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Leisure Collection
Image: Brochure - Detailed Itineraries for Allen's Tours to Open Places and Faraway Places, 1950
Source: Museum Victoria
The Leisure Collection is comprised of over 10,000 artefacts that explore the leisure and recreational activities that people have pursued in Victoria since European settlement.
The Leisure Collection is focused on activities which people pursue in their free time, and emphasises popular, amateur and everyday leisure activities, rather than elite, professional activities. The Collection represents the following aspects of leisure:
Participation in and spectatorship of a range of sports and physical pursuits including football, trugo, boxing, cycling, cricket, horse-racing, swimming and lawn bowls.
Visiting places and enjoying events such as agricultural shows, circuses, zoos, botanic gardens, fetes, carnivals, the Olympic and Commonwealth Games, Luna Park and the Moomba Festival.
Involvement in a myriad of hobbies and pastimes as diverse as practicing photography; playing and listening to music; dancing; eating and drinking; playing with toys, board games and puzzles; playing computer games; collecting; watching films, television, puppet shows and theatre; looking at optical toys; sewing; gardening; shopping; picnicking; camping; fishing; hunting; boating; motoring; and travelling.
Artefacts in the Leisure Collection include about 2,000 documents, over 6,000 images, almost 1,000 audio-visual recordings and over 4,000 objects. The objects range from small personal items such as swimming costumes, board games, fishing rods, jigsaw puzzles, cameras and show bags, to large objects such as cars and a caravan.
Significant items include:
- 56 toys made from Max Mint wrappers by a woman for her grandchildren, 1929-35.
- The iconic Harry Johns Boxing Truck, from the travelling boxing show which roamed eastern Australia, 1950-75.
- 276 items associated with racehorse Phar Lap's racing career and subsequent memorialisation.
- 216 items associated with Fitzroy's Black Cat Café, 1982-2001.
- 141 puppets and associated items from Melbourne's Le Forgeron puppet theatre, 1920s-1956.
- Ephemera and objects relating to both sportspeople and spectators at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.
- Little Men, mechanical hen and tokens from Cole's Book Arcade.
- Skyline caravan, 1957.
- Tourist brochures produced by state tourist bureaus and travel companies, 1920s-1970s.
- Bay paddle steamer models, 1880s-1920s.
- Image collections with representations of leisure activities, 1880s-1960s, especially in the Biggest Family Album, Laurie Richards and State Electricity Commission collections.
- Australian Children's Folklore Collection: archive, artefacts and oral histories documenting children's games and playlore, 1940s-present.
Items per page: 10 50 (showing 1 - 10) 2588 items
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Scales & Case - Opium or Coin, China, pre 1900
Opium or coin scales in wooden case made in China pre 1900. The set is made from ivory, brass & wood.
Images: 3 -
Photograph - Phar Lap Headshot, Framed, 1930s
Framed magazine photograph of Phar Lap's head and shoulders.
Images: 1 -
Drawing - Les Mason, Phar Lap Winning the 1929 Rosehill Guineas, 1932
This drawing was of Phar Lap winning the Rosehill Guineas in Sydney in 1929 was done by Les Mason. He attended the race, and drew this from memory three years later in 1932, after Phar ...
Images: 1 -
Photograph - Ferenc Puskas with the European Cup, circa 1960s
Signed black and white photograph of Hungarian soccer player Ferenc Puskas with the European Cup, circa 1960s. Regarded as one of the finest players and one of the top goal scorers of t ...
Images: 1 -
Photograph - Bonegilla United Soccer Team, Framed, 1956
Framed photograph of the Bonegilla United Soccer Team, taken in 1956. It is part of a collection of material which relates to the Dereani family's time at Bonegilla migrant camp. The De ...
Images: 1 -
Photograph - 'Man Diving From Davitt', Colombo, Captain Edward Albert McKenna, World War I ...
One of 139 photographs in an album from World War I likely to have been taken by Captain Edward Albert McKenna. The photographs include the 7th Battalion training in Mena Camp, Egypt, a ...
Images: 1 -
Digital Photograph - Rolfe Family Camping Holiday, St Leonards, Victoria, Dec 1937 - Jan 1 ...
Part of a group of six photographs depicting the Rolfe family of Elsternwick on camping holidays with the pop-up caravan trailer built by motor body builder Charles W. Rolfe. Charles W ...
Images: 2 -
Photograph - Hubert Opperman, 'Souvenir of Oppy's 1000 Mile Marathon', Framed, circa 1932- ...
Wooden framed photograph featuring an image of Hubert Opperman on his bicycle flanked by two pace motorcyclists, Bob Finlay and Bruce Small. Printed text below the image notes the recor ...
Images: 1 -
Photograph - Hubert Opperman, Barnet Glass Road Race, Tasmania, Framed, 1922
Metal framed photograph featuring an image of a youthful Hubert Opperman standing with his bicycle. He is wearing his riding uniform and a sash that was presented to him for being the f ...
Images: 1 -
Photograph - Attendees at Bank Officials Association Ball, St Kilda Town Hall, Melbourne, ...
Framed photograph of men and women at the Bank Officials Association (B.O.A) Ball, held at the St Kilda town hall in Melbourne, 1923. Banking unions began emerging after the First World ...
Images: 3
