Monthly Archive for January, 2010

The reaper-binder speeding up harvests

Published by Paula Bray on January 31, 2010 0 Comments Tags: , , .

The reaper-binder was designed in 1858 to cut wheat, oats or barley stalks close to the ground, bind them into sheaves with twine, then drop them onto the ground. Men following behind the machine picked up the sheaves and arranged them to dry in bundles known as stooks. When dry, the sheaves were carted away to make a haystack, and were later threshed to yield their grain, or cut for chaff to feed farm animals. This machine reduced labour costs and allowed farms to expand in size

Photography by Charles Kerry Studio
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Post by Sandra McEwen

Retro gaming weekend

Published by Paula Bray on January 30, 2010 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Last night the Museum hosted the start of the retro gaming weekend that is a whole weekend dedicated to celebrating old games such as Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and Galaga! The event is about playing computer games, learning about game creation and design and hearing a bunch of people that are local and international gaming experts speak about their knowledge and expertise in the field of gaming.

Photography by Paula Bray
© All rights reserved

Visitor photography: Flickr group highlight

Published by Paula Bray on January 29, 2010 0 Comments


Power House Museum IMG_3444, originally uploaded by OZinOH.

This great image is the first that we are highlighting on Photo of the Day that has been taken by one of our visitors to the Museum and posted to our new group on Flickr Me and the Powerhouse Museum. We have set up this group so that visitors can share the photographs that they have taken whilst visiting us. We understand that taking photographs is an important part of the experience of visiting a museum and we acknowledge this. I will be highlighting some of the great images from this group on a regular basis and today’s great shot is the first one in this series. It was taken in the Inspired! Design across time gallery looking up towards the roof that reveals two painted terracotta sculptures, Thalia and Melpomene.

Photography by OZinOH
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic

Enter our new photography competition

Published by Paula Bray on January 28, 2010 0 Comments

We are excited to announce our new photography competition called Trainspotting and we would love to see your creative images entered into this for a chance to win one of our prizes. We have chosen the theme of trains and railway to celebrate our extensive rail and steam collection, and the 25th anniversary of Hunter Valley Steamfest this April, 2010. But this competition is also to support the photographic community and we really want to see some creative, experimental and interesting images using the theme of trains and railways. We have set up a group on Flickr that will be dedicated to photo competitions as we will be announcing more of these in the future. You can either enter via this group on Flickr or by mailing your images to the Museum, all these details can be found on our Trainspotting page. There are a number of categories that you can choose to enter into but remember to tag your photo in Flickr according to that category. Please let your friends know about this competition and we are really looking forward to seeing your photographs!

Photography by Marinco Kojdanovski
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0

Military and Naval Review of Troops

Published by Paula Bray on January 27, 2010 1 Comment

On Friday 4 January, three days after the swearing in ceremonies, another part of the Federation celebrations was held in the grounds of Centennial Park. This spectacle, the ‘Military and Naval Review of Troops’ was captured by numerous photographers, including George Rose. In this particular image we can see two photographers, one with a hand held detective camera, taking pictures of the 105 Indian troops who had arrived in Sydney on the Dalhousie only five days previously.

No known copyright restrictions
Post by Geoff Barker, Assistant Curator

Australia’s largest native bird

Published by Paula Bray on January 26, 2010 0 Comments

Sometimes it is not the intended content of your photo shoot that becomes your only point of interest but rather what the photographer sees around themself that makes for a great shot, as in the case of this interesting close up of Australia’s largest native bird, the Emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae). One of our former photographers, Sue Stafford, took this shot whilst she was working in Yeoval, NSW taking portraits of Australian women pilots for an exhibition and publication titled ‘Women with wings: portraits of Australian women pilots’ This was celebrating the spirit and achievements of women pilots from across Australia

This manipulated image was shot on film back in 1998.

Photography by Sue Stafford
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0

A blackbutt forest on the Comboyne Plateau

Published by Paula Bray on January 25, 2010 0 Comments

Before the 1900 Comboyne Plateau in northern NSW was covered with dense subtropical rainforest. European settlers cleared most of the trees to create grazing dairy farms, so only a few pockets of remnant rainforest remain today.

The area lies between the Manning and Hastings River valleys, has deep rich basalt soils, and receives realtively high rainfall. These attributes make the Comboyne Plateau a valuable farming area. Avocados, macadamias, blueberries and other fruit now stand where once blackbutt trees grew.

Photography by Charles Kerry Studio
No known copyright restrictions
Post by Sandra McEwen, Principal Curator

Willi Baumeister

Published by Paula Bray on January 24, 2010 1 Comment

This close-up portrait was taken by a German photographer associated with the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) movement, Adolf Lazi (1884-1955). It depicts well known modernist painter, illustrator and stage designer Willi Baumeister (1889-1955). The photograph was taken in 1947, at the time when Baumeister was a professor of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart. It was also the year when the first edition of his book Das Unbekannte in der Kunst (The Unknown in Art) was published and when he created his highly acclaimed, first post-war stage design for the Manuel de Falla’s ballet Liebeszauber (Love Spell) at the Württemberg Staatstheater in Stuttgart.

Photography by Adolf Lazi
No known copyright restrictions
Post by Iwona Hetherington, Rights and Permissions Officer

Cabbage palms Illawarra

Published by Paula Bray on January 23, 2010 0 Comments

Cabbage tree palms, (Livistona australis), were once common in the Sydney area. The growing tip, known as a ‘cabbage’, was eaten either uncooked or roasted. Unfortunately this practice killed the tree.

The people in this photograph look as though they may be gathering cabbage palm leaves, which were a popular material for making hats. The Powerhouse Museum holds in its collection several cabbage tree hats. The original stock book entry for one of them, describes the process by which the leaves were first boiled, then dried and afterwards bleached. Another of the cabbage tree hats was part of an early postman’s uniform.

Photograph by Kerry & Co.
No known copyright restrictions
Post by Kathy Hackett, Photo Librarian

French Arch

Published by Paula Bray on January 22, 2010 0 Comments

On 1 January Sydney celebrated Australia becoming a Federation by hosting a grand procession through its streets. Erected in Pitt Street the Federation ‘French Arch’ was funded by the French Community Committee of Sydney. Standing seven meters high it was made of a wooden frame entirely covered in plaster which had been painted to look like stone masonry. The coats of arms of the cities of Paris, Lyon, Marseilles and Bordeaux were placed on the piers on either side of the arch.

No known copyright restrictions
Post by Geoff Barker, Assistant Curator