The lives of all Victorians are shaped by organisational and institutional structures in the public sphere. Such structures are dynamic, always in the process of creation, redefinition, maintenance, and change.
While some individuals may have the opportunity to participate in the creation of some of these structures, and to influence their direction, others suffer under, negotiate with or react to them. Groups of people may then combine to bring about changes to the ways the structures operate and develop.
This collecting field is concerned with communal and institutional activities in the public sphere in Victoria since 1835. Material evidence generated as a result of particular forms of public cultural, political and institutional activity in Victoria is collected to document distinctive forms of urban and regional life.
The collection focuses on the operation of particular structures at particular times, and also on the processes of change, continuity, reaction and adaptation. Sub themes include celebrations and festivals; political history; charity and welfare; ritual and belief; and images and icons of Melbourne.
It also illustrates the events and patterns that help us define and understand Australian identity, in all its complexity and diversity. A wide range of material has been gathered from many organisations and institutions, both active and inactive.
Significant items
- Psychiatric Services collection of objects from Victoria's psychiatric hospitals: the collection provides substantial evidence of the conditions within psychiatric hospitals and the treatments given to patients before 1950. A published catalogue is available.
- Friendly and temperance societies and religious collections.
- Political collections, including the anti-Vietnam War movement.
- Collections relating to the history of Melbourne and Victoria, especially focussing on imagery of Melbourne; 1934 Centenary of Victoria; 1956 Olympics; 1988 Bicentenary.
- Little Lonsdale Street archaeological dig and other collections of historical archaeology.
- Whelan the Wrecker collection.
- Pentridge Prison collection.
- History of Museum Victoria collection.
- Racehorse Phar Lap and associated material.
- Collections from charitable institutions such as the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind.
- Royal Exhibition Building collection: material from the Melbourne International exhibitions of 1880–81 and 1888–89, plus objects and documents relating to more recent events in the building.
- Melbourne Water collection, including oral histories.
- Posters from the 1970s to the 1990s representing various social movements, including the feminist movement.
- Federation collection, focussing on the opening of the first Federal Parliament.
- Melbourne Cricket Ground: sculptural models by artist Glenn Morgan and photographs by Ken Rainsbury.