Permanent Exhibitions
Chemistry@Melbourne: The first 100 years
Ground floor, School of Chemistry, Masson Road (map reference G17), from February 2009
The School of Chemistry Collection comprises over 300 items used for chemistry teaching and research at the University of Melbourne from about the 1850s to 1960s. It includes glassware, measuring and experimental apparatus, burners, bottles of chemicals, balances, catalogues and lecture notes. Many items are of historical significance due to their association with key figures in the history of science in Australia such as Frederick McCoy, Henry Joseph Grayson, Ernst Johannes Hartung, David Orme Masson and John MacAdam. In 1980 the collection was placed on long term loan with the Science Museum of Victoria (subsequently subsumed into Museum Victoria). Since its return to the University in 2007 it has been in the care of the University of Melbourne Archives.
In February 2009 the first from the collection display was launched in the refurbished ground floor of the Chemistry Building. This selection of items traces the first hundred years of chemistry teaching and research at the University of Melbourne. Items include a Sartorius balance, samples of optical glass made at the University during World War II, and images from early archival photographs.
Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology
The Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology collection consists of approximately 12,000 specimens and artefacts. The principal displays comprise of dissected human remains (organs, systems or regions), with some of these dating back to the time of Sir Harry Brookes Allen (June 1854 – March 1926).
Most of the museum is arranged according to anatomical regions of the human body alongside corresponding pathologies, with approximately 20% of the collection on display at any one time.
There is also a significant collection of historical teaching models, including plaster constructions, papier mache and wax anatomical models.
The Harry Brookes Allen Museum is situated in the Medical Building of the University of Melbourne’s Parkville campus (Map reference K13).
While not usually open to the general public, there are opportunities throughout the year for various groups to visit the museum, including the University’s annual Open Day. Undergraduate students undertaking anatomy and/or pathology courses have access to the museum via their student cards. Other students in relevant disciplines may apply for casual access and groups working in or studying in an anatomy/pathology related field may book a tour of the museum. Please contact the museum curator Ms Rachael McMillan to arrange access.
Henry Forman Atkinson Dental Museum
The dental journey: From tusks to teeth to the vulcanite age
The principal display area of the Henry Forman Atkinson Dental Museum describes the dental journey, starting with the primary historic role of the dentist to relieve the troubled subject from the unpleasantries of dental pain. Drawing on the museum’s rich and extensive collection, the exhibition explores the progression of dentistry from one of treatment based on charms and spells, through extraction, conservation and restoration of teeth, to the emergence of dentistry as a profession, and the vulcanite age.
Significant items on display include an extensive range of dental extraction keys; early instruments for plugging and cleaning teeth; a fascinating collection of dentures made from bone, ivory, porcelain and human teeth, some with springs for retention; an 1890s dental chair and other ‘fitting room’ furniture, as today’s surgery was then known.
Location: Ground floor, Royal Dental Hospital of Melbourne, 720 Swanston Street, Carlton, Map Reference J22.
Open Monday to Friday 9.00am to 5.00pm. For access on weekdays contact the curator Ms Louise Murray on murrayl@unimelb.edu.au or tel 9341 1518, or the school office on 9341 1500, Saturday by appointment with the curator.
Medical History Museum
2nd floor, Brownless Biomedical Library (map reference J 13)
Through its artefacts and documents, the Museum tells the history of the Melbourne Medical School, its clinical hospitals, students and teachers. Since 1994 with the long-term loan of the Australian Medical Association collection, the Museum’s scope has broadened to cover the history of the profession in Victoria. On permanent display in the Museum is a fully equipped nineteenth-century Savory and Moore Pharmacy, shipped from London and installed in 1971 with generous assistance of the Wellcome Institute.
Opening Hours: 10am to 4pm, Monday to Friday. Admission: free. Access: enter via University Gate 10 from Grattan Street.
School of Physics Museum
Level 2, School of Physics, Swanston Street (map reference E 20)
The display area of the School of Physics Museum covers five main themes:
- Optical Munitions: Apparatus emerging from optical munitions research directed by Professor T.H. Laby during the Second World War. This includes early optical glass samples made by Professor E.J. Hartung and original prototype tank sites and other related instruments.
- Scientific instruments: Apparatus developed and used within the school for research, such as Professor Lyle's mechanical equivalent of heat apparatus, and early magnetrons developed within the school.
- Ruling engines: Ruling engines and diffraction gratings developed by Henry Grayson and Professor T.R. Lyle.
- Early X-ray tubes: The development of the modern X-ray tube from early gas X ray tubes through to Coolidge tubes, rotating anode tubes and a modern tube for comparison.
- Calculating machines: A comprehensive collection of early calculating machines ranging from early 20th century mechanical pin wheel machines and slide rules to more recent electronic desktop and hand held calculators.
There is also a transmission electron microscope: the JEOL 100CX TEM, used for research and teaching in the 1970s. It has been sectioned allowing close examination of the electromagnetic lenses, object stage and viewing screen.
The School of Physics Museum display may be visited free of charge between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday.
Surveying and Geomatic Engineering Collection
Department of Geomatics, 4th floor, Engineering Building C (map reference L 17)
The permanent display of the Surveying and Geomatic Engineering Collection includes examples of each of the types of instrument used for astronomical, angular and distance measurement, together with instruments for the computation, plotting and presentation of the survey data, during the entire period of European occupation of Victoria. It illustrates continuing development in the nature and precision of measuring instruments available to the surveyor.
The display benefitted from new showcases and explanatory wall panels made possible by a grant provided by the University's Cultural Collections Committee in 2006 and additional funding provided by the Faculty of Engineering.
There is no charge to visit the collection, which is accessible during normal working hours.
Tiegs Zoology Museum
The displays of the Tiegs Zoology Museum include skeletons, models, mounted skins and wet specimens of vertebrate and invertebrate animals of Australia and elsewhere.
Access is by appointment; for further information contact Vivien Porter, email v.porter@zoology.unimelb.edu.au, telephone (03) 8344 7041.
University Art Collection on Campus
Most of the art works displayed throughout the University faculties and grounds form part of the University Art Collection which is managed by the Ian Potter Museum of Art. A large number of these art works have been purchased, gifted to or commissioned by the faculties in which they are displayed. For example, the Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Education each have strong collections of Australian art on display, purchased through the 1970s and 1980s. The Ernst Matthaei Memorial Collection of Early Glass, named in memory of the optics expert who worked in the University’s departments of physiology and botany, comprises early British glassware and is on permanent display in the lower east dining room of University House. On display in the historic 1888 building on Grattan Street is a fine collection of Australian art from the 1930s to 1950s, the A.J. Law Collection, which includes paintings by Daryl Lindsay, Ernest Buckmaster and Arnold Shore and was assembled by an early Principal of the Melbourne Teachers College, for the benefit of teachers in training.
The sculptures and murals located across gardens and buildings of the Parkville campus and other campuses play an integral role in both student inquiry and beautification of the learning environment. The brochure Sculpture on campus provides an easy walking trail through the campus with information about the sculptures and artists, such as Inge King, Guy Boyd and Bruce Armstrong. The brochure is available from the foyer of the Potter, or from the Cultural Collections Co-ordinator, or the Information Office on Swanston Street.
For further information regarding the University Art Collection please visit the Ian Potter Museum of Art web site.