Hidden treasures and stories from our collection
93/1/1 Doll’s house, ‘A Perfect Little House’, with furniture, fittings and dolls, mixed media, made by Wilf Pownall and Alison Pownall, Gunnedah, NSW, c. 1940. Collection: Powerhouse Museum
Christmas is that time of year when thoughts of toys are unavoidable. Personally, I love dolls houses, the way the everyday boring world suddenly becomes special when replicated in miniature.
Continue reading ‘Dolls houses, old, new and making do’
Florence Breaden’s school exercise book. Collection: Powerhouse Museum, 2010/65/1. Gift of Rowley Gilliland, 2010
This time of year Mums and Dads are busy buying all the exercise books, pencil cases, folders and laptops for the beginning of the school year. School has certainly changed in 100 years or so. A little while ago I acquired a gorgeous school exercise book owned by Florence Breaden (1893-1929) in 1908 who attended Petersham School in an inner Sydney suburb. I think it’s a homework book because it covers a range of subjects including Arithmetic, English, Geography, Poetry and Music, and was used from February to the end of the school year. As a diligent 15-year-old, Florence carefully illustrated her book with the most beautiful pen and ink title pages, half title pages and borders, all illustrated with flowers, rabbits, foxes, chickens, swans, birds and a woman riding a horse side saddle.
Continue reading ‘Back to school, Florence’s 1908 exercise book’
2003/111/34-5 Detail of cast of M*A*S*H from toy packaging, 1978. Collection: Powerhouse Museum
Like most Australians in the 1970s, my family were addicted to MASH, the witty and acerbic television show about life in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War. Every night at 7pm we would eat our dinner in front of the telly watching the antics of Hawkeye, Klinger, Hot Lips Houlihan, Frank Burns, Radar and others at the 4077th. I am sure it never occurred to me that the program gave substance to a real event. What did I know or care about the Korean War?
When the lovable commander of the camp, Colonel Henry Blake died, I was devastated. I cried during that episode and bitterly resented the new guy who was cast to replace him. I didn’t like the curmudgeonly Colonel Sherman T Potter and I suspect I wasn’t the only one. He was – dare I say it – old! He didn’t seem to fit the pace of the show in my nine year old mind. Morgan was quoted as saying of himself
Progressively though, as his character developed and settled into the show ‘Sherm’ became one of my favourite characters. He had a twinkle in his eye and a cheeky grin, he loved his horse and when he lost his temper it made me laugh. His character certainly struck a chord with the audience. Morgan won an Emmy in 1980 for his portrayal of Potter. When the final episode of MASH aired in 1983 it is reputed to have been one of the most watched shows in US television history. The death of Harry Morgan at the grand age of 96 is a great loss to the film and television world and MASH lovers everywhere.
Toy, M*A*S*H Head Quarters, licenced from the television show ‘M*A*S*H’, 1981. Collection: Powerhouse Museum
We have a number of toys in the Powerhouse Museum collection that were made under licence in 1978 to the MASH television show. They feature a picture of the cast, including Colonel Potter, on the packaging and probably date to Season 6 of the television show. These toys are part of a much larger group that were assembled by a private collector, who was quite particular in what he acquired. He only collected toy vehicles and robots licensed from television, film, comics books and so on. He never opened the packaging and did not play with the toys, so when they came to the Museum’s collection they were still in mint condition.
Collection of toy army vehicles licenced from the tv show M*A*S*H, 1978. Collection: Powerhouse Museum
Merchandising associated with successful television shows was not a new phenomenon. As early as the 1960s toy companies recognised the marketing opportunity of linking with popular tv programs. An ubiquitous product with a label linking it to a particular show could sell for more money than one without. This phenomenon really exploded in the 1980s with the boom in mass production and the increased use of plastic in toy construction. For popular culture junkies of a certain age, *cough*, these old style toys are a way of remembering the favourite programs of their youth.
But I digress. For people of my generation their first exposure to Harry Morgan was through Sherman T Potter and MASH. For my parents’ generation and older he was much more widely known for his roles in westerns, war and gangster films from the 1940s onwards and was a constant presence on American television from the 1950s. His career didn’t end with MASH. For the next two decades Morgan continued to be active in film and television. Harry Morgan had a long and varied career. For me though, he will always be Colonel Sherman T Potter and will live on in MASH reruns in perpetuity.
Rebecca Bower, Curator
2008/121/1 Janet Vanderfield’s doll’s house, 1942. Collection: Powerhouse Museum
It was a Tuesday morning. I was working on a PowerPoint presentation – a training session for our Museum volunteers, a couple of meetings were scheduled, labels were due at our Print Media department, public enquiries needed attention and the never-diminishing pile of acquisition documentation beckoned, then the phone rang. A softly-spoken older woman, Janet Vanderfield, wanted to know if we’d be interested in having her doll’s house. I immediately created a list in my head of the doll’s houses already in the Museum’s collection. There’s a modern one by Dinosaur Designs ; the 1930s one fashioned from an agricultural machinery packing case used on a property near Gunnedah, in North-west NSW; the tin-printed Mettoy one from the 1950s; one made from match sticks; a charming carved one by the British toymaker Yootha Rose; and the fabulous, over-the-top, 20-room Bosdyk doll’s house acquired last year and at least a couple more. We had lots already!
Nevertheless, I asked if it would be possible for her to take some photos of it and email them to me. No email, no problem, prints through the post would be fine. And would you happen to have any photos of yourself as a girl with the doll’s house? I always check, just in case. You’ll have a look. Excellent. I’ll look forward to seeing them.
Janet Vanderfield aged 7 in 1942. Image courtsey Janet Vanderfield
A couple of weeks passed and a small envelope arrived with the requested photos. On top was a copy of a grainy photo of shy, 7-year-old Janet Vanderfield taken on Christmas Day in 1942 in the backyard of her Hurlstone Park (a Sydney suburb) home with her impressive Christmas present, a fine mock-Tudor doll’s house. It had been carefully carried out into the sunshine and Janet dressed in her best white voile dress for photos to send to grandma and the aunties in Scotland.
The other photos in the envelope Janet had taken herself depicted the doll’s house and its furniture, a microcosm of 1940s upper middle-class domestic life when entertainment came from the wireless in the lounge room and refrigeration was provided by the ice chest in the kitchen.
I learnt later that the doll’s house had been purchased unfurnished from the famous Sydney toy and model shop, Walther & Stevenson Ltd. Over a 5-year period Janet would often travel into “town” on the tram with her mother or auntie attired in hats and gloves and go into Walther & Stevenson’s to select a piece of furniture for the doll’s house. This phenomenon of the child collector was common in the 1930s and 40s, some children built up impressive lead toy farm sets and others Hornby train layouts.
2008/121/1-14:16 Doll’s house lounge room furniture. Can you spot the missing fire iron? Collection: Powerhouse Museum
Only special “careful” friends were allowed to play with Janet’s doll’s house. Auntie made the curtains, bedspread and cushions, and father put in the chunky 1940s electric lights. When she had outgrown the doll’s house Janet’s mother had tried to encourage her to give it to a nearby children’s home but Janet had received so much enjoyment gradually collecting the furniture she couldn’t part with it. The doll’s house remained in Janet’s possession for 66 years, immaculately maintained throughout her life and over that time only one small piece, a fireplace fire iron, had been lost. Although tempted to add contemporary pieces to the doll’s house she resisted.
2008/121/1 Interior shot of the doll’s house with ‘Doll’s House Dolly’. Collection: Powerhouse Museum
Because doll’s houses are bulky items to store once children have outgrown them they are not often kept and relatively few survive. If they do it’s extremely unusual for the original loose furniture to be retained as it’s always vulnerable to separation, change and loss over time. For Janet, an only child who never married, there was never the temptation to let her own children or nieces and nephew play with the doll’s house. It remained intact, a time capsule of Australian domestic social history and childhood in the early 1940s.
For Janet to give up her precious doll’s house with all its memories of her childhood and family must have been a wrench. I carefully documented her memories of it, and when it was chosen for display in the new acquisitions showcase in the Museum’s foyer, I invited Janet in and photographed it with her. She was delighted and was grateful to me for making the whole process of relinquishing her doll’s house easier.
Janet Vanderfield with her doll’s house on display in the Museum in 2008
The Museum has a large collection of toys, purchased in the 1980s, from an adult collector. They are a superb group of mainly tin toys and Hornby trains which have great visual appeal but they have no stories or memories associated with their use. Accordingly, Miss Vanderfield’s doll’s house was a wonderful acquisition and I feel privileged to have been involved in recording and perpetuating the memory of its use.
P.S. Later that year I went on to acquire yet another doll’s house with a completely different story and memories. It was made by staff at The Sydney Morning Herald and presented to eleven-year-old Elaine Sellers in 1946. Elaine’s father, Charles Sellers (Charlie), had always promised to make her a doll’s house. He was a very popular staff member at the ‘Herald’ working in the Compositing Section of the famous Sydney newspaper. After he tragically died of Malaria in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in Thailand in 1945 his colleagues at the ‘Herald’ decided to do something for Elaine and made the doll’s house. As a Curator I see my role increasingly being about recording these types of memories and stories.
There are other posts about the Bosdyk Doll’s House
Post by Margaret Simpson, Curator
Collection: Powerhouse Museum
With the new spy exhibition on at the Museum I thought I’d write about what was probably the most popular diecast toy car ever produced, the gold Aston Martin DB5 as seen in the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger. It was made by Corgi, the English toy car manufacturer established in 1956 by Mettoy. Corgi cars had exciting (for the time) features like plastic windows from 1956, spring suspension from 1959 and opening doors, folding seats and opening bonnets from 1963.
The James Bond Aston Martin DB5 has a front machine gun, rear bullet-proof shield, and best of all, an operating front passenger ejector seat. When it came out the car was a huge success. It was said that in staff cafeterias all over Britain, before giving the toy to their sons, fathers would be seen “testing” the mechanism that fired the gunman through the opening roof, covering their teacups to stop James Bond’s unwanted passenger from dropping in. Another slightly larger version of the car was released in 1968 painted silver with rotating number plates and telescopic tyre slashers.
One of the reasons why Corgi cars were especially popular in the 1960s was the attractively-designed boxes with lots of extras, inserts and instructions. This example in our collection has all the packaging including the genuine “007” stickers, amazingly still attached to their original backing, which the owner of the car was supposed to hide under his shirt collar or coat lapel. Yes play was unsophisticated in those days and English boys were still wearing coats in the 1960s.
The James Bond Aston Martin was launched in November 1965 and was acclaimed as the Toy of the Year by the British National Association of toy retailers. During its three-year production run it became one of the most popular toys ever made with nearly three million sold. It was also very popular in Australia.
Post by Margaret Simpson, Curator
Collection: Powerhouse Museum. Gift of A R Windschuttle, 1985.
This doll, dressed as a swagman, was made in the 1933 by Rita Williams as a Christmas gift for her four-year-old daughter Barbara. With limited material scraps and a doll’s head found in a rubbish bin, Rita was inspired to make and dress the doll in the clothes of the old swagmen who lived near the canal in front of her Merrylands home in outer Sydney.
‘Making do’ was a familiar aspect of life in Australia during the 1930s Depression. With money and goods in short supply, many people had to learn to adapt and improvise with whatever they could find. It was also a time that offered opportunities for inventiveness and ingenuity, and this Swaggie doll is an example of the resourcefulness and creativity that emerges in times of adversity.
The swaggie or swagman was the Australian equivalent of the English tramp and the American hobo. He led a nomadic life tramping along country roads from farm to farm, usually looking for seasonal or casual work and sometimes cadging food and tobacco. The swagman was in some ways the successor to the adventurers of the 1850s who tramped from goldfield to goldfield in search of gold. During the early 1930s many more swagmen were travelling the roads as the Depression had forced them out of the cities in search of work and enough food to survive. Swagmen could still occasionally be seen up to the 1950s, but their numbers decreased due to improved economic conditions and welfare support.
Collection: Powerhouse Museum. Gift of A R Windschuttle, 1985.
Barbara Williams, later Mrs Windschuttle, always thought that this was the most wonderful doll she had ever seen and kept it until 1985, when she decided more children should have the opportunity of seeing her unique and special doll and presented it to the Museum.
Post by Margaret Simpson, Curator
The Taralga Machinery Club ran its annual vintage machinery rally on the weekend of 21st/22nd November 2009. Despite the sweltering heat of 40?, over 900 people turned out to see the impressive exhibition of machinery. There were dozens of steam engines, stationary engines, tractors, models and a shearing demonstration. Because of the fire ban, no steam engines ran, but tractor engines were used to demonstrate some of the machinery in action. A wheat thrasher in action:
Photography by Kate Pollard © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.
This machine takes the stalks of wheat and seperates the heads from the hay. The residual hay is then bailed by the machine pictured below.
Photography by Kate Pollard © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.
There were many different types of steam engines present, such as this portable Southern Cross steam engine (horse drawn).
Photography by Kate Pollard © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.
Also included in the display were models of steam engines from the Powerhouse collection (A hand-made steam locomotive model made by A. Cardew. B2080 ).
Photography by Kate Pollard © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.
and toys from a different era – cast lead farm animals
Photography by Kate Pollard © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.
And shearing demonstrations powered by a tractor engine
Photography by Kate Pollard © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.
Collection: Powerhouse Museum
The makers of the popular and long-lived board game Monopoly have recently introduced a round Monopoly game and are doing away with the old rectangular board to which we are so accustomed. I bet the the original owners of the 1950′s Monopoly board, pictured above, didn’t think it would one day go coin-shaped!
Image courtesy of Hasbro © all rights reserved
What will come as a surprise to some people is that whilst we are more than familiar with the rectangular shape, Monopoly boards were originally round! So, in effect, they have now come full circle. (excuse the pun!)
Photography by nabeeloo © all rights reserved.
Image sourced from Flickr
Charles Darrow started hand-making the Monopoly game boards for his friends and family in 1933. Some of the earliest boards he made were round, to fit the shape of a kitchen table. They later became rectangular.
The new round design does away with cash. Instead, players are issued with a chip and pin credit card and an electronic central console plays the banker.
I personally dislike the new design. One of the greatest things about playing the ‘old’ Monopoly was the ability to have wads and wads of cash! Buying property with a ‘credit card’ is just a little too realistic, and close to home, for me!
What do you think?
Designed by Kay Bojesen. Collection, Powerhouse Museum.
Thinking about the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, it struck me as fitting that we have two cute Copenhagen-made wooden toys in our carbon sinks showcase in the exhibition Ecologic: creating a sustainable future.
The toy zebra and elephant have sat there since 2001, alongside a wooden chair, a seashell, a pile of wood chips, and a huge slice of an Australian red cedar tree. We hope they encourage visitors to think about carbon sources and sinks. Addressing the issue of human-induced climate change is even more urgent now than it was when we developed the exhibition.
Designed by Kay Bojesen. Collection, Powerhouse Museum.
The toys, designed by Kay Bojesen, are part of a collection donated as a bequest by kindergarten teacher and toyshop director Monica Piddington in 1970. I doubt that anyone at that time saw the toys as carbon sinks! However, making toys, houses, furniture and other treasured objects from wood is an important human contribution to sequestering carbon – but only if we truly treasure them and protect them from rotting (which would unlock the carbon in them, adding methane or carbon dioxide to the atmosphere).
Photography by Nitsa Yioupros,© Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved
Curators Lindie Ward and Margaret Simpson visited Frans Bosdyk at his home to find out more about the creation of his exquisite dolls house.
Photography by Nitsa Yioupros,© Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved
Frans created most of the furniture for the dolls house himself, setting up a workshop in his garage.
He told us he encountered problems trying to buy the right kind of furniture for the project so he set about developing special lathes to turn the tiny wooden parts. He researched furniture styles in ‘Antique Furniture in Australia’ by Anthony Hill and then scaled the dimensions down to produce a miniature version. He also fashioned his own tiny hand tools from 75-100mm concrete nails to make it easier for him to handle the small pieces. He used silky oak, cedar, myrtle and blackwood which formed the 3mm floorboards throughout.
Photography by Nitsa Yioupros,© Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved
Photography by Nitsa Yioupros,© Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved
Frans was an electrician by trade, he researched how to make lights, lamps and electric sockets, from websites and publications from Europe and the US. And guess what? All the lights actually work!
Frans came into the Museum to give a lecture about his work, during which we all noticed that, to our amusement, the hands that created all the teeny tiny tools, furniture, and lighting, were huge!
Photography by Sotha Bourn © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.
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