The owner of this collection of household items was a woman 'who never threw anything away'. Born in 1914 and married in 1939, her life as a young woman would have been affected by the Great Depression and, like many women of her generation, she continued to make economies long after it was probably necessary for her to do so. She folded department store wrapping paper for re-use, saved the instruction booklets from household products, and kept the remnants of all the medications that she had ever taken. Her house in suburban Sydney was a testament to her careful housekeeping: her best outfits were neatly stored with labels stating what occasions she had worn them to, and her only daughter's bedroom remained intact with all its toys, many of them home-made. Most of the items acquired by the Powerhouse Museum from this house represent the kind of domestic products and ephemera associated with baby care and the management of family health during the 1940s to 1960s in suburban Sydney.

This hand written note would have been given to Mrs Muriel Keena not long after the birth of her baby on 16.4.57 but the author is unknown - perhaps the Baby Health Centre nurse.


The recipe is dated 18.5.57.

This object was amongst the household effects of Mrs Muriel Gladys Keena, 11 Pearl Avenue, Epping. Mrs Keena was born in England in 1914 and migrated with her family to Australia as a child. She married in 1939 and moved to the house in Pearl Street in 1954. Her only daughter was born in 1957. The daughter, Ms Judith Helen Keena, donated items from her mother's effects to the Powerhouse Museum after her mother died in 2003.

Recipe, handwritten, for making up Lactogen infant food for 'Baby Keena', paper, Australia, 1957.

Hand written in blue ink on a small sheet of writing-pad paper, the recipe gives instructions for making up 20 oz of Lactogen. It is headed 'Baby Keena' and dated '18.5.57'. It would have been given to Mrs Muriel Keena not long after the birth of her baby on 16.4.57 but the author is unknown - perhaps the Baby Health Centre nurse.

Made: 1957

2003/133/20

1957