Cultural collections in spotlight
[ The University of Melbourne Voice Vol. 2, No. 1
4 - 18 February 2008 ] By Belinda Nemec
The priceless and wide-ranging cultural collections of the University of Melbourne are highlighted in a new twice-yearly magazine, University of Melbourne Collections.
The new magazine succeeds The University of Melbourne Library Journal, published from 1993 to 2005. Broader in scope, University of Melbourne Collections encompasses all 33 of the University’s cultural collections.
Among the collections covered are the University of Melbourne Herbarium, the Uni-versity of Melbourne Art Collection (managed by the Ian Potter Museum of Art), the rare and special holdings of the Baillieu Library and branch libraries, the Physics Museum, Medical History Museum and many others.
Generously illustrated in full colour throughout, University of Melbourne Collections includes news and exhibitions from the collections and reports on conservation projects, student activities, grants and sponsorships.
Writing, editing and production of the new magazine is co-ordinated in Cultural Collections, based in the University’s Information Services division.
The first edition of University of Melbourne Collections was launched late last year by Pro Vice-Chancellor (University Relations) Professor Warren Bebbington. The edition features an introduction by the Chancellor Mr Ian Renard.
Professor Bebbington, who chairs the University’s Cultural Collections Committee, said the new magazine reflects the ever-growing profile of the University’s cultural collections, their increasing level of use by students, staff, other researchers and the wider community, and their strengthening support from the University itself and its benefactors.
He also thanked the Friends of the Baillieu Library for generously sponsoring the production of the first issue.
Articles of interest in the first edition include:
a history of the care of the University’s collections since the 1850s, written by Associate Professor Robyn Sloggett (Director, Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation), and Tony Arthur (Director, Information Resources Access, Information Divisions until his retirement);
the history of the University of Melbourne Herbarium by Dr Linden Gillbank (Honorary Fellow in the School of Social and Environmental Enquiry);
a biographical essay on architect and civil engineer John Harry Grainger, by Brian Allison of the Grainger Museum; and
the acquisition and conservation of a second world war Japanese air-raid hood by Michelle Hall of the East Asian Library.
The second issue, scheduled for July 2008, will include:
an article by Lucy Spencer on anatomical models collected by Professor Richard Berry in the early 20th century;
Jacinta Fleming on Eragny Press books in the Special Collections of the Baillieu Library;
Jay Miller on an intriguing 19th-century glass souvenir in the Grimwade collection;
Astrid Krautschneider on the Australian printmaker Ernest Moffitt; and
Kathleen Kiernan on prints by Jan van de Velde collected by Dr J. Orde Poynton and now in the Baillieu Print Collection.
There will also be coverage of the Malcolm Fraser Collection, the Henry Forman Atkinson Dental Museum, the Savory & Moore Pharmacy in the Medical History Museum, the University of Melbourne Archives, and news on exhibitions, publications and events.
Dr Belinda Nemec is Cultural Collections Co-co-ordinator, Information Services.
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