1858 - 1983 National Museum of Victoria
             1983 - 1998 Museum of Victoria
                   1998 - Museum Victoria

Related People

Published resources

See also

  • Blandowski, William, 'Recent discoveries in natural history on the lower Murray', Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria, 2 (1857), 124-37. Details
  • Darragh, Thomas A., 'William Blandowski: a Frustrated Life', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 121 (2009), 11-60. Details
  • Goodman, David, 'Fear of circuses: founding the National Museum of Victoria', Continuum: journal of media and cultural studies, 3 (1) (1990), 18-34. Details
  • Kohlstedt, Sally Gregory, 'Australian Museums of Natural History: Public Priorities and Scientific Initiatives in the 19th Century', Historical Records of Australian Science, 5 (4) (1983), 1-30. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9830540001. Details
  • Pescott, R. T. M., Collections of a century: the history of the first hundred years of the National Museum of Victoria, Melbourne (Melbourne: National Museum of Victoria, 1954), 186 pp. 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

Helen Cohn

Created: 3 June 2024

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