- Museum Victoria
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Museum Victoria is an organisation which operates three major state-owned museums in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; these are: the Melbourne Museum, the Immigration Museum and Scienceworks. It also manages the Royal Exhibition Building and a storage facility in Melbourne's City of Moreland.
Museum Victoria is the caretaker of the body of Phar Lap, Australia's most famous race horse. Phar Lap's skeleton is housed at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and his heart is kept at the National Museum of Australia.
Contents
History
The museum traces its history back to the establishment of the National Museum of Victoria in 1854 under the directorship of Frederick McCoy[1]. It was founded in its current form under the Australian Museums Act (1983). The collections of around 16 million objects cover Indigenous items, science, history and technology[2].
Significant events in the Museum's history include:
- 1854 - founding of the Museum of Natural and Economic Geology with William Blandowski as Government Zoologist
- 1856 - collections moved to the University of Melbourne by Frederick McCoy
- 1858 - McCoy appointed first director of the National Museum of Victoria
- 1870 - Industrial and Technological Museum opened
- 1899 - National Museum moved to Swanston Street, Melbourne
- 1945 - Industrial and Technology Museum renamed Museum of Applied Science
- 1961 - Museum of Applied Science renamed Institute of Applied Science
- 1971 - Institute of Applied Science renamed Science Museum of Victoria
- 1983 - National Museum of Victoria and Science Museum of Victoria amalgamated to form the Museum of Victoria
- 1992 - Scienceworks Museum (Melbourne) opened
- 1997 - Swanston Street campus closed
- 1998 - Museum of Victoria renamed Museum Victoria. Immigration Museum and Hellenic Antiquities Museum opened.
- 2000 - Melbourne Museum at Carlton Gardens opened.
Administration
The present Chief Executive Officer of Museum Victoria is Dr J. Patrick Greene.
Former Museum directors include:
- 1858 - Frederick McCoy
- 1899 - Walter Baldwin Spencer
- 1928 - James A. Kershaw
- 1931 - Daniel J. Mahony
- 1957 - Charles. W. Brazenor
- 1962 - John McNally
- 1979 - Barry Wilson
- 1984 - Robert Edwards
- 1990 - Graham Morris
- 1998 - George F. MacDonald
See also
- Melbourne Museum
- Immigration Museum
- Scienceworks
- Royal Exhibition Building
References
- ^ Carolyn Rasmussen (2001) A museum for the people: A history of Museum Victoria and its predecessors 1854-2000, Scribe Publications Melbourne ISBN 0 90801169 5
- ^ Danielle Clode (2006) Continent of Curiosities: A journey through Australian natural history, Cambridge University Press ISBN 0 521 86620 0
External links
Museums in the Melbourne City Centre Note: this includes museums in the Melbourne City Centre and its fringe areas, not the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area Chinese Museum · City Museum · Cooks' Cottage · Heide Museum of Modern Art · Hellenic Museum · Ian Potter Museum of Art · Immigration Museum · Jewish Museum · La Trobe's Cottage · Maritime Museum · Melbourne Museum · Sports Museum · Scienceworks MuseumSee also: Events in the Melbourne City Centre · Landmarks in the Melbourne City Centre · Theatres in the Melbourne City Centre Categories:- Museums established in 1983
- Museums in Melbourne
- Archaeology museums in Australia
- Natural history museums in Australia
- History museums in Australia
- Science museums in Australia
- Ethnographic museums
- Technology museums
- Australia museum stubs
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