powerline magazine

POWERLINE+the magazine of the powerhouse museum autumn 05

greektreasures

+ 02 powerline autumn 05

As one of Australia’s largestmuseums the Powerhousecontributes to the professionallife of Australian museums inmany ways. As part of our125th celebrations this year, thePowerhouse is hosting theannual conference ofMuseums Australia, theprofessional associationrepresenting museum workersacross the country. Ourneighbour, the ABC, isgenerously providing itsEugene Goossens Hall for theplenary sessions. Thiscollaboration offers uniqueopportunities for Australia’smuseums to be showcasedacross the spectrum of ABCradio and television programs.So look out for specialmuseum features during theconference (1-4 May).

Each year Powerhouse staffcontribute their expertise to awide range of professionalassociations. The head of our

O2 From the director

03 Power picks

06 Beta Space

07 New exhibitions: Toys

08 New exhibitions: Greek treasures

10 New acquisitions: 19th-century jewellery

11 Members news

12 Members calendar

14 Members scene

15 New exhibitions: Paradise, Purgatory, Hellhole

16 New exhibitions: Animal, vegetable, mineral

17 Writing a new history of the Museum

18 From the archives: stories of our past

20 The twenty-year club

22 Observe

23 Corporate partners

24 New exhibitions at a glance

Evaluation and AudienceResearch department, CarolScott, has been the nationalpresident of MuseumsAustralia since 2000. LastOctober I was elected by mypeers to chair the Council ofAustralian Museum Directors,the peak body of Australia’s 17major national and statemuseums. In this role I also siton the Collections Council ofAustralia, a body recentlyestablished by federal andstate arts ministers to adviseon how best to preserve andpromote our nation’s heritagecollections.

Another way in which we servethe wider museum fraternity isthrough our long-standinghosting of Australian Museumson Line (AMOL), theinternationally acclaimed web-based museum portal. Anupgraded AMOL will soon berelaunched as CollectionsAustralia Network (CAN). Butthese online programs do notmean we neglect face-to-face

TRUSTEESDr Nicholas G Pappas,President Dr Anne Summers AO,Deputy President

Mr Mark Bouris Ms Trisha DixonMr Andrew Denton Ms Susan Gray Ms Margaret SealeMr Anthony SukariMs Judith Wheeldon

SENIOR MANAGEMENTDr Kevin Fewster AM, Director Jennifer Sanders, Deputy Director,Collections and Exhibitions Mark Goggin, Associate Director,Programs and Commercial ServicesMichael Landsbergen, AssociateDirector, Corporate Services Kevin Sumption, Associate Director,Knowledge and InformationManagement

contact. In the past year over1400 people across NSW tookpart in training programs runby Powerhouse staff.

Just as the Powerhousesupports the wider museumcommunity, we are indebted tothe many people who freelyoffer their time and expertiseto assist us. And none givemore than our trustees. InDecember 2004 we farewelledProfessor Ron Johnston, aconstant source of wisdomand enthusiasm during hisnine years on the board. Onbehalf of everyone at theMuseum I thank him for hiscontribution. His successor isMs Judith Wheeldon, therecently retired headmistressof Abbotsleigh School. Wewelcome her to thePowerhouse.

Dr Kevin Fewster AMDirector

contentsissue 77

from thedirector

FRONT COVER FROM THE EXHIBITIONGREEK TREASURES: FROM THEBENAKI MUSEUM IN ATHENS, DETAILOF A GOLD WREATH WITH IVYLEAVES, LATE HELLENISTIC PERIOD,FIRST CENTURY BC (SEE PAGE 24).© BENAKI MUSEUM

Powerline is produced by the Print Media Department of the Powerhouse Museum

PO Box K346, Haymarket NSW 1238Editor: Melanie CarissEditorial coordinator: Deborah RenaudDesign: TriggerdesignPhotography: Powerhouse Museum unless otherwise stated.

Every effort has been made to locate owners of copyright for the images inthis publication. Any inquiries should be directed to the Rights andPermissions Officer, Powerhouse Museum.

ISSN 1030-5750 © Trustees of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences

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Where to find us

Powerhouse Museum, 500 Harris Street, Darling Harbour, Sydney Opening hours 10.00 am – 5.00 pm every day (except ChristmasDay). School holiday opening hours 9.30 am – 5.00 pm

Contact details

Postal address: PO Box K346, Haymarket NSW 1238

Telephone (02) 9217 0111 Infoline (02) 9217 0444, Education (02) 9217 0222

The Powerhouse Museum, part of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences also incorporating Sydney Observatory, is a NSW government cultural institution.

www.powerhousemuseum.com

MARCH APRIL MAY 2005

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a messageto the future

museumsmakingconnections

‘Connecting with yourcommunity through publicprograms’ was the theme of aworkshop for regional museumworkers held at Dungog NSWlate last year. Part of thePowerhouse Museum’sregional services program, thishands-on workshop coincidedwith the Dungog launch ofWorks wonders, a travellingexhibition developed by thePowerhouse in collaborationwith regional museums andhistorical societies.

Increasingly museums arelooking beyond consolidatingand presenting theircollections, to building

audiences through a specialfocus on school children andthe local community. Regionalmuseums are uniquelypositioned to be a hub forexciting collaborations, thoughmay lack the framework toknow where to start. Thisworkshop attractedparticipants from diverseinstitutions, such as historichomes, galleries andmuseums, eager to developand share their skills with otherworkers from the region.

To find out more about theregional services programcontact freecall 1800 882 092or (02) 9217 0220.

From Boggabilla in the farnorth to Moruya in the south,Museum staff have beentravelling to schoolsthroughout the state to gathermaterial for our 125thAnniversary Time Capsule. Thisproject honours the Museum’sconnection to education byinviting a selection of schools,also established in 1879, tocontribute to a time capsule.

The time capsule project isdesigned to encouragestudents to think about whatthey value. Museum educators,curators and conservatorshave been visiting schools tohelp them collect or make, andthen safely pack, the itemsthey select.

Late last year SoundHousemanager Peter Mahony and Ivisited one of the schoolsinvolved in the project,Boggabilla Central School.Boggabilla is in fact so closeto the Queensland border itruns on Queensland time (notdaylight saving time, which

saved us an hour on the driveup from Moree). Part of theschool’s contribution to thetime capsule will be digitalrecordings of the studentsspeaking in the local Kamilaroilanguage, which is part of theirstudies.

Other schools contributing tothe time capsule areCanterbury Public School,Castle Hill Public School,Conargo Public School,Cooranbong Public School,Iluka Public School, Lord HoweIsland Central School, LouthPublic School, Moruya PublicSchool, St Aloysius College,Sydney, Waverley PublicSchool and Yass Public School.

The time capsule, which hasbeen designed by renownedAustralian designer andarchitect Tom Kovac, will besuspended in the Museumlater this year. In 75 years it willbe opened to celebrate theMuseum’s 200th anniversary!

Steve Miller,A/Education ServicesCoordinator

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IN OUR 125TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR WE REACH OUT TOSTUDENTS AND COMMUNITIES THROUGHOUT NSW.

PETER MAHONY HELPS BOGGABILLA STUDENTS RECORD THEIRMESSAGE FOR THE TIME CAPSULE. PHOTO BY STEVE MILLER.

POWERHOUSE EDUCATOR MARY STEWART (LEFT) DEMONSTRATES HOWENGAGING PUBLIC PROGRAMS CAN BE. PHOTO BY MARINCO KOJDANOVSKI.

Students from around the state havecontributed their valued items to the125th Anniversary Time Capsule.

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This year the world iscelebrating one of the greatestthinkers of the 20th century,Albert Einstein. The UnitedNations has declared 2005 theInternational Year of Physics tohonour the 100th anniversaryof Einstein’s ‘miraculous year’,when he published threescientific articles that havesince influenced all of modernphysics.

So what were Einstein’smiraculous discoveries? SydneyObservatory’s Dr MartinAnderson explains. ‘The firstpaper explained how light canact as if made from tiny,independent particles. Thesecond paper provided anexplanation for how thetemperature of objects iscaused by the vibrations ofatoms. The third and mostfamous paper was on light andmotion. Known as the specialtheory of relativity it changedforever our view of the world.’

For young fans of The Lord ofthe Rings Motion PictureTrilogy, one of the highlights ofsummer at the Powerhousewas The Shire play space. TheShire is still open for play everyweekend during the exhibition,so bring your children along totake part in storytelling andquizzes, or dress up as theirfavourite trilogy character andcreate a prop to take home.

For older fans, Middle-earthmagic continues in March witha movie marathon. Specialextended editions of the trilogy

Visitors to Parliament Housetake a look at some of theastronomical sights visibleduring the day. Telescopes andstaff from Sydney Observatorywere at Parliament to take partin Science Exposed, a newinitiative of the NSW Ministry

The Powerhouse Museum hasacquired the seven-millionthVicta lawnmower for itscollection of Victa mowers andarchival material. The mowerrolled off the assembly line atthe company’s factory inMoorebank, Sydney, on 17November 2004.

The seven-millionth Victamower is the Tornado model,launched early in 2004. TheTornado is part of a new rangethat represents the first majorredesign of Victa mowers inalmost a decade. Anothermower from the range, the

‘Before 1905 physicistsunderstood how objectsbehave when moving at slowspeeds. Einstein showed thatobjects moving very close tothe speed of light behave instrange ways. He showed thatas you get closer and closer tothe speed of light, time slowsdown and your mass increases.’

Einstein was only aged 26 in1905. He went on to extend histheory of relativity to a generaltheory that took into accountthe effects of strong gravity.Successful predictions basedon the theory made Einsteinworld famous, and he wasawarded the Nobel Prize forPhysics in 1921.

Sydney Observatory iscelebrating the achievementsof this remarkable thinker withEinstein Extravaganza, aweekend of science activitiesand pure fun on 2 and 3 July.Check the website for details.

award-winning Razor, iscurrently on display in theAustralian Design Awardsexhibition.

The Museum has more than 30Victa mowers in its collection.This includes the very first‘peach-tin’ prototype made in1952 by Mervyn VictorRichardson, the company’sfounder, in his backyard in theSydney suburb of Concord. Itwas aptly named the ‘peach-tin’ because its petrol tank wasmade from an empty can ofpeaches.

will be screened at 1.00 pm:Saturday 26 March, The Lordof the Rings: The Fellowship ofthe Ring; Sunday 27 March,The Lord of the Rings: The TwoTowers; Monday 28 March, TheLord of the Rings: The Returnof the King. Please note thatfilms are rated M and arerecommended for matureaudiences only.

The exhibition, which hasattracted record-breakingcrowds, has been extendeduntil 3 April — don’t miss out!

Einstein’smiraculousyear

middle-earth magic

for Science and MedicalResearch. As part of this eventthe Intel Young Scientistexhibition was launched atParliament, where the awardswere presented, before goingon display at the Powerhouse.PHOTO BY MARINCO KOJDANOVSKI.

science inthe city

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ALBERT EINSTEIN. PHOTOCOURTESY CALIFORNIA INSTITUTEOF TECHNOLOGY

CHAN TRI TO (LEFT) AND HUNGNGUYEN LAM PUT THE FINISHINGTOUCHES ON THE SEVEN-MILLIONTHVICTA. PHOTO BY SUE STAFFORD.

ARWEN (LIV TYLER) FROM THELORD OF THE RINGS MOTIONPICTURE TRILOGY – THEEXHIBITION. PHOTO COURTESY ©NLP, INC

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barrowpicks upaward

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A wheelbarrow that folds up into a baghas won the Powerhouse MuseumDesignTech award for innovation.

This award-winning design byThe Scots College studentScott Rémond is on display inthe DesignTech 2004exhibition until 6 March 2005.

Scott’s folding wheelbarrow,Bag Barrow, is a smart idea fortoday’s space-conscioussociety. Made from aluminiumand canvas, the prototypebarrow works on the sameleverage principles as astandard wheelbarrow. Able tocarry up to 75 kg, which meansthat it qualifies as a lightindustrial wheelbarrow, BagBarrow can also be foldedaway in a bag making it easyto transport or store.

Scott’s project demonstrated athorough approach to productinnovation, according tocurator Angelique Hutchison.‘He identified a market,evaluated existing products,complied with industrystandards and considered theimpact of his product onsociety and the environment.Scott also developedinstruction sheets, advertisingmaterial and proposed amanufacturing process forcommercial sale of the barrow.In addition, Scott has appliedfor a patent for his design.’

Scott’s award includes workexperience at Design

Hip-hop artists were amongthe performers at a weekendfestival of Arab-Australianculture, held last year tocelebrate the exhibition Beirutto Baghdad: community,collecting and culture. Theexhibition presented thepersonal responses of localcommunity members to theMuseum’s collection ofcostumes, ceramics and coinsfrom the Arabic world.

The festival continued this‘dialogue’ between traditionaland contemporary culture withhip-hop music performancespresented in association withBankstown Youth DevelopmentService. Performers includedNOMISe, Susan Charma, Lisa

Taouk and MC Koosa,accompanied by Jamie Berryand Soraya Asmar ontraditional Arabic instruments.The day also featured aprogram of short films byArab-Australians, as well asworkshops on Arabiccalligraphy led by award-winning artist Fatima Killeen.

It was also the culmination ofthe ‘1001 tiles’ program thatinvited visitors to usecomputer software to designand make a paper tile basedon the ceramics in Beirut toBaghdad. The tiles decoratedan archway in the exhibition,providing a vibrant focal pointfor Nicole Barakat’s equallycolourful storytelling sessions.

Resource Australia, a leadingproduct design consultancywith clients around the world.Scott also received a voucherfor the Powerhouse Shop.

DesignTech showcases majordesign projects by NSWHigher School Certificatestudents. Presented annuallyby the Board of Studies andthe NSW Department ofEducation and Training, thisyear’s exhibition featuresgraphic design, web design,fashion, and metal andwoodworking technologies.The exhibition will tour regionalNSW until May 2005.

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CAPTION: NOMISe (RIGHT) AND MUHAMMED EL ASMA UNDER THE TILE ARCHWAY.PHOTO BY MARINCO KOJDANOVSKI.

CAPTION: SCOTT RÉMOND DEMONSTRATES HIS AWARD-WINNING BAG BARROW.PHOTO BY MARINCO KOJDANOVSKI.

Yesterday’s tomorrows: thePowerhouse Museum and itsprecursors 1880-2005GRAEME DAVISON AND KIMBERLEYWEBBER (EDS)

Celebrating 125 yearsEdited by eminent historian and authorGraeme Davison and Powerhousesenior curator Kimberley Webber, thisrichly illustrated and engaging booklooks at the Museum’s fascinatinghistory. For 125 years, the PowerhouseMuseum and its precursors have beenthe place where people have come toreflect on the past and see the future.Yesterday’s tomorrows invites you toreflect on the ways in which technologyand design have changed, and are stillchanging, our world (see story page 17).

288 PAGES, WITH OVER 275 IMAGES,RRP $54.95 – SPECIAL PRICE FROMTHE POWERHOUSE SHOP ANDMAILORDER $49.95 / MEMBERS $44.95

Published in association with Universityof NSW Press.

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Powerhouse books are available from the Powerhouse Shop, goodbookstores and by mailorder. For more information or to ordercontact Powerhouse Publishing on (02) 9217 0129 or email [email protected]/publish

Greek treasures: from the BenakiMuseums in Athens

A fascinating insight into the life andbeauty of the Greek world and itssuccession of colonies and empiresspanning eight millennia. Beautifullyillustrated with ceramics, gold jewellery,toys, textiles, Byzantine painted icons,metalware, ornate weaponry and oilpaintings (see story page 8).

264 PAGES WITH OVER 110 IMAGES, RRP $45.00 – SPECIAL PRICE FROMTHE POWERHOUSE SHOP ANDMAILORDER $39.95 / MEMBERS $35.95

Understanding forces, energy,mechanics, optics and soundis easy — when it involvesplaying with toys. This was theinspiration for the newexhibition Toys: science atplay, a joint project betweenScitech Discovery Centre,Perth, and Scienceworks,Museum Victoria, now showingat the Powerhouse.

‘Experimenting with toys helpsus to explore the science inour daily lives and promoteslearning through discovery’,explains Museum Victoriasenior curator Kate Phillips.‘This exhibition provides plentyof opportunities for young andold people with enquiringminds to tinker with toys.’

Visitors can fly a helicopter,catch magnetic fish and spina zoetrope. Kids can make agiant jigsaw, create soundeffects for a short animationand look through a hugeperiscope. There are over 40interactive exhibits rangingfrom robots and dolls, tobuilding blocks andkaleidoscopes.

The exhibition is divided intosections covering differentscientific concepts.‘Mysterious’ explores theinvisible forces of gravity andmagnetism through play withhula hoops and magneticfishing. It also uses spinningtops and building blocks toexplain the concept ofbalance or ‘centre of gravity’.‘Moving’ is about energy; fromthe explosive stored orpotential energy of a Jack-in-the-box, to the kinetic energyof a rolling ball.

‘Creative’ delves into thetheory of sound, revealing howsound vibrations can beproduced and transmittedusing an old-fashioned stringtelephone or a computer chipin a karaoke toy. The‘imaginary’ section looks atsome of the games that takeus to other worlds, with thehelp of our imagination andminiature models, talking dollsand optical instruments suchas 3-D viewers.

Of course toys have been partof human culture forthousands of years. Today’skids play with high-tech toysbut also enjoy ‘ancient’ toyssuch as marbles and balls. Youmay be surprised to discoverthat yoyos are one of the mostenduring toy crazes — theiruse was first depicted onancient Greek vases. A toytimeline in the exhibitioncelebrates the ‘birthdays’ ofthe most popular toys from1901 to the present, includingMeccano, Barbie, Slinkys,Rubik’s cubes, Tonka Trucksand Matchbox cars. Theexhibition also reveals thefavourite toys of five ofAustralia’s leading scientists.

Toys: science at playhighlights how playing withtoys helps to build physicaland mental skills, fostercreativity and critical thinking,and connect adults tochildren. With toys, fun is justthe beginning.

Toys: science at play is ondisplay until 18 July.

science at play

WHAT MAKES A SPINNING TOP STAY UPRIGHT?WHY DO MAGNETS ATTRACT? HOW DOES ADOLL TALK? A NEW EXHIBITION HAS THEANSWERS FOR CURIOUS MINDS OF ALL AGES.

CHILDREN CAN HAVE FUN WHILE DISCOVERING THE FUNDAMENTALS OF PHYSICS IN TOYS: SCIENCE AT PLAY.

See the mailorderinserts in this issue.


Beta Space is an exciting new experimentalenvironment for interactive art research locatedinside the exhibition Cyberworlds: computers andconnections. It is also the first collaboration betweenthe Powerhouse and the Creativity and CognitionStudios at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS).

Beta Space will host new media works created at theUTS lab and by artists from around the world. It isdesigned to give people the opportunity to becreatively involved in the development of new formsof artistic expression, as well as to provide an insightinto the creative process of artists and technologists.

Why ‘beta’ space? A beta version is a new piece ofsoftware or hardware that needs testing andfeedback from its users to help its creators make itbetter. Likewise, Beta Space is a laboratory whereresearchers in art and technology collaborate withMuseum visitors to develop new experiences andinventions. The works in Beta Space may be atdifferent stages of development, from early prototypeto end product, but in every case visitors will providevaluable information for future versions.

How does it work? Inside Beta Space visitors observeimages and listen to sounds that respondinstantaneously to their movements. A matrix of floorpads and a digital camera are also used to tracktheir movements. The space is connected via theinternet to UTS so that researchers in the lab canstudy images of visitors interacting with the works.These studies will feed into the development of newartworks, which can be programmed remotely intothe space.

The first work installed in Beta Space was theseductive multimedia Iamscope, by visiting Canadianartist Sid Fels. Iamscope allowed visitors to effectivelybecome a colourful piece of glass inside a computer-generated kaleidoscope, their movementstransforming into kaleidoscopic images projected onto a large screen.

New artworks will be installed in Beta Space regularlyso don’t forget to drop in to Cyberworlds when younext visit the Powerhouse.

experimenting with artNEW ART AND TECHNOLOGY COME TOGETHER IN BETA SPACE.

IAMSCOPE IN ACTION. PHOTO BY MARINCO KOJDANOVSKI.


A stunning selection from the renowned collection ofthe Benaki Museum in Athens has been gathered fordisplay at the Powerhouse Museum. Greek treasuresillustrates the vibrancy of Greek domestic, politicaland artistic life over a period of eight thousand years.The exhibition’s historical span and dazzling variety ofmedia is an unrivalled opportunity for Australianaudiences to marvel over the creative riches that thisbeautiful region has inspired. Totalling nearly 170objects, such a range of Greek material has neverbefore been seen in a single exhibition in Australia.

Like the Benaki Museum in Athens, the exhibition isorganised chronologically — presenting the culturaland stylistic development of Hellenism from 6000 BCto the Greek War of Independence (1821-29). Theexhibition highlights the creativity of the Greek worldin isolation, but also reveals how local creativityincorporated influences from east and west.Reflecting the extraordinary breadth of the Benakicollection, it includes prehistoric and historic figurinesand statuary, ceramics, jewellery, painted icons andmetalware, architectural fittings, ecclesiasticvestments, embroidered textiles, costumes, ornateweaponry, watercolours and oil paintings. Alsorepresented are objects made in the Greek diaspora,such as textile fragments from Egypt which havesurvived from about 600 AD thanks to that country’sdry climate and optimum conditions for preservation.

The highlights of the exhibition are many. Some of theearliest material includes Neolithic pottery (about5800 BC) and a marble sculpture from the Cycladicislands at the heart of the Aegean Sea (about 2600BC). Known as a ‘Cycladic idol’, the stylised humanform of sculptures such as this are famed for theirapparent modernity, an attribute which influenced20th-century artists such as the British sculptor HenryMoore. Antiquity is further represented by a superbselection of gold jewellery, sculpture and ceramicsfrom the Mycenaean, Geometric, Archaic, Hellenisticand Roman periods (about 1600 BC to the fourthcentury AD). Beautiful marble heads from the Archaicto the Classical periods show regional variety,including the revival during the Roman period ofmuch admired classical-style sculpture. Of specialnote is a spectacular gold wreath dating to theHellenistic period (after the death of Alexander the

Great in 323 BC). While emulating the victory wreathsof sporting heroes, this gold example from a tombwas used to crown the deceased as a symbol ofyouthful achievement and everlasting victory.

Objects from later periods convey the splendour ofHellenism as the Christianised successor to Rome atthe empire’s new centre in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul). Founded by Constantine the Great in324 AD, it was originally called Byzantium in earlyantiquity and its extensive territories are known asthe Byzantine Empire — Byzantine being the name bywhich Greek culture of this period (fourth to 15thcenturies AD) is identified. With the fall ofConstantinople in 1453 to the Ottoman Sultan MehmetII, the empire’s borders shrank and Greece-properonce again became the centre of Hellenic culture,albeit under Ottoman rule.

To many people Byzantine art is most readilyidentified with inspiring religious icons, and examplesin the exhibition demonstrate the tradition betweenthe 1400s and 1700s. But the exhibition alsoshowcases secular Byzantine material, including acarved wooden window frame with shutters, a child’stunic and sandals, elaborate bronze lamps and goldjewellery. From later in the Byzantine period can beseen an incense burner, an illuminated manuscriptfrom Mount Athos and a delightful glazed bowldepicting a dancer playing castanets.

The Greek islands are well represented in theexhibition by objects made during the Ottomanoccupation. Maritime-themed jewellery is inevitablyprominent and includes exquisite golden caravelearrings. Rare complete costumes from the 18th and19th centuries demonstrate regional variety, changingdramatically from island to island.

Oil and watercolour paintings from the early to mid-19th century illustrate iconic scenes from Greece’sstruggle for independence, often by sympatheticwestern Europeans. The famous Greek boy byAlexandre-Marie Colin dates to the first year ofindependence (1829-30) — the young boy is fullyarmed and in traditional dress as an allegory forGreece’s freshly regained nationhood. Paintings ofAthens include historically valuable views of theParthenon, as it was prior to Lord Elgin’s desecration.

One of Elgin’s most famous critics is depicted in LordByron’s oath on the tomb of Marcos Botsaris. Byron’sdeath in 1824 while fighting for Greek independenceinspired greater European support for the cause.

Athens, Greece and the world are fortunate that afamily had the generosity and foresight to create theBenaki Museum and its numerous branches. Now runprincipally by the Benaki foundation, the Benakifamily founded the museum from the collectionformed principally by Antonis Benaki (1873-1954). Bypooling each family member’s shares in theNeoclassical mansion in Athens, the family gave thecollection a permanent home where it opened in 1931.The Benaki family had lived in Alexandria, Egypt, andwhilst a part of that Greek diaspora Antonis Benakieagerly collected Islamic art — a part of thecollection recently housed in its own museum inAthens. Antonis Benaki was also a patriot, however,and the scope of the Greek collection reflects hislove of Greece. That original collection has grownsignificantly to ensure the Benaki has one of the mostextensive collections of its kind in the world today.

The Benaki exhibition is the most recent in a string ofcollaborative projects between the Powerhouse and anumber of museums in Greece. Last year the newlybuilt Benaki Cultural Centre was the venue for Ourplace: Indigenous Australia now, an exhibitiondeveloped by the Powerhouse and Museum Victoriafor the Cultural Olympiad of the Athens 2004 OlympicGames. This exhibition was a reciprocal gift followingthe Hellenic Republic’s generous loan of ancientsculpture and sports-related antiquities for thePowerhouse exhibition 1000 years of the OlympicGames: treasures of ancient Greece, during theSydney Olympics.

Thanks to the generosity of the Benaki Foundationand the director Angelos Delivorrias and his staff, ourcultural bonds with Greece are further strengthenedwith this exhibition of treasures documenting the rich,complex history of Greece through the millennia.

Greek treasures: from the Benaki Museum in Athensopens on 5 May. The exhibition is accompanied by abeautifully illustrated publication (see page 6).

Media Partners: Seven Network and SBS Radio.

A NEW EXHIBITION CELEBRATES EIGHT THOUSANDYEARS OF GREEK CREATIVITY AND ACHIEVEMENT.story_PAUL DONNELLY, CURATOR, INTERNATIONAL DECORATIVE ARTS AND DESIGN

greek treasures

FISH-SHAPED BRONZE FLASK, PROBABLY USED FOR PERFUMED OIL, EGYPT, ABOUT 400 AD; HEAD OF HERAKLES WITH A LION-SKIN, CYPRUS, ABOUT 500 BC; CARVEDWOODEN WINDOW FRAME WITH SHUTTERS, EGYPT, ABOUT 700 AD; GLAZED BOWL, CONSTANTINOPLE, ABOUT 1200 AD. © BENAKI MUSEUM


a striking donation

THE GENEROSITY OF MS ANNE SCHOFIELD AMHAS ENRICHED THE MUSEUM’S COLLECTION OF19TH-CENTURY JEWELLERY

FROM TOP: MOORISH BROOCH OF GOLD, OPALS AND EMERALDS, POSSIBLY MADE IN ENGLAND, RETAILED BY HARDY BROTHERS IN SYDNEYABOUT 1860S. MOURNING LOCKET MADE BY JOHN WILKINSON, ENGLAND, 1826. BROOCH OF GOLD, ENAMELLED TURQUOISE, EMERALDS ANDDIAMONDS, RETAILED BY WALSH AND SONS JEWELLERS, MELBOURNE, ABOUT 1855-61. PHOTOS BY MARINCO KOJDANOVSKI.

‘Please try and send half dozen really strikingbrooches’ wrote John Hardy from Sydney to hisbrother Samuel in London in March 1862. John Hardywas an English watchmaker who founded HardyBrothers in Australia in 1853. The business was formany years based both in London and Australia, inBrisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. In its early years,Hardy Brothers was almost exclusively a retailer andmost pieces were imported from England through theoffices of Hardy’s brother Samuel, who was based inLondon. The brothers had a volatile relationship andin 1859, John Hardy bitterly protested about the low-quality stock Samuel was sending to the colony andurged his brother to send more brooches as theysold well in the colony.

A recent donation by Anne Schofield of a broochretailed by Hardy Brothers could well be one of the‘striking brooches’ sent from London to pique thecolonial interest. Made of chased and engravedgold, the brooch is scrolled and outlined with fine lineropework and beading with swags of gold chainterminating in gold tassels. Finished with emeraldsand opals, the brooch shows the influence of exotictaste, specifically Moorish decoration. This style wasinfluenced by archaeological discoveries as well asFrance’s invasion and annexation of Algeria in the1830s and 40s. Moorish style was also encounteredthrough objects shown in the international exhibitions,which were a major source of inspiration to jewellersand fashion in general.

Anne Schofield is a long-standing supporter andbenefactor of the Museum. In 2001 she was awardedthe title of Life Fellow, the highest honorific titlebestowed by the Powerhouse Museum. Ms Schofieldhas made generous donations of jewellery, costume,juvenilia and fashion to the Museum’s collection. Thismost recent donation of 19th-century jewellery alsoincludes another colonial brooch and a demi-parure.The brooch is in the form of a leaf set within arusticated frame, enamelled with turquoise blue andset with emeralds and diamonds. It came with a box

labelled ‘Walsh and Sons Jewellers, 53 Collins Street,East Melbourne’. Walsh and Sons was founded byHenry Sallows Walsh who later worked with his sons,Alfred and Frederick. Little is known about theretailer.

The demi-parure, a suite of jewellery that includedearrings and a brooch, is marked with the initials ofJ M Wendt, a prominent firm of Adelaide silversmiths,jewellers and retailers. Established by German-bornJochim Mattias Wendt (1830-1917) in 1854, the firm wasawarded ‘a First Degree of Merit for Jewellery andSilverware’ at the Sydney International Exhibition of1879. The demi-parure complements a number ofsignificant Wendt pieces in the collection, includingcommissioned presentation pieces such as silver-mounted emu eggs adorned with images ofAustralian Aborigines and native flora and fauna.

Along with the colonial jewellery, Anne Schofield hasdonated a cast-gold mourning locket decorated withseed pearls, gold wire and curled hair-work on a bluebackground. The reverse of the brooch is inscribed:‘Harriet Bower was born July 8th 1809 died March 15th1826, Caroline Sophia Bower was born June 23rd died1812 Jan 9th 1826’.

This latest addition to the Museum’s collection ofmourning jewellery is certainly among the mostimportant. It is identical to a locket held by the BritishMuseum, and both probably include the hair of thesisters it commemorates. Mourning jewellerycontaining locks of hair was popular throughout the1800s and became a major industry inspired byQueen Victoria’s overt and sustained mourning forPrince Albert, who died in 1861.

The mourning locket and colonial jewellerygenerously donated by Anne Schofield under theCultural Gifts Program can be seen on level 4 fromMarch, before going on display in the new exhibitionInspired! Design across time opening in August.

Louise Mitchell, Curator, Decorative Arts and Design


soundhouseTM

workshops forteenagers

from themembersteam

This month SoundHouse, theMuseum’s digital music lab, islaunching a new club-styleprogram exclusively forteenage members. In aninformal atmosphere, youngpeople can produce originalmusic, animations and videosin collaboration with our expertmedia tutors.

Participants in SoundHouseWorkshops for Teenagers buildtheir media production skillsand networks as they worktogether in project teams oneach step of the creativeprocess — from idea to final

DVD or CD (which they cantake home). Experiencedtutors are on hand to providetips and techniques along theway. Each month workshopswill cover a different aspectof digital media practice,giving participants theopportunity to build up theirunderstanding of how thevarious programs intersect.

SoundHouse Workshops forTeenagers are held on thelast Saturday of each month.Check the events calendarfor details.

Powerhouse memberscelebrated in style at theannual New Year’s Eve party atSydney Observatory (picturedon page 14). Along withfabulous food, great companyand stunning fireworks, thecomet Machholz put on quite ashow for us as it shot acrossthe night sky. Of course thisNew Year’s Eve we alsoremembered the tsunamivictims, and everyonecontributed to our fundraisingraffle. The lucky winner, TimDisher, received a Name-a-Starpack courtesy of SydneyObservatory.

We would like to welcome allof our new members who havejoined since The Lord of theRings Motion Picture Trilogy –The Exhibition opened. Weknow that many of you havealready enjoyed our exclusivemembers viewings, but if youhaven’t then don’t miss thefinal viewing which will includea tour of the exhibition led bycurator Kerrie Dougherty.

We’re also pleased toannounce that IMG, thecompany recently appointedto jointly manage theMuseum’s retail stores, would

like to welcome members tothe new look PowerhouseShop by offering a series ofdiscount shopping daysthroughout the year. The firstof these events will be in May,just in time for Mother’s Day(see events calendar fordetails).

We encourage you to pop upto the Members Lounge andmeet the Members team nexttime you visit the Museum.

The Members team

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JOIN OUR NEW DIGITAL MEDIA CLUB EXCLUSIVELY FOR TEENAGE MEMBERS

+ news and photos

+ prizes to be won

+ exclusive events

+ family activities

+ special offers

DIGITAL MUSIC, ANIMATION AND VIDEO ARE COVERED AT SOUNDHOUSEWORKSHOPS FOR TEENAGERS. IMAGE BY TRIGGERDESIGN

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FROM THE GREEK TREASURES EXHIBITION, A GOLD KYLIX(CUP), GREECE, MADE ABOUT 1200 AD. © BENAKI MUSEUM

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Members e-newsletter

If you would like to receive the regular Memberse-newsletter with updates on all members eventsplease call (02) 9217 0600 or [email protected] with your membershipnumber and e-newsletter in the subject line.

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Wednesday 4 May

Exhibition launch: Greek treasures: from the Benaki Museum in Athens

This exciting collaboration between thePowerhouse and the Benaki Museum in Athensbrings to Australia a selection of treasuresspanning eight millennia of Greek history andprehistory. Members are invited to celebrate theopening of this outstanding exhibition, which will belaunched by the director of the Benaki Museum,Mr Angelos Delivorrias. Includes refreshments.

6.00 – 8.00 pmCost: members $35 (adults only).

Wednesday 6 April

Sydney ObservatoryEinstein for beginners

This year is the International Year of Physics and acelebration of the 100th anniversary of Einstein’sspecial theory of relativity. Although a century old,this theory is our best description of the way spaceand time work together. Find out why when Dr PaulPayne demonstrates Einstein’s concepts withentertaining multimedia animations anddemonstrations suitable for all those interested andstudents of year 11/12 Physics. The evening includesa short break with a telescope viewing of stars,Saturn and Jupiter (if weather permits) and lightrefreshments.

6.00 – 9.00 pmCost: members – $12 students & adults; guests – $15 students & adults.Teachers/adults accompanying a minimum of two students are free.Bookings essential on (02) 9217 0485 pr 9241 3767.

Sunday 1 May

Mother’s Day shoppingMembers discount shopping day

The Powerhouse Shop invites all members to a specialshopping day. Choose from our range of simple, stylishand sumptuous gifts — there’s something for everymother. Just show your membership card to enjoy aspecial 20% discount on most items and free giftwrapping.

10.00 am – 5.00 pmCost: free.

Wednesday 16 March

Exclusive members viewing The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy– The Exhibition

Back by popular demand! This is your finalopportunity to enjoy the exhibition without thecrowds. Join curator Kerrie Dougherty on a tour ofthe exhibition and explore the costumes, weaponry,models and special effects that made Middle-earthcome alive. A light meal will be available from theMuseum’s cafe (cost not included).

6.00 – 9.00 pmCost: members $25 adults / $15 child / $60 family (2A & 2C).

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SEE EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS WITH THETRILOGY’S CAST, CREW AND DIRECTORIN THE LORD OF THE RINGS MOTIONPICTURE TRILOGY – THE EXHIBITION.PHOTO COURTESY © NLP, INC

Coming soon ... the Annual Members Dinner is not to be missed.Look out for details in the next issue of Powerline.

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members’ calendar


Saturday 26 March

SoundHouseTM Workshops for Teenagers Digital Video with Sony Vegas

Create your own video project in this workshopwhich combines digital imaging and soundproduction skills. You’ll learn how to use videoediting software Sony Vegas, that turns yourcomputer into a virtual television studio. Thishands-on workshop includes time for projectdevelopment.

1.00 – 5.00 pmCost: members $60; guests $90 (includes student membership).

Sunday 20 March

Kids workshop Alphabet wings

Alphabet wings is a new children’s book that takesyoung readers on a world journey flying through 26cities, beginning with Amsterdam and ending withZurich. Each visit introduces the reader to a uniqueaspect of that city by exploring festivals, foods,legends, sounds, smells and architecture. Every city isin a different country and together they represent allthe major continents. Join author Ilana Kresner for areading of the book and a fun workshop making acharacter from Alphabet wings. Suitable for 5 to 10year olds.

Signed copies of the book will be available forpurchase on the day.

10.30 am – 12.00 pmCost: members $25 child; guests $30 (accompanying adults free).

Saturday 7 May

Exhibition and walking tourParadise, Purgatory and Hellhole: a history of Pyrmontand Ultimo

Join exhibition curator Anni Turnbull for a tour of thenew exhibition Paradise, Purgatory and Hellhole: ahistory of Pyrmont and Ultimo. Anni will describe whycertain stories and objects were chosen to tell thehistory of the area. She will also lead a short walkingtour of Ultimo, revealing more of the fascinatingstories associated with the suburb.

10.30 am – 12.30 pmCost: members $10; guests $15.

Saturday 28 May

SoundHouseTM Workshops for Teenagers Stop Motion Animation with Stop Motion Pro

Stop Motion Pro is an Australian product forcreating ‘stop frame’ animation projects, wherestories are captured image by image, frame byframe, into the computer via digital camera. Letyour imagination run free as you design andproduce your own short story. Includes projectdevelopment time.


Due to limited places, bookings are essential for everyevent. Please ring the Members hotline on (02) 92170600 to make your booking before you send inpayment. For events at Sydney Observatory, pleasering (02) 9217 0485. Please leave a message quotingyour membership number, what event you are bookingfor and the number of members and guests. We willconfirm your booking.

Tuesday 19 April

Sydney ObservatoryJupiter Party Day

This is a fantastic day of Jupiter fun suitable forchildren ages 3 to 8 years old. Included in entry is aphotograph of Jupiter, a floating Gas Giant balloon,face painting, games, a Jovian Moon passport and a3-D Space Theatre experience. Parents can enjoyour Jupiter Cafe Express refreshment bar.

10.30 am – 2.00 pmCost: members $8 child; guests $10 child (accompanying adults free).Jupiter party bags $10. No need to book.

Saturday 30 April

SoundHouseTM Workshops for Teenagers Digital Audio with Sony Sound Forge

Sony Sound Forge is an industry standard, audio-editing system. In this workshop you’ll discover what apowerful tool it is for manipulating a wide variety ofsound files. You will also learn how to use digitalsound-processing effects such as EQ, compressionand reverb. Sound Forge is the ideal software withwhich to ‘post produce’ your soundtrack usingmastering techniques. This workshop includes projectdevelopment time.


Saturday 28 May

VectorLabIntroduction to Photoshop and digital imaging

Unlock the creative possibilities of digital photographyand imaging with this workshop designed to give astep-by-step introduction to the major elements ofcreating and manipulating digital photos. Theworkshop covers topics such as cropping, cutting,montage, layers, digital drawing, adding text andoutputting images for both print and web. It will alsodiscuss digital cameras and computer hardware.

10.00 am – 3.30 pmCost: members $100; guests $130.

Join our new digital mediaworkshops, exclusively forteenage members.+

We accept: credit card payments by phone, fax ormail; cheques; money orders; or cash at the level 4entrance to the Museum. We pay for all events oncebookings are confirmed, so if you are unable to attendyour event, please let us know ASAP or we will chargeyou to cover costs. All events are held at the Powerhouse Museum unless otherwise stated. Alldates, times and venues are correct at time of publication.

how to book for members events payment for members events

GOLD MEDALLION WITH BUST OFAPHRODITE AND EROS, ALEXANDRIAEGYPT, 200 BC. © BENAKI MUSEUM.THE TERMINUS WAS THE PUB AT THEEND OF THE PYRMONT TRAM LINE.PHOTO BY JEAN-FRANCOISLANZARONE.


win aNew Zealandholiday

membersscene MEMBERS RELAX AND ENJOY THE

VIEW FROM INSIDE THEOBSERVATORY MARQUEE .

MEMBERS CELEBRATE IN THEOBSERVATORY COURTYARD.

Powerhouse members celebrated in style at our fabulousNew Year’s Eve party at Sydney Observatory. It was anevening of stunning fireworks and great company. PHOTOS BY SOTHA BOURN AND MIKE JONES.

To celebrate The Lord of theRings Motion Picture Trilogy –the Exhibition, PowerhouseMembers are offering theopportunity for one luckymember to win a family holidayto New Zealand, where you willexperience the scenery thatmade Middle-earth come alive.

�

The winner will receive flightscourtesy of Air New Zealand; atour of some of the filmlocations around New Zealand;five nights accommodation inthe heart of Wellington, only ashort distance from the TePapaMuseum; and all transfers.

All memberships current on 31March 2005 will automaticallybe entered into the draw. For full terms and conditions visitwww.powerhousemuseum.com/members.

Authorised under NSW Permit No TPL04/13604

FABULOUS FARE, INCLUDING AGELATO BAR, WAS ON OFFERTHROUGHOUT THE NIGHT.

THE SPECTACULAR VIEW FROMTHE OBSERVATORY, SIMPLY ONEOF THE BEST PLACES IN SYDNEYTO ENJOY THE FIREWORKS.

A YOUNG STARGAZER.

THE PAT POWELL QUARTETENTERTAINED PARTYGOERS WITHSWING JAZZ.


‘I always thought it was a suburb of dreams’ saysRaymond Kersh, who grew up in Pyrmont in the 1950sand now runs the Sydney restaurant Edna’s Table withhis sister Jennice. He has happy memories of theirchildhood, living in public housing in Ways Terrace.‘We were poor but had a strong community.’

In the new exhibition Paradise, Purgatory andHellhole: a history of Pyrmont and Ultimo, the diversememories of residents, past and present, conjure upthe area’s grit, smoke, noise and above all, sense ofcommunity. One resident’s memories are based onsmell; from the sweet smell of the sugar refinery tothe less agreeable power stations.

Industry looms large in the story of Pyrmont andUltimo. The area provided Sydney with power for itslights and trams, and was a major centre for thedistribution of Australian wool, milk, flour and otherfoodstuffs. Pyrmont’s quarries also provided thesandstone used to build many of the city’s landmarkssuch as Sydney University, Town Hall and St Mary’sCathedral. These quarries, locally known as Paradise,Purgatory and Hellhole, gave Sydney its distinctivelook but in doing so literally carved away much of thepeninsula.

The suburb’s more picturesque past is also recalledin the exhibition. Pyrmont, which was once the estateof Captain John Macarthur, was so-named in 1806because its ‘pure and uncontaminated spring’

reminded one visitor of the German spa town ofPyrmont. At that time Ultimo was a grand rural estate,complete with grazing deer, owned by the surgeonand magistrate John Harris. Few traces of the area’searly colonial past remain, although a brick fromUltimo House has survived in the Museum’s collection.

The exhibition contains a collection of objects,paintings and photographs which reflect the dramaticchanges the area has undergone over the past 200-plus years. One artist who painted the area for over adecade during the intensive development of the1980s and 90s, recalls how everything she paintedwas pulled down or condemned. Jane Bennett wouldsometimes start a sketch only to return the next dayand find her subject matter in ruins.

Together with presenting a rich visual record of lostbuildings and industries, the exhibition invites you toexperience the many human stories that emerge froma community that hasn’t stopped changing andshifting. The opening of the exhibition coincides witha community celebration, the annual Ultimo andPyrmont Uptown Festival, which will be held onQuarry Green on Saturday 19 March.

Paradise, Purgatory and Hellhole: a history of Pyrmontand Ultimo opens on 19 March.

Anni Turnbull, Assistant Curator, Australian History

suburb of dreamsA NEW EXHIBITION MAPS THE CHANGINGFACES OF PYRMONT AND ULTIMO.

BIRD’S EYE VIEW OF PYRMONT, 1919. ‘POWERHOUSE, ULTIMO’LINOCUT BY BRUCE GOOLD, 1988.


In 1893 the museum we now know as the Powerhousewas called the Technological Museum. One of thefirst purpose-built technology museums in the world,it was organised into a strict hierarchy of objects withminerals on the ground floor, vegetables on the firstand animals on the second. But what was a‘Technological Museum’ and what did it do?

While museums of art and natural sciences have along history dating back to the renaissance, the ideaof collecting and exhibiting ‘technology’ was thedirect result of the industrial revolution. TheConservatoire des Arts et Metiers, which opened inParis in 1802, was the first to attempt what its founderAbbé Gregoire described as ‘une encyclopedie entrois dimensions’. It would be half a century beforesimilar museums were formed in Britain with theIndustrial Museum of Scotland (1855) and the SouthKensington Museum of Science and Art (1857). Whatwas unusual about these museums was that ratherthan collecting the rare and curious, they collectedthe ‘everyday’. For their chief purpose was to explain‘the science of everyday life’.

At the time colonial children left school at 12 after arudimentary education in reading, writing andarithmetic, perhaps with additional lessons ingeography and book-keeping for boys andneedlework for girls. Although expected to operatequite complex machines in factories, on farms or on

construction projects most had little understanding ofthe physics or chemistry on which they relied.Museum exhibits — by the careful selection ofobjects, diagrams and photographs — could remedythis failing and, aided by technical colleges, therebyimprove the innovative capacity of the nation.

This Museum’s first curator, Joseph Maiden, had beenemployed by Thomas Twining, one of the founders ofthe movement to educate working people, to deliverlectures on scientific subjects to London’s workingmen and women. Not surprisingly, therefore, underMaiden’s direction — and that of his successors —Sydney’s new Technological Museum focused oncollecting and exhibiting animal, vegetable andmineral objects that explained the ‘science’ behindthe food people drank, the clothes they wore, thehomes they lived in and the machines they operated.

The new exhibition Animal, vegetable and mineral: theweird and wonderful world of the PowerhouseMuseum 1880-1939 explores the acquisition andorganisation of these collections. In so doing it bringsto light some great treasures not seen for manyyears. After the loss of the first collection in theGarden Palace fire, Maiden embarked enthusiasticallyon a collecting program. With money to spend —and new companies producing models, diagramsand charts for technology museums and colleges —he was able to quickly fill his exhibition space in the

Domain and, later, the Harris Street museum.

Among the fascinating objects in the exhibition arethe framed ‘object lesson cards’ which illustrate theproducts of particular animals, vegetables andminerals; the collection of horses teeth that shows‘common frauds’ and the models of silkworms andmoths articulated to show the different parts. Also ondisplay are some of the watercolours of native plantsof ‘economic value’ commissioned for the newMuseum, and examples of the products collected forresearch in the Museum’s laboratories on possiblecommercial applications of these plants.

Animal, vegetable and mineral is a rare opportunity tosee the marvels collected and exhibited by theMuseum in its early years. It also helps us understandwhy 19th-century technology museums grew andprospered, evolving into some of the great museumsof the world.

Animal, vegetable and mineral: the weird andwonderful world of the Powerhouse Museum 1880-1939 opens on 6 April.

Dr Kimberley Webber, Senior Curator,Australian HistoryThis exhibition is the result of research currently being undertaken for anAustralian Research Council linkage grant between the PowerhouseMuseum and Sydney University by Dr Kimberley Webber and EmeritusProfessor Roy MacLeod.

weird and wonderful

A NEW EXHIBITION EXPLORES THE MUSEUM’S FOUNDINGVISION: TO EXPLAIN ‘THE SCIENCE OF EVERYDAY LIFE’.

THIS MODEL OF ‘EDIBLE AND NON EDIBLE FUNGI’, FROM THE PARISIAN WORKSHOP OF DR AUZOUX, WASAMONG THE BOTANICAL AND ZOOLOGICAL MODELS ACQUIRED BY JOSEPH MAIDEN IN THE 1880S.


Like most Melburnians, I have a secret love ofSydney. Sydney is the id to Melbourne’s ego, theurban pleasure-ground that Melburnians love tovisit, even if they do not stay. For 25 years I havebeen coming here, often staying at the PalisadeHotel on Miller’s Point while I worked in the MitchellLibrary or the archives, savouring the morning viewstowards the bridge and down Darling Harbourtowards the Maritime Museum and the Powerhouse.In the 1980s, when I helped write one of theBicentennial History series, I met some of the teamof young historians devising exhibits for the newPowerhouse Museum. It was a Museum unlike any Ihad known before, and its commitment to bringAustralian history to the people in three-dimensional form became a model for the kind ofvivid social history we were also attempting in ourwritings. Our histories were launched just as thePowerhouse opened. They were children of thesame exciting moment.

Over the years I’ve kept coming back to thePowerhouse. For years I had taught the history ofthe industrial revolution, introducing students to thegreat technological changes that made the modernworld. I had visited the Science Museum in Londonand seen its array of steam engines; but until Ientered the Powerhouse shortly after its opening in1988 I had never enjoyed the awesome spectacle ofan original Boulton and Watt engine working understeam. Ever since, the Powerhouse has been for methe standard-setter among Australian museumswith striking and innovative exhibitions like Beyondarchitecture, Cars and culture and Lucien Henry. SoKevin Fewster’s invitation to participate inresearching and writing a new history of thePowerhouse and its precursors was irresistible.

Early on in the project, we decided that thePowerhouse’s history was too rich and varied to bewritten as a single-author, chronological narrative.

Too much of its life overlapped the walls of theinstitution itself and flowed into the broader historyof the state and the nation. This was a history inwhich objects were as important, and required ascareful a reading, as documents. So we began toexplore the idea of a volume in which Museumcurators and academic historians, insiders andoutsiders, would work together to open up thediverse themes that characterised the Museum’sendeavours over its 125 years. Yesterday’stomorrows, the result of our collaboration, is not onestory, but many; each refracting an aspect of themulti-sided institution that has long been Sydney’swindow on the world.

For me, personally, the project has brought manypleasures. Since writing a history of time telling inAustralia, The unforgiving minute, I have beenfascinated, as generations of Sydneysiders havebeen, by one of the Museum’s most famous objects,the ‘Strasburg’ clock. In one of the chapters of thehistory I explore the ‘secret life’ of the clock and itsremarkable owner Richard Smith. In another I haveworked with one of the Museum’s curators, DebbieRudder, to explore the steam-powered worldlaunched by Boulton and Watt. I’ve gained someinsights into the public culture of the city and statethat created and nurtured the Museum over its first125 years. And, with the help of my talented andpatient co-editor Kimberley Webber, I have got toknow much more about the ideas, achievements,quirks and foibles of the numberless people —curators, directors, collectors, visitors — who, asmuch as its collections and buildings, are thePowerhouse Museum. I’ve had a ball.

Professor Graeme Davison

Yesterday’s tomorrow’s: the Powerhouse Museumand its precursors is available from May. See page6 for details.

yesterday’stomorrows

EMINENT HISTORIAN ANDAUTHOR GRAEME DAVISONHAS CO-EDITED A NEW HISTORYOF THE MUSEUM. HE DESCRIBESTHE EXPERIENCE HERE.

CLOCKWISE: GRAEME DAVISON WITH CO-EDITOR KIMBERLEYWEBBER. PHOTO BY SOTHA BOURN. DETAIL OF THE ‘STRASBURG’CLOCK. MADE IN SYDNEY IN 1888 AS A ‘GIFT’ TO THE COLONY, ITQUICKLY BECAME ONE OF THE MUSEUM’S MOST POPULAR EXHIBITS.PHOTO BY ANDREW FROLOWS. WATT BEAM ENGINE MODEL MADE BYCARL SCHRODER IN GERMANY AND ACQUIRED BY THE MUSEUM IN1884. AT A TIME WHEN STEAM ENGINES WERE COMMONPLACE,MODELS WERE VALUABLE INSTRUCTIONAL TOOLS AND STANDARDMUSEUM EXHIBITS. PHOTO BY MARINCO KODJANOVSKI.


stories from the archives

From its inception, this museum was envisioned asmore than just a single museum serving the peopleof Sydney. It was to be an active research institutewhere the curator and his assistants would broadlycommunicate the ‘science’ behind everyday life tothe public, through exhibitions, lectures, branchmuseums, catalogues and publications. It was thisbroad vision that undoubtedly led to Joseph Maidenbeing appointed the Museum’s first curator.

Although only aged 22 when he first arrived inAustralia, Maiden’s English education in science andart at South Kensington, combined with hisexperience teaching science to working people, musthave made him an attractive proposition for themuseum’s first management committee. On 3October 1881 he took up the position ‘assisting inarrangement and general work’ in the TechnologicalMuseum then being established in the GardenPalace.

With first the Garden Palace Museum to set up andthen, after the disastrous fire of 1882, the Museum inthe Outer Domain, Maiden had little time forpublications in these early years. But he remainedmindful of the importance both of research and ofcommunicating that research to a broad audience. Alaboratory was set up in the Museum and (havingtrained in botany) Maiden was quick to recognise thepotential of research into the commercial possibilitiesof native plants. He undertook forays into the bushhimself, gathering leaves, seeds, barks and gums forinvestigation back at the Museum. But the demandsof his young family must have limited hisopportunities to travel extensively. In 1886 thereforehe engaged a ‘collector’, William Bäuerlen: ‘To procurefrom this botanical terra incognita, tan barks, grasses,salt bushes, gums, resins, kinos etc and othereconomic products, many of which it is confidentlyhoped, will be new to Science and Commerce’.

Maiden took a keen interest in Bäuerlen’s work andthe two corresponded regularly. He must have soonrealised that in his collector he had a man who wasprepared to endure great hardships to secure thebest examples of native plants, but also had a keen

eye and ear for significant — and surprising —applications of these plants. It would appear thatBäuerlen moved easily among Aboriginal people andhis letters are rich in detail about their names forplants and uses of them. In 1886, for example, hewrote from Monga on the NSW south coast that hehad observed Aboriginal men in the area catchingfish by throwing leaves of Acacia penninervis into awaterhole and catching the fish as they rose to thesurface. At Quidong, near Bombala, while collectingthe gum of Eucalyptus stuartiana, he wasapproached by two women who told him, ‘they knowof nothing which cleanses teeth so quickly and soeffectively … put a bit of gum into the mouth and letit dissolve’. It is clear from Maiden’s annotations onthese letters — ‘very important’, ‘Mr Cole to note’ —that he realised the potential Bäuerlen’s researcheshad for publication.

In 1889 Maiden brought out the Museum’s first majorpublication, The useful native plants of Australia(including Tasmania). Approval had been given by theboard of management almost two years earlier but bythe time it reached the printer the proposed ‘littlebook’ had grown to almost 700 pages. Maiden’soriginal intention had been to publish a catalogue ofthe Museum’s specimens of ‘plants indigenous toAustralia’. In the course of finalising the text, however,more new plants kept arriving at the Museum andMaiden realised the catalogue would never becomplete. His solution was to extend it ‘to include allAustralian plants … known to be of economic value orinjurious to man and domestic animals’.

The result is an extraordinary compendium whereplants are grouped according to their economic usesuch as for timber, drugs or food. Drawing heavily onthe observations of Bäuerlen and others, Maidenargued that his book was the essentialaccompaniment for anyone travelling into theAustralian bush. ‘Knowledge in regard to theindigenous food resources of these colonies shouldbe considered an absolute necessity by those whoseavocations take them out of beaten tracks … we areindebted to the aboriginals [sic] for a method ofobtaining water … no adult in Australia should beignorant of it.’

Without the benefit of a university education and withno research experience outside the Museum, Usefulnative plants was a remarkable achievement forMaiden and he was justifiably proud of the results.Some 750 copies were printed and many were sentoff to colleagues and friends in Australia andoverseas. At the same time he energetically pursuedpossibilities for sales, sending 250 copies to aLondon bookseller with the belief that the recentColonial and Indian Exhibition had fostered ‘anintense desire amongst the people of Great Britain tolearn about Australia and her resources’. No recordssurvive to attest whether or not this was the case.

Although Useful native plants received little attentionin the scientific press, Maiden must have beenpleased with the results as it marked the beginningof an active publication program. Practical leaflets —such as his hints on collecting raw materials for atechnology museum and his booklet on cultivatingwattles and wattle barks for the tanning industry —alternated with more extensive publications. In 1895,two years after the successful move to Ultimo andshortly before he became director of Sydney’sBotanic Gardens, Maiden brought out his most lavishwork and one that set a high standard for futurepublications, The flowering plants and ferns of NewSouth Wales, with especial reference to theireconomic value. Conceived as a series to be issuedin parts, each plant was beautifully illustrated with afull colour plate ‘not … overburdened with structuraldetail, and every effort will be made to securepictorial accuracy’. Seven of the proposed elevenparts were issued over the next three years until, asMaiden later confessed, publication ceased because‘it was represented to me that I was ruining thecountry by such extravagance’.

Despite its incomplete status, Flowering plantsremains a beautiful and useful guide to selectedflora of New South Wales. It established highstandards in writing, illustration and production, thatsuccessive Museum curators and directors havesought to emulate.

beautiful and useful

THE MUSEUM’S TALENTED FIRST CURATORPUBLISHED LAVISHLY ILLUSTRATED WORKS ON‘USEFUL NATIVE PLANTS’. story_DR KIMBERLEY WEBBER, SENIOR CURATOR, AUSTRALIAN HISTORY

RIGHT: A PAGE FROM FLOWERING PLANTS. THE PLATES WERE PRODUCED BY EDWARD MINCHEN, A LITHOGRAPHIC ARTIST, AND HENRY BARON, A DRAFTSMAN, UNDER THE DIRECTION OF MAIDEN. LIKE ALL MUSEUMPUBLICATIONS IT WAS INTENDED TO FOCUS ON PLANTS OF ‘ECONOMIC VALUE’, HOWEVER MAIDEN COULD NOT RESIST INCLUDING THIS IMAGE OF SYDNEY’S GOLDEN WATTLE, ACACIA LONGIFOLIA. ADMITTING THAT NEITHERITS TIMBER NOR ITS BARK WERE PARTICULARLY USEFUL COMMERCIALLY, NONETHELESS ‘IN FULL BLOOM ITS APPEARANCE IS SIMPLY GORGEOUS’. ABOVE: A FORMAL PORTRAIT OF MAIDEN AFTER HE HAD LEFT THE MUSEUMTO TAKE UP HIS POSITION AS DIRECTOR OF THE BOTANIC GARDENS.



When Museum deputy director Howard McKerninterviewed Keith Landy for a job in September 1970,he told the young electrician that the Museum hadbig plans for expansion and this was his opportunityto ‘get in on the ground floor’. Keith took the job andover the next three decades was part of the mostdramatic and exciting growth in the Museum’s history.Keith is now the Museum’s longest serving employeeand he is one of a group of 34 people who haveworked at the Museum for 20 years or more.Interestingly, three quarters are men, and almost onethird are curators.

Back in 1970 the Museum was a vastly different place.There were just over 50 staff, ‘mostly older men’ andKeith worked alongside carpenters, painters, fitterand turners and mechanics in a basement workshopof the old Museum building in Harris Street. Some ofthe most popular exhibits were the transparentwoman, the planetarium and demonstrations ofcolour television. The Museum’s chemistry and botanylaboratories were still operating and Castle Hill was aworking eucalypt farm. Keith divided his timebetween lighting exhibition showcases and generalmaintenance. ‘It was full on but very ordered,’ he says.He also did regular trips to the country branchmuseums in Goulburn, Albury and Bathurst, ‘but notBroken Hill — it was too far to send me’.

John Browne had an odd introduction to the Museumin 1978. ‘On my first day,’ John recalls, ‘the headattendant took me up to the top floor to meet all themanagers and staff. They were all wearing dustmasks and caps, clearing out the storage area whichhadn’t been touched in about 50 years,’ he says.

John was one of six museum attendants, a job thatcovered gallery officer, security officer, museumguide and showcase cleaner. The Boulton and Wattengine and Locomotive No 1 were kept at the rear ofthe Museum and it was the attendants’ job to keepthem polished. ‘They weren’t advertised exhibits.Visitors had to ask the attendant to see them.’ Otherjobs that fell to John included handing out pennies tochildren to play the music boxes on the second floor,and pressing the button at precisely seven minutesto three each day to start the pre-recorded tape forthe ‘Strasburg’ clock.

‘We had lots of regulars. Some people came in andread books all day. On the first floor we had an areafor school holiday activities. Ultimo and Pyrmont werestill working class suburbs in those days so the localswould drop their kids off in the morning and pickthem up at five when the Museum closed. We hadbig crowds back then too. I think the most popularexhibition was the hologram exhibition (Space-light1982). There were people queued up around theblock and back to Central Station.’

Sydney Observatory was still a working researchcentre with four astronomers when Rob Renew beganworking there two nights a week as an evening guidein 1975. Carey Ward joined in 1980, looking after themaintenance of the scientific instruments. ‘It was astrange quasi-government outpost that no one reallyknew about,’ says Carey. ‘People were amazed to findthis place largely unchanged for 100 years and stillfunctioning. It seemed absurd to have an opticalobservatory in the middle of the CBD,’ adds Rob.

‘I was the first person employed by the Museum towork at the Observatory after they took it over,’ saysJeanie Kitchener who joined as a guide in 1983. ‘Itwas only open to the public on a Wednesdayafternoon. I would open the door and there would bea queue of people all down the path and out thegate. The 29 cm telescope was in the dome andthere were wooden seats all around it. The northdome wasn’t motorised and we had to move it byhand.’ After 1982 the Observatory no longer kept theofficial time clock, but it continued to operate thetime ball. ‘I would go up to the top of the tower everyday and raise the ball at six minutes to one and thendrop it at exactly one o’clock. I had to cheat and usethe pips from the ABC news,’ says Jeanie.

In 1980 the Museum opened a restoration workshopin Arncliffe to prepare exhibits for Stage 1, the firstexhibition area in what had been the old Ultimo tramsheds. Iain Scott-Stevenson began working there inMay and Keith Potter joined in September 1980. ‘Weprefabricated a railway station for Loco No 1 atArncliffe and we also built a full-size cockpit for aQantas jumbo flight simulator that was going ondisplay. Even though it was bolted to the floor, it wasso real, people used to hang on when the plane‘landed’,’ says Iain.

Stage I was the prelude to the opening of thePowerhouse Museum itself and staff began gearingup for this major project. ‘The entire period of settingup for the Powerhouse Museum was a time ofchallenge — we were sleeping here. People did it toget the thing open and there was a great sense ofachievement,’ says Keith Potter. ‘Watching the

twenty year club

AS PART OF OUR 125TH CELEBRATIONS, WEINVITED SOME OF OUR LONGEST SERVINGSTAFF TO SHARE THEIR MEMORIES. story_JUDITH MATHESON photos_JEAN-FRANCOIS LANZARONE


building being constructed — they were very excitingtimes and the enthusiasm was extraordinary. I wasasked to build a model of the new building whichwas on public display. Most people can’t readarchitectural plans so they would come and look atthe model. People began to see how vast it wasgoing to be,’ says Iain Scott-Stevenson.

Many new staff were hired in the years leading up to1988. Graphic designer Colin Rowan joined theMuseum in 1983, the year after it had closed to thepublic to become the project base for thePowerhouse. ‘The building was deserted apart from atroupe of ballerinas — the top floor had been loanedto a dance company by the director. When I finallyfound what was to become my office, I just looked atthe cast iron wall and door. I was told that it hadoriginally been the herbarium for research intoeucalyptus oils.’

Carpenter Graeme Plat was only 20 when he startedin the workshop in 1983. ‘Getting the Museum up andrunning for 1988 was an exciting time — seeing theloco moved into place and the planes suspendedfrom the roof. We were building things from scratch,like the habitation module in the Space exhibition.’

Artist Jacob del Castillo joined the Museum in 1984. ‘Itwas a good opportunity for me because they were inthe process of making the new Museum. I joined thedesign department which was part of the workshop.We were using very different techniques back then,like screenprinting labels. The process was very longbut it was fun.’ Geoff Friend joined Photography laterthat year. ‘The Museum was in project stage and we

were doing some really adventurous stuff. And on aregular basis we were documenting the progress ofthe building. We could get an ‘aerial perspective’ fromthe top of a building on the corner of Macarthur andHarris Streets that showed the Powerhouse in thecontext of Darling Harbour.’

Rob Renew led the team that created the Museum’sinteractive exhibits. This was new territory back in themid 80s. ‘We pioneered the art of computer-basedinteractives. We had to invent a way of designing,making and testing these exhibits. In 1987Commodore released a computer that madeeverything we had done up till then obsolete so wehad to scrap it all and start again. Everything we’vedone since is a descendent of the programming wedeveloped then.’

‘The most constant thing since 1978 has beenchange,’ says Keith Landy. ‘We’ve opened museums,we’ve closed museums. Nothing has stood still. I’veenjoyed the excitement of each new venue andthinking “What are we going to do with it?” And nowwe are working on Castle Hill. When I started it wasall trees. Now we have huge stores there.’

Today almost everyone laments that the Museum isnow too big to enjoy the close cooperation acrossdepartments that existed 20 years ago. So what is itthat keeps people here? For most it’s the variety ofwork and the diversity of people. ‘You are never, everbored,’ says Keith Landy. ‘I’ve worked on some greatexhibitions.’

Jacob del Castillo says, ‘This is not a factory. We doso many interesting things here. The people I’veworked with — they are very different characters withdifferent attitudes but everyone is trying to make themuseum work.’ ‘I do a bit of everything — carpentry,metalwork, plastic fabrication, a little bit of restorationwork,’ says Graham Plat. ‘There’s nowhere else youcan have a job like this,’ says Iain Scott-Stevenson.‘Commercial model-making is big business but it’sdead boring. Here I can come up with my own ideasand see them through.’

For others it is an abiding love of the collection.Carey Ward made the move from conservation toregistration three years ago. ‘I knew the PATH project(moving the Museum’s stores to Castle Hill) would beexciting and I thought I could make a real difference.We’ve had the opportunity to build new stores andplan it intensively. We are unpacking boxes andfinding objects we didn’t know we had. It’s given usthe opportunity to analyse the collection, store likewith like, and ultimately make it more accessible tothe public.’

‘I’ve been collecting since I was a kid and through myjob I have access to this amazing collection,’ saysKeith Potter. ‘Some of our collections are the best inthe world, like the early aircraft engines, the mineralcollection, botanical specimens and the woolcollection. I get paid to do what I like doing and that’sthe most exclusive club in the world.’

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: JACOB DEL CASTILLO, JEANIE KITCHENER,GEOFF FRIEND, COLIN ROWAN, ROB RENEW, KEITH LANDY, GRAEME PLAT.

Keith Landy

Jan Garland*

Denise Teale*

Jennifer Sanders, John Browne

Nick Lomb

Pat Townley, Andrew Grant, Ian Debenham, CareyWard*, Iain Scott-Stevenson, Keith Potter, Anne Watson

Kathy La Fontaine, Linda Larsen, Rob Renew*

Andrew Novosel, Robert Chancellor, Ian Banks

Kerrie Dougherty, Des Barrett, Jeanie Kitchener, ColinRowan, Graeme Plat, Kevin Laker, Toner Stevenson,Brad Baker

Jesse Shore, Matthew Smith, Ross Goodman, CharlesPickett, Jacob Del-Castillo, Ann Stephen, Geoff Friend

1970

1975

1976

1978

1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

Twenty-year club members

*Joined Sydney Observatory, which became part of the Museum in 1982.


the moonsof Jupiter

SydneyWriters’Festival

We put the spotlight on Jupiter, themassive planet that is like a miniaturesolar system.

Throughout human historyJupiter has appeared as abright wandering star. Thisview changed in 1609 whenGalileo Galilei (1564-1642)introduced the telescope toastronomy. From his garden inPadua, Italy, he observed thatJupiter was a round disc. Morepuzzling were the four nearbystars moving around it, like themoon circling the Earth. Thisdiscovery led him to concludethat Jupiter was a planet, likeEarth, orbited by four moons.These moons were laternamed Callisto, Europa,Ganymede and Io. In thephotographic montage above,reddish Io (upper left) isnearest Jupiter, then Europa(centre), Ganymede andCallisto (lower right).

Today we know that Jupiter islike a miniature solar system.The largest of the planets, astaggering 12 times wider thanEarth, Jupiter is a big ball ofgas surrounded by a ring and64 moons (including theGalilean moons). Most of ourknowledge of the planet hasbeen discovered using robotic

spacecraft, beginning withPioneer 10 in 1973. The latest,named Galileo, studied Jupiterbetween 1995 and 2003.

During its mission Galileo tookthe first close-up picture of anasteroid, discovered anasteroid with a moon, andwitnessed a comet collide withJupiter. It found evidence ofsalty oceans — a possibleplace where life might exist —trapped under the icy surfacesof Europa, Ganymede andCallisto. Galileo’s close fly-bysof Io showed that the manyvolcanoes that cover itssurface are still active. It alsostudied Jupiter’s Great RedSpot, a huge storm that’s threetimes the size of Earth. Galileoended its mission in 2003 byplunging into Jupiter’satmopshere.

Jupiter and its four largemoons can be viewed throughthe telescopes at SydneyObservatory from March 2005,bookings essential.

Dr Martin Anderson

Peter Hill was only 19 years oldwhen he worked as alighthouse keeper off thecoast of Scotland in 1973.From these rocky outcropsand uninhabited islands hecame of age listening to thetales of older keepers, all ofwhom had lived fascinatinglives around the world.Stargazing: memoirs of ayoung lighthouse keeper is apoignant, passionate andfunny tribute to a way of lifethat no longer exists, but thatwill always capture theimagination and stir the soul.

Glasgow-born Hill is an artistand lecturer at the College ofFine Arts, University of NewSouth Wales, and art critic for

The Sydney Morning Herald.Sydney Observatory, inassociation with SydneyWriters’ Festival, is excited topresent an evening talk byPeter Hill, followed by a booksigning session and stargazingthrough the telescopes.

Saturday 28 May, 6-8.30 pm.Includes a glass of wine, lightsupper and telescope andexhibition viewing. Adults $27,concessions $25; members$22, concessions $20.

Bookings and prepaymentessential on tel (02) 9217 0485or 9241 3767, email:[email protected]

obse

rve+

SEE JUPITER’S MOONS AND MEET THEAUTHOR OF ‘STARGAZING MEMORIES’.

JUPITER AND ITS FOUR PLANET-SIZE MOONS, THEY ARE NOT TO SCALE BUTARE IN THEIR RELATIVE POSITIONS. COURTESY NASAf

�


THE POWERHOUSE MUSEUM GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGESTHE SUPPORT OF THE FOLLOWING ORGANISATIONS

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ENGINEERING EXCELLENCE 2004

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LOCOMOTIVE NO.1

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GREEK TREASURES: FROM THE BENAKI MUSEUM IN ATHENS

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OUR PLACE: INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIA NOW

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THE CURIOUS ECONOMIST: WILLIAM STANLEY JEVONS IN SYDNEY

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THE POWERHOUSE MUSEUM IS ASTATUTORY AUTHORITY OF, ANDPRINCIPALLY FUNDED BY,THE NSW STATE GOVERNMENT.

CASINO COMMUNITY BENEFIT FUND NSW

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SPORT: MORE THAN HEROES & LEGENDS THE LORD OF THE RINGS MOTIONPICTURE TRILOGY — THE EXHIBITION

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INTEL YOUNG SCIENTIST 2004,SOUNDHOUSE™ AND ONLINE PROJECTS

COLES THEATRE, TARGET THEATRE,GRACE BROS COURTYARD, K MARTSTUDIOS

ECOLOGIC: CREATING A SUSTAINABLEFUTURE

STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 3830STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 3265

POWERHOUSE WIZARD THE LORD OF THE RINGS MOTIONPICTURE TRILOGY — THE EXHIBITION

OUR PLACE: INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIA NOW

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FOR MORE INFORMATION ON SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES AND GIVING TO THE POWERHOUSE MUSEUM PLEASE CONTACT MIRANDA PURNELL ON (02) 9217 0577.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS MOTIONPICTURE TRILOGY — THE EXHIBITION



GREEK TREASURES: FROM THE BENAKI MUSEUM IN ATHENS

POWERHOUSE MUSEUM @ CASTLE HILL

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+the powerhouse foundation

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Give a gift membership+The Lord of the Rings MotionPicture Trilogy – The ExhibitionLEVEL 4, UNTIL 3 APRIL 2005

Don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetimeopportunity to go behind the scenes ofthe hugely successful film trilogy andsee props, costumes, artefacts and filmfootage, as well as discover the secretsbehind the trilogy’s award-winningspecial effects.

Toys: science at playLEVEL 3, UNTIL 18 JULY 2005

What makes a spinning top stayupright? How does a doll talk? Thisexhibition has the answers for curiousminds of all ages.

Greek treasures: from the BenakiMuseum in AthensLEVEL 4, FROM 5 MAY 2005

From one of the largest and mostrenowned collections of Greektreasures in the world, this exhibitiontells the story of Greece over a periodof eight thousand years. It includesprehistoric and historic figurines,ceramics, gold jewellery, Byzantinepainted icons, metalware and oilpaintings.

Paradise, Purgatory and Hellhole: ahistory of Pyrmont and UltimoLEVEL 3, 19 MARCH – 10 OCTOBER 2005

Experience some of the many humanstories from a community that hasn’tstopped shifting and changing; fromrural estate to industrial suburb andtoday’s highly developed urbanenvironment.

Student fashionFROM APRIL 2005

Award-winning designs by studentsfrom Sydney’s top fashion schools.

exhibitions atSydney Observatory

Transit of Venus: the scientific eventthat led Captain Cook to AustraliaUNTIL JUNE 2005

Discover why these rare astronomicalevents have played a pivotal role inAustralian history.

travelling exhibitions

Sport: more than heroes and legends

Newcastle Regional MuseumUNTIL 1 MAY 2005

Scitech Discovery Centre, Perth17 MAY – 23 OCTOBER 2005

Gambling in Australia: thrills, spillsand social ills

Albury Regional MuseumUNTIL 3 APRIL 2005

Broken Hill Geocentre16 APRIL – 3 JULY 2005

Intel Young Scientist 2004

Orange City LibraryUNTIL 6 MARCH 2005

Tamworth Library9 MARCH – 26 APRIL 2005

Northern Regional Library, Moree29 APRIL – 6 JUNE 2005

Works wonders: stories about homeremedies

Esbank House Museum, LithgowUNTIL 20 MARCH 2005

Illawarra Museum, Wollongong1 APRIL – 16 MAY 2005

Albury Regional Museum, Albury28 MAY – 17 JULY 2005

Our place: Indigenous Australia now

National Museum of China, Beijing6 APRIL – 16 JUNE 2005

exhibitions at a glanceMARCH_APRIL_MAY 2005

FROM LEFT: GREEK TREASURES: GOLD WREATH WITH IVY LEAVES, FIRST CENTURYBC © BENAKI MUSEUM; SCIENCE IS CHILD’S PLAY IN TOYS; 19TH-CENTURYBOTANICAL MODEL FROM ANIMAL, VEGETABLE AND MINERAL.


Animal, vegetable and mineral: theweird and wonderful world of thePowerhouse Museum 1883-1939LEVEL 3, 6 APRIL – 18 JULY 2005

In 1893 the Museum’s exhibits wereorganised into the three kingdoms ofnature – animal, vegetable, mineral.This exhibition tells the story of theMuseum’s founding vision: to explainthe ‘science’ of everyday life.

The curious economist: WilliamStanley Jevons in SydneyLEVEL 4

Discover the remarkable story ofWilliam Stanley Jevons, the founder ofmodern economics who lived inSydney from 1854 to 1859.

DesignTech LEVEL 3, UNTIL 6 MARCH 2005

DesignTech showcases outstandingmajor design projects by 2004 HigherSchool Certificate students of Designand Technology.

Engineering Excellence LEVEL 4, SUCCESS AND INNOVATIONGALLERY, UNTIL NOVEMBER 2005

Outstanding projects from theEngineers Australia, Sydney Division,Engineering Excellence awards.

Australian Design Awards LEVEL 4

The Powerhouse selection from theAustralian Design Awards featuresoutstanding achievements in design.

From Palace to Power HouseLEVEL 3, UNTIL MAY 2005

A lively display of objects andphotographs that illustrate theMuseum’s 125-year history.

TURN OVER FOR DETAILS

Powerhouse Museum 125thAnniversary Membership PackageTo mark the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the Powerhouse Museum,Powerhouse Members offer a special commemorative membership package.For $125 you can purchase a family membership, two bottles of the limited editionPowerhouse Museum 125th Anniversary 2003 Bimbadgen Estate Chardonnay and2002 Bimbadgen Estate Shiraz, and an invitation for you and your friends toattend a private wine tasting at Bimbadgen Estate in the Hunter Valley,redeemable anytime within the next year.

GIFT MEMBERSHIP RECIPIENT

Name

Membership number (if applicable)

Address

Suburb Postcode

Phone (H)

Email

Delivery Instructions

HOUSEHOLD MEMBERSHIP DETAILS

I wish to purchase Powerhouse Museum 125th Anniversary MembershipPackage $125.00

Two adults and all students up to the age of 18 at the same address

Number in household adults students < 18 yrs.

Name on 1st card

Name on 2nd card

Additional cards are available at a processing cost of $3.50 per card.

Number of children in each age bracket

Under 5 yrs 5 to 12 yrs 12 to 18 yrs

PAYMENT DETAILS

Total cost of membership: $125.00

I would also like to make a donation of $

to help the work of the Museum (donations are tax deductible).

Total amount to be paid $

I enclose a cheque/money order for this amount made payable toPowerhouse Members.

Please charge this amount to my credit card:

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I hereby declare that I am over the age of 18 years and I will take full responsibility to ensure that noperson under the age of 18 years will take delivery of this wine.

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While all effort will be made to meet deadline, please allow 14 days processing.

Please complete all relevant sections and return to the members department:+ By fax on 9217 0140 + By post to: Powerhouse MembersPO Box K346, Haymarket, NSW 1238 or phone the Members hotline on 9217 0600.

Please phone the Members Hotline for information about other gift membershipcategories or visit: www.powerhousemuseum.com/members

from thecollection


On 12 May 1883, eight monthsafter the fire that destroyed theMuseum’s first home, thecurator Joseph Maidenpurchased for £12 models of aqueen bee, worker bees andhoneycomb from the Parisianworkshop of Dr Auzoux.Established in 1827 and bestknown for producing anatomymodels for medical students,the workshop also made awide range of botanical andzoological models formuseums.

The bees were intended for alarger display of insects‘arranged to distinguishbetween [those] injurious toman and those which work forhis benefit’ according to areport in The Sydney MorningHerald on 15 December 1883. Atthat time the Museum’s exhibitswere divided into the ‘threegreat kingdoms’ of the naturalworld — animal, vegetable andmineral (see story page 16).

This bee is on display in theexhibition From Palace toPower House until May 2005.

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