A Body of Knowledge

Above: Maker unknown, Model of the brain (dissected on wooden base), c.1900, gypsum, paint, wood. Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology, University of Melbourne

As part of the Melbourne Medical School 150th Anniversary, the University of Melbourne is hosting three exhibitions under the theme, ‘A Body of Knowledge’. These exhibitions explore the differing perceptions of the human body through art in ‘The Anatomy Lesson’, and through the various approaches to teaching students in ‘The Art of Teaching: Models and Methods and The Art of Teaching: Clinical Schools’.

‘Models and Methods’: at the Leigh Scott Gallery, Baillieu Library, and Medical History Museum, level 2, Brownless Biomedical Library, The University of Melbourne, 13 September 2012 – 30 January 2013

‘The Anatomy Lesson’: at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne, 13 September 2012 – 30 January 2013

Information on floor talks:  http://medicine150.mdhs.unimelb.edu.au/event/floortalks

Pat Brassington and Juliana Engberg

Image: Catalogue cover, ‘Feminist Narratives’, 4 June 1987-24 June 1987. Curator: Juliana Engberg. Published by the George Paton Gallery, 1987. University of Melbourne Archives, George Paton Gallery Collection 1990.0144, Unit 31.

Currently exhibiting at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), Melbourne, is a survey of one of Australia’s most important and influential photo-based artists, Pat Brassington.

Early in her 30 years of practice, Brassington exhibited in two different group shows at the George Paton Gallery :  Feminist Narratives in June 1987 and Fabrications: Recent Contemporary Art From Tasmania in September 1987 

The George Paton Gallery Collection at the University of Melbourne Archives contains records from both of these exhibitions including correspondence, exhibition catalogues, essays, invitations, reviews, photographs and slides. Brassington’s work is a playful manipulation of imagery, predominantly bodily, altering reality to create a world more interesting, one that is at once eerily dark and mysterious, and pure and beautiful.  No matter the technique, using analogue photography and collage in the 1980′s and now digitally aided manipulation, she is a master of her tool creating seamless juxtapositions and mutations, their illusionary magnificence evoking a state of unconsciousness.

Artistic director for Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Juliana Engberg, was director of the George Paton Gallery at the time of these exhibitions and curated both.  Fabrications: Recent Contemporary Art From Tasmania was curated as part of the Chameleon Galleries, Hobart, Curator in Residence Program where Engberg presumably began her artistic relationship with Brassington.  Engberg was Assistant Director of the George Paton Gallery from 1984  to 1985, then Director from 1986 until the beginning of 1990. During this time she curated many exhibitions,  coordinated lecture series and presentations from local and international speakers, and started the art magazine, ‘Agenda: Contemporary Art’.

Twenty five years after  Brassington’s and Engberg’s  first project together Pat Brassington’s wonderful exhibition at ACCA can be viewed as a celebration of both women’s careers and achievements and their outstanding contribution to the Arts in Melbourne and Australia.

Pat Brassington, A Rebours currently showing at ACCA, running until 23 September 2012.

The George Paton Gallery Archive is currently being listed for online, searchable access early in 2013.  See University of Melbourne Archives Catalogue,  and Home page  for more information.

Thomas Bibby Guest

Thomas Bibby Guest arrived in Sydney in 1852. By May 1856 he  had established a steam biscuit factory in Melbourne in partnership with John Barnes, trading as Barnes, Guest & Co. The firm began the manufacture of ship and fancy biscuits in a building in William Street and by 1858 the firm reorganised as TB Guest & Co. With continuing expansion of the business, a store was built at the William Street site in 1869. Following a fire, the factory was rebuilt and served as Guest’s factory until 1932 when the business moved to West Melbourne. In 1963 Arnott Guest Pty Ltd was created following a merger with another biscuit company.

Samuel Thomas Gill was commissioned by the architect to paint a representation of the second William Street building. Gill is best known for his lithographs of Victorian gold-diggings, but he was often commissioned by architects as he was capable of embellishing a perspective view of a building. This painting exemplifies his style with its solid architectural depiction and the spirited but somewhat naïve figures, animals and carriages.

While Gill’s artistry depicts the prosperity of the company, the stories found within the company records allow a vastly different insight into the working conditions of female industrial workers and working class conditions in general during the late 19th century.

Melbourne’s Maritime History Revealed

From the Duke’s and Orr’s Amalgamated Dry Docks Ltd collection, no date, item 1972.0042.0110, unit 59, University of Melbourne Archives

Living in modern times where advanced aviation technology has made travelling overseas and the transport of goods an efficient and relatively effortless process, it is easy to forget that less than a century ago these services were essentially performed by water transport. This mode of transport took a great toll on ships often travelling for months at a time in harsh weather conditions. The University of Melbourne Archives holds the Duke’s and Orr’s Amalgamated Dry Docks Ltd collection, a fascinating record of the engineering, maintenance and repair business of the maritime industry in Melbourne.

Today the old Duke’s and Orr’s graving dock at Clarendon Street, South Wharf houses the famous Melbourne icon, the sailing ship Polly Woodside. The dock shares a rich history in Melbourne’s maritime activity, having docked, cleaned, painted and repaired thousands of ships including those affected by the battles of wartime. It is also of historic significance in the field of engineering due to the fact that its wooden walls remained during reconstruction at the turn of the century, making it the last timber walled dry dock in Australia, and of its size, possibly one of the last in the world. This is said to be in part due to the choice of Australian Eucalypt whose timber is outstanding for strength and durability.

The collection encompasses records dating between the years 1878–1975 consisting of a variety of documents including minutes, accounts, time books, correspondence, share registers and other company related documents. Time books recording employee wages reflect the era’s economy and industry wage standards while correspondence with employees, insurance companies and medical practitioners regarding injury and accident reports provide an interesting historical understanding of work safety practices (or lack of) and protection in the event of workplace injury. Needless to say, there were a lot of slips and spills! In addition correspondence with Melbourne Harbor Trust, Lands Department, Customs Collector, Federal Income and the Tax Department provides details of Melbourne’s port operations. Docking registers, time books and cleaning books all list names of ships docked at Duke’s and Orr’s Graving Yard, linking employees to these jobs at certain dates. Along with the National Trust Library in Victoria, the Duke’s and Orr’s Amalgamated Dry Dock’s Ltd collection also includes a number of copies of published Registers of Australia and New Zealand Shipping.

An assortment of photographs provides a visual record of Duke’s and Orr’s and Melbourne’s maritime activities, depicting staff at work and posing for group shots, the immense size of the ships, impressive engineering machinery and the mammoth task at hand to repair the damaged ships. Visual records of the Yarra Bank serve as a rich insight into the history of Melbourne’s once close proximity between the CBD and its bustling port facilities, some featuring horse and carts along the surrounding roads.

The Duke’s and Orr’s Amalgamated Dry Docks Ltd collection is listed online and searchable via the University of Melbourne Archives catalogue, http://gallery.its.unimelb.edu.au/imu/imu.php?request=load&irn=110337&ecatalogue=on&view=details. Digitising some of the more fragile and significant records is proposed for the future. Duke’s and Orr’s Amalgamated Dry Dock’s Ltd did business with many prominent firms in Melbourne for which the University of Melbourne Archives also holds records, including Huddart Parker, J.B. Were and Son, Stock Exchange, Inglis Smith and Co. and McPhersons Ltd.

(Georgina Ward)

Exciting Collaboration with the DAAO

Above: Joseph Lycett, Views in Australia, or, New South Wales & Van Diemen’s Land delineated: in fifty views with descriptive letter press, London: J. Souter, 1824-25.

This year the Cultural Collections of the University of Melbourne, including the Baillieu Library Print Collection and the Special Collections, are collaborating with the DAAO (Design & Art Australia Online) with the support of the University’s Australian Institute of Art History (AIAH). The DAAO is an open-source, freely accessible scholarly eResearch tool leading discovery of biographical data about Australian artists, designers, craftspeople and curators. www.daao.org.au

This University-supported academic database builds upon the comprehensive research directed by Professor Joan Kerr for the Dictionary of Australian Artists, first published in 1984 and followed by an enlarged edition in 1992.

A specific project of collaboration between the Baillieu Library Special Collections and the DAAO has focussed on the Library’s outstanding works of the 18th and 19th centuries that depict the natural history and topography of Australia. Indeed, the Collections’ early Australian plate books provide a significant visual record of Australian colonial history. Recently, a prominent gathering of these works has been listed on the DAAO in the biographical entries of their artistic creators, with links back to the Specials Collections and the Library catalogue. Notable examples include Joseph Lycett’s Views in Australia (1824-25), Conrad Martens’ Sketches in the environs of Sydney (1850), S.T. Gill’s Sketches in Victoria (c.1855) and a collection of works by Louisa Anne Meredith, drawing upon the University’s comprehensive holdings of her work. In effect, this year’s inaugural collaboration between the DAAO and the University of Melbourne is making significant strides in further highlighting the historic treasures to be found in the Baillieu Library collections.

Also of note is another project with the DAAO that draws upon the Special Collections’ large set of artists’ books, in the process expanding recognition for this specialised art form.

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