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Public Life & Institutions Collection

Image: Model - Captain Cook's Cottage, Cyril Noisette, Icing, 1934

Source: Museum Victoria

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 collecting areas:

Collections relating to the history of Melbourne and Victoria, especially focusing on imagery of Melbourne; 1934 Centenary of Victoria; 1956 Olympics; 1988 Bicentenary.

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.

Federation: material from the opening of the first Federal Parliament in 1901 and centenary of Federation celebrations in 2001.

Museum History collection: material chronicling Museum Victoria's history since 1854.

Political collections, including the anti-Vietnam War movement.

Posters from the 1970s to the 1990s representing various social movements, including the feminist movement.

Phar Lap and associated material.

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.

Friendly and temperance societies and religious collections.

Collections from charitable institutions such as the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind.

Objects from the 'Whelan the Wrecker' collection relating to Melbourne institutions and prominent public buildings.

Pentridge Prison collection.

Melbourne Water collection, objects and oral histories relating to the institutional history of the Melbourne & Metropolitan Board of Works.

Items per page: 10 50 (showing 2491 - 2500) 2575 items

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Sign - Cole's 'Little Men', Blank

A non-original sign used as one of 21 signs (42 sides) within Cole's 'Little Men'. Blank sign. This sign was probably made for display at Sciencworks some time between 1974 and the 199 ...

From: Melbourne, Australia Images: 0
Adding Machine - Madas, circa 1950

Alternative Name(s): Calculator. Adding machine by Madas, circa 1950. Used in the Mental Health Research Institution, Parkville, Victoria Australia

From: Zurich, Switzerland Images: 1
Postcard - South West Facade, Exhibition Building, Victoria Stamp Market, Melbourne, circa ...

This is a colour postcard of the Exhibition Building, showing a view through the garden of the south west corner of the building circa 1905. The postcard, which was sent to Miss E Pears ...

From: Melbourne, Australia Images: 2
Exhibition Souvenir - Pocket Watch, Melbourne International Exhibition, 1880

Souvenir in the form of a pocket watch, with watch face on one side and on the rear a coloured, printed view of the Exhibition Building at the time of the Melbourne International Exhibi ...

From: Melbourne, Australia Images: 2
Pharmacy Scales - Selby, circa 1910

Pharmacy scales made by Selby, H.B. & Co. Ltd., Sydney & Melbourne, and used in a pharmacy at a psychiatric hospital in Victoria Australia, circa 1910

Images: 1
Adding Machine - Madas, circa 1950

Alternative Name(s): Calculator. Adding machine by Madas, circa 1950. Used in the Mental Health Research Institution, Parkville, Victoria Australia

From: Zurich, Switzerland Images: 1
Aeroplane Model - Sopwith F.1 Camel, 1918

Highly detailed 1:12 scale model showing the wooden framework of the wings and fuselage of a Sopwith F.1 Camel, without fabric covering. It was made by Private Harold Peachey Wood, a me ...

From: Melbourne, Australia Images: 5
No Image Available

Sign - Cole's 'Little Men', 'Why is Grass Like a Mouse?'

A non-original sign used as one of 21 signs (42 sides) within Cole's 'Little Men'. Inscriptions on sign (one per side): Why is grass like a mouse?.... Because the cattle eat it. ...COL ...

From: Melbourne, Australia Images: 0
Trophy - Tenpin Bowling, circa 1973

Tenpin bowling trophy 1973-1974 , awarded to patients at a psychiatric hospital, Mayday Hills Hospital, Beechworth, Victoria Australia. One of a series of tenpin bowling trophies awarde ...

From: Beechworth, Australia Images: 1
Salt Box & Lid - Wooden, circa 1900

Wooden salt box, circa 1900 used at Mayday Hills Hospital a mental health hospital in Beechworth, Victoria Australia. May have been made by a patient as part of occupational therapy pro ...

From: Beechworth, Australia Images: 1