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Domestic & Community Life Collection

Image: Recipe Book - The New Sunshine Cookery Book

Source: Museum Victoria

The Domestic and Communtiy Life collection takes in a large sweep of the material culture of everyday life. It comprises several thousand objects, several thousand images, hundreds of documents, and a small number of sound recordings and intangible representations related to the lives and identities that Victorians have created for themselves at home and in their wider communities since European settlement.

The collection is underpinned by five interrelated themes: the home, domestic life, domestic ideology, community life and identity, with a focus on significant periods of domestic life dating from European settlement in Victoria to the present.

It is most significant in relation to domestic life in early to mid-20th-century Victoria, in particular regarding the technologies and tools used in food preparation, cooking, storage and preservation, cleaning and laundry.

Significant items

A cot used by Richmond Henty in 1837.
A Wolter and Echberg washing machine, designed and manufactured in Melbourne around the 1880s.
An extensive collection of early to mid 20th century domestic appliances, including vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, washing machines and stoves.
32 architectural models of domestic buildings in Melbourne, 1839–1989.
Images documenting domestic and community life, particularly the Biggest Family Album collections.
The Graeme Fullarton Collection which records the experience of building a new home in East Keilor in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
The Aldred Photograph Collection.
The State Electricity Photograph Collection.
The Laurie Richards Photograph Collection.

Items per page: 10 50 (showing 1 - 10) 5281 items

Butter Churn - Wooden, circa 1950s

Wooden butter churn. Used by Bill Boyd when assisting his grandmother to churn butter in the 1950s. The William Boyd Childhood Collection includes most of the childhood possessions of W ...

From: Churchlands, Australia Images: 3
Booklet - J. Fowler, 'Fowler's Method of Bottling Fruits & Vegetables', Specialty Press, 1 ...

Alternative Name(s): recipe book Booklet 'Fowler's Method of Bottling Fruits & Vegetables' published by the Specialty Press, Ltd., Melbourne, for J. Fowler in 1946.

Images: 1
Catalogue - Fowler's Vacola, Bottling Outfits & Accessories, 1941-42

Catalogue of Vacola bottling outfits and accessories. Made for Fowlers Vacola Manufacturing Co. Ltd., 253-257 Burwood Road, Hawthorn, 1941 - 1942.

Images: 4
Ration Tickets - Petrol, 2 Gallons, circa 1941

Sheet of four Victorian Motor Spirit Ration Tickets, divided by perforations. Each ticket is for 2 gallons.These particular tickets may date to 1941, when the 2 gallons tickets were pri ...

Images: 1
Magazine - Boltons Catalogue, 1936

Magazine titled "Boltons Catalogue, 1936". Issued by Robert Bolton & Son, The Sweet Pea Specialists, Birdbrook. This item forms part of the Nowell Collection. This extensive collection ...

Images: 1
Catalogue - Buckley & Nunn, Summer Fashions, 1958-1959

Buckley & Nunn 1958-59 clothing pattern catalogue. The donor's aunt worked at the Prestige Lingerie, Donald Street, Brunswick, she also made clothes at home for family and friends, usin ...

Images: 1
Leaflet - Bendigo, 'Northern Capital of Victoria', circa 1928

Leaflet advertising Bendigo as a Tourist Destination, printed by Bolton Bros. Pty. Ltd., Bendigo in the late 1920s.

Images: 1
Leaflet - Victorian Railways Commissioners, 'Melbourne Garden City of a Garden State', Jul ...

Tourist leaflet 'Melbourne Garden City of a Garden State' issued by the Victorian Railways Commissioners, and printed by the Victorian Railways Printers, July 1933.

Images: 1
Leaflet - Victorian Railways, 'Melbourne Motor Cruises', 1933

Tourist leaflet 'Melbourne Motor Cruises' issued by Victorian Railways in December 1933 in conjunction with The City Motor Service Pty. Ltd. and The Victorian Government Tourist Board.

Images: 1
Recipe Booklet - Planning Meat Ration Meals, circa 1942

Alternative Name(s): Cookery Book, Cook Book Printed booklet containing recipes and menus using meat during World War II when certain cuts of meats could only be acquired by producing ...

Images: 2