Museum experiences

Published on November 19, 2010 in Research enquiries. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Over the past two weeks, the Library has been visited many times by science educator Dennis Schatz, who is undertaking research for a book about Australia’s history. Originally a solar astronomer, Dennis is now Senior Vice President in charge of strategic programs at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, Washington. This is a science museum with a difference – it has no objects! Rather, it offers experiences in science, maths and technology through interactive exhibits and programs. What a terrific learning environment.

Dennis is the author of 21 science and astronomy books for children. He is also co-author/editor of several curriculum resources for teachers. Check out all his publications on his website . His current research is for a book about what it was like for Australian children growing up during the gold rush era in Ballarat c.1850, and for children & families on the home front during WWI.

In case you’re wondering, Dennis’s strong connection with Australia stems from a year he spent at Sydney Uni in 1970.

It’s that time of year again

Published on October 13, 2010 in Research enquiries. 5 Comments

Last Thursday, 16 students and a lecturer from Charles Sturt University called in.
Library & Information students from CSU spend two days at the end of each year in Sydney, touring libraries from a range of organisations, including the Powerhouse Museum. By the time Thursday’s group appeared, they’d already visited the respective libraries of the NSW Art Gallery, NSW Health Department, NSW State Archives, NSW Parliament, a law firm, and the ABC. Far from being jaded, as you might expect, they were keen to see how a museum library worked.
With group visits,we usually divide the participants between the three of us and, starting at different points in the library, give the grand tour, pointing out store and auction catalogues, new books and journals, vintage journals, sewing patterns, knitting patterns, trade literature etc This time was different, thanks to colleague Dimity Holt, who has hit upon the clever idea of referencing current exhibitions in the museum by spotlighting parts of the library collection. She used the Benini Exhibition to set up a thematic display of books about fashion photography, cameras, fashion photographers, fashion models, history of photography. This enabled the students to see clearly, the connection between the Library collection and what is on in the museum. We added further emphasis by finishing off the tour with a walk through of the fabulous Benini Exhibition.

22 of her own costumes on the dance floor!

Published on July 30, 2010 in Research enquiries. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

This week I received a welcome email from a visitor, who used the Research Library in January. Margarita Martinez is a costume designer based in Florence, Italy. She designs and creates historical ball gowns and for over 20 years her costumes have danced in the most magnificent ballrooms in Tuscany…more from her website

In her email, Margarita told me about two remarkable events organised by her recently. They were held in Florence during the weekend of 22-23 May 2010. The first, on Saturday, was a Grand Napoleonic Ball held at Villa del Poggio Imperiale to honour the bicentenary of Napoleon’s sister, Elisa taking up residence there. Guests were requested to dress in Napoleonic Court dress. The dances, led by historical dance master Donald Francis, were accompanied by an orchestra led by Maestro James Gray. An Empire Buffet Froid Supper with dishes of the period was also served.

Sunday was Jane Austen Day at Villa Gerini, a grand family home set in classical gardens on the outskirts of Florence. Guests dressed in Regency attire for a relaxing day of promenading around the lake, playing croquet, cricket and quoits, before changing outfits for a Regency Ball in the evening.

One reenactor described the weekend to me: “…it was absolutely huge, people came from all over the world to attend. On the nights of the rehearsal and [Grand Napoleonic] Ball I spoke to people from Sweden, Norway, France, Spain, Czech republic, Hungary, Switzerland, England, Italy and America. The settings were beautiful, with the dance rehearsal being held in the ballroom of the Palazzo Borghese all green marble and gold chandeliers, and then the ball itself at Villa Poggi Imperiale with amazing frescoed apartments and a grand white ballroom with an enormous chandelier.”

Margarita had 22 of her own costumes on the dance floors!

You can see Phil Thomason’s wonderful photos of the Weekend here.

Fusion of fashion

Published on July 12, 2010 in Research enquiries. 3 Comments

Last Friday saw a visit from Australian fashion designer Kym Ellery and her production co-ordinator Rachel Sherwood. You can see some of Kym’s creations on her website. Ellery’s clothes are HOT. The Rosemount Australian Fashion Week 2010 website notes that Ellery is the “go-to label for Australian it-girls” and that her “effortlessly hip aesthetic is [seen as] fashion’s newest asset”.

Kym and Rachel came to the Research Library to source ideas for their Autumn-Winter collection of 2011. They are researching costume and adornment of the French Revolution, as well as knitwear and lace motifs. Using the characters from the 2001 movie “The Royal Tenenbaums” as base silhouettes, their new range will combine the film’s costumes and colour palettes with the costume styles of the French Revolution plus a soupçon of contemporary knitwear designs. Oh, and lace as well – magic!

Cameo appearance

Published on June 4, 2010 in Research enquiries. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Photography by Antonella Schulte

Earlier this week, Antonella Schulte came to the Research Library to study cameos. Antonella is completing a masters degree at Sydney Uni. in Museum studies and as part of the course has to select an object from her own collection and write a formal proposal to a museum, offering the object as an acquisition. This means providing information about the object such as its description, history, provenance, statement of significance, why it would be right for a museum’s collection.

Her grandmother’s cameo had always been something of a curiosity in the family; no one knew where it came from or how old it was. Antonella chose it for the exercise in the hope of finding out more about it.

Photography by Antonella Schulte

She pored through all the books in the Research Library about cameos and mourning jewellery, but found nothing to match the one she had. It is unusual. Instead of being an adornment for jewellery such as belts, brooches, bracelets and necklaces, this cameo consists of an entire shell with the design carved on the outside. The design is also curious. Whereas cameo designs commonly depict scenes from history or myth, this one is different. A neatly bearded man, wearing jacket and trousers, is seated at a small table. He appears to be outdoors, as he has his hat on and there is an umbrella rigged to shade the table. The man is writing, and he is looking, quill poised over paper, at a woman who seems to be addressing him. Her forefinger is raised at the man, perhaps in emphasis or admonishment. She is holding a furled umbrella and has some sort of raised decoration (a crown?) on her head.

It’s interesting to speculate on what’s happening here. Is the man an official, say a census taker, or tax collector? Why is he outside and where is this scene taking place? I wonder if identifying the type of shell might give a clue? And just who is that tall imposing woman?

Entrepreneurial corsetières

Published on March 22, 2010 in Research enquiries. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

PhD candidate Rosemary Knight, from the School of Social Science at the University of Queensland spent three days in the Research Library investigating resources on 19th century women in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne who made corsets both as fashion garments and medical appliances. These entrepreneurial corsetières promoted themselves as surgical instrument makers, and successfully exhibited in international competitions such as the Sydney International Exhibition of 1879

In utilising the Research Library’s corsetry books and department store catalogues, Rosemary’s focus was anthropological rather than historical, challenging the Victorian notion of middle class women as passive “home angels”.
As Rosemary says, this approach examines “…the way in which some middle class women appropriated an item of female material culture, the corset, as a means of entering the male dominated world of business”.
She chose to study corsetières as corsets are archetypically Victorian and central to the idea of the stereotypical nineteenth century woman; however unlike studies that focus on male dominance and female exclusion from the public realm, Rosemary’s thesis examines what women did, rather than what they could not do.

During the School of Social Science’s postgraduate research day in November 2009, Rosemary was awarded best paper for The Many Faces of the Corset.

Catch ’22′ while you can

Published on February 2, 2010 in Research enquiries. 0 Comments Tags: .

Time was when January was quiet for special libraries, with staff being away and usage down. But not any more. This year the Research Library has got off to a brisk start with a series of visitors.

First up is a return by Lara Allport of The National Grid

This time, Lara is gathering images and ideas for an exhibition she is producing called ‘22’.

‘22’ is a group show, celebrating female artistic talent from around the world. Each of the 22 artists is required to produce an original piece especially for the exhibition, which means of course that all the works will be premiering at the same time. ‘22’ opens Friday 18th June, 2010 at The National Grid Gallery in Brookvale. The band KissKiss ‘n Tell will be performing live on the night.

The artists involved:

1. Karina Zerefos (aus)
2. Lara Allport (uk)
3. Bridge Stehli (aus)
4. Bec Crockett (aus)
5. Katherine Barrett (uk)
6. Carley Casey (aus)
7. Ruth Cadioli (aus)
8. Shannon Crees (aus)
9. Kelly Thompson (nz)
10. Bec Winnel (aus)
11. Rachel Wells (aus)
12. Fumi Mini Nakamura (us)
13. Andrea Innocent (aus)
14. Rebecca Dent (aus)
15. Mia Taninaka (aus)
16. Kaitlin Beckett (aus)
17. Lang Leav (aus)
18. Jaimee Paul (aus)
19. Rozanna Johnson (aus)
20. Kristy Milliken (aus)
21. Maddi Boyd (aus)
22. Claire Reid (uk)

See more about Lara and her artwork.

Who’s there?

Published on November 19, 2009 in Research enquiries. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Today we’ve had another welcome visit to the Research Library by Michelle Maddison, curator at the Museum of the Riverina in Wagga Wagga

Michelle is at the Powerhouse doing background research for her new exhibition “Knockers”.

This exhibition features more than 250 doorknockers from the collection of former Wagga resident the late Mrs Sylvia M. Seccombe, who started acquiring them in 1933.

Her collection was so impressive that Michelle originally considered calling the exhibition “Mrs Seccombe’s marvellous knockers”. However she settled on ‘Knockers” as being somehow, well, snappier.

There is a link to the Powerhouse Museum, as Sylvia Seccombe was the daughter of Richard T. Baker, the second Curator of the Technological Museum (as it was then known) from 1895 to 1921. Michelle believes that Mrs Seccombe’s collection clearly shows the influence of her curator father in the way the objects were stored and catalogued.

“Knockers” opens at the Museum of the Riverina, Wagga Wagga on December 10.

Cappuccino, anyone?

Published on September 22, 2009 in Research enquiries. 0 Comments

Last week, we had an interesting visit from Lisa Nash and Bernie Lenterne from the Teaching and Learning Resources Unit (ie library) of the Catholic Education Office, Parramatta.

TLRU has a physical location at Mount Druitt, where it provides multipurpose workspaces available for video and audio editing, meeting, performances, reading and study. As an added inducement, Lisa and Bernie have installed a coffee machine which is so popular that library users are now able to whip up their own cappuccinos.

Like most specialist libraries, TLRU’s physical collection of books and journals is augmented by a virtual collection of education resources, or ‘e-resources’, which provides access to online databases such as
ERIC and EbsoHost for staff research and curriculum development. Not so common in special libraries, staff also have access to an electronic book library.

TLRU provides services for staff such as research, video and audio services (eg training in videoing and podcasting), Teacher Librarian support, professional memberships, access to television and newspapers.

To find out more about this interesting library, have a look at Lisa’s Blogspot.

E-victing books from the library

Published on September 14, 2009 in Research enquiries. 0 Comments Tags: , .

What happens when schools decide that a physical library is no longer necessary? When books and journals are removed from the shelves, and the shelves themselves removed? If books as objects are replaced by digital information, what exactly does this mean? How will it work? What effect does it have on students? On teachers? On thinking processes?

Cushing Academy, a prep school near Boston has embraced a digital future.