Australian Museum
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| ID Local | Title | Description Brief | Updated |
| AM0001 | The Morrison Collection c. 1900 | The Morrison Collection was a collection of 124 Aboriginal cultural objects collected at the turn of the 20th century by Alexander Morrison in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales. This collection is of interest to the Wonnarua people whose families lived at the St. Clair mission where many of the objects were made. Coverage: Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia; Singleton, New South Wales, Australia; Queensland, Australia; 1895 - 1905 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0002 | The Hedley and McCulloch Collection: Torres Strait 1907 | Between 29 August and 4 October 1907 Charles Hedley and Alan R. McCulloch collected 167 artefacts, mostly from Mer (Murray Island), Torres Strait, Australia. Coverage: Mer (Murray Island), Torres Strait, Australia | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0003 | The Bruce and Black Collection from Mer (Murray Island), Torres Strait (about 1900) | In 1908, Sydney collector Percy George Theodore Black donated 49 Torres Strait artefacts to the Australian Museum. All the artefacts were collected on Mer. Part of the collection is a complete mourning outfit. Other parts included several small ancestral figures (Ad giz) and two sorcery figures (esau-mani). While the exact date of origin of these artefacts is not known, some were probably made in the first few years of the twentieth century and some probably earlier. Coverage: Mer (Murray Island), Torres Strait, Australia; 1895 - 1905 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0004 | The Anthony Forge Collection of Balinese Paintings (early 19th century – 1970s) | The Australian Museum holds one of the world’s most significant collections of Balinese paintings. This collection of 160 paintings is arguably the best documented, mainly because Professor Anthony Forge, who assembled the collection, comprehensively studied the painting tradition in Bali in the 1970s. As his intention was to document stylistic and iconographic change over time, Forge purchased a considerable variety of paintings. Some of the early 19th century paintings were obtained from community temples, while the newest, produced in the 1970s, were purchased or commissioned directly from artists. Coverage: Kamasan, Bali, Indonesia; 1810 - 1979 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0005 | The Aboriginal Archaeological Collection (assembled between the late 19th century and present) | The Aboriginal Archaeological Collection is a unique material record of the prehistory of the south-eastern region of Australia over the last 50,000 years.
The Australian Museum holds a large body of materials obtained from Aboriginal archaeological sites in New South Wales. They include about 2,000 collections of materials (assemblages) recovered via systematic field research. Also there are about 18,000 of collections, usually smaller, sometimes consisting of only a single object, obtained in various ways, often by amateur or incidental collectors. Coverage: New South Wales, Australia; 1880 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0006 | Cuddie Springs Archaeological Site, New South Wales | Layers dated to 30,000 – 36,000 years ago, include the bones of large, now extinct animals, other animals that are still alive, as well as stone artefacts. The site is the only one in Australia that contains such clear and complex evidence of the coexistence of mega fauna with humans. Coverage: Cuddie Springs, New South Wales, Australia | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0007 | Cook Collection - Tonga - 1768 -1780 | A collection of artifacts collected on the Tongan Islands during Captain James Cook's three voyages of discovery to the South Seas, during the period 1768 - 1780. Coverage: Samoa; Tonga; Tongan Islands; Fiji; 1768 - 1780 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0008 | Cook Collection - Hawaii - 1778-1779 | The artefacts in the Australian Museum's Cook collection attributed to Hawaii include a feathered cloak, 4 feathered circlet ornaments, a foundation mat for a feather cloak, a woven cane helmet, a nose whistle, a shark's tooth ring, 3 miniature bone carved turtles, a shark's tooth knife and more than 20 cut pieces of barkcloth. Coverage: Sandwich Islands; Hawaii, Kauai, Hawaiian Islands, United States of America; Kauai, Hawaiian Islands, United States of America; 1778 - 1779 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0009 | Botany Bay BB4 Archaeological Site, New South Wales: NP1059 | In the late 1960s Vincent Megaw, now Emeritus Professor at Flinders University in Adelaide, excavated the Aboriginal site at Captain Cook’s Landing Place. The site includes an extensive midden, containing large amounts of shell and fish-bone. Sydney cockle, turban shells, mussels and oysters, as well as bones of snapper and bream indicate the meals of the Gweagal and their ancestors. There are also remnants, in smaller quantities, of seals, dolphins, whales, sea-birds, and some mammals. The site is prominent for the large quantity of complete and partially-finished fish hooks made from various sea shells as well as numerous bone spear barbs that were used for the prongs of fishing spears. Coverage: Captain Cook's Landing Place, New South Wales, Australia; Kurnell, New South Wales, Australia; 1770 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0010 | Graphics by Timothy Akis, Papua New Guinean artist 1970s | The Collection includes eight drawings and prints by Timothy Akis, a pioneer of the first generation of contemporary Papuan artists. The drawings were produced in Georgina Beier’s studio in Port Moresby in the 1970s. Coverage: Madang Province, Papua New Guinea; 1970 - 1979 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0011 | Mathias Kauage (1944-2003): Collection of paintings, drawings and body accessories, Papua New Guinean artist, 1980s | This small, Mathias Kauage Collection includes 10 paintings and prints, as well as 10 body accessories and ornaments used by the prominent Papua New Guinean artist in the 1980s. Coverage: Papua New Guinea; 1980 - 1989 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0012 | Thomas Dick Photograph Collection | Glass Plate negatives of Birrpai people of the Port Macquarie district showing material culture and ceremonial life, 1910-1923. Well documented collection with links to other Thomas Dick collections held at AITSIS, Qld Museum, Cambridge University. Coverage: Port Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia; 1910 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0013 | Frank Hurley Photograph Collection | 1125 glass plate negatives and lantern slides of expeditions to Torres Strait and Papua New Guinea by one of Australia's most famous photographers in 1922-1923, accompanied by Australian Museum Scientist Allan McCulloch. Subjects include people, dwellings, artefacts, landscapes and mission stations. Archives also holds McCulloch's Torres Strait diary of the 1921 expedition (AMS129) and extracts from Hurleys diaries (AMS418) Coverage: Papua New Guinea; Torres Strait, Australia; 1922 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0014 | George Brown Photograph Collection | 904 glass plate negatives taken by Missionary George Brown across the Pacific, 1876-1905. Some of the earliest photographs taken in the Pacific. Subjects include missions, people, and landscapes in Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, New Britain, New Ireland, Solomon Islands and PNG. Coverage: Fiji; Papua New Guinea; Samoa; Tonga; 1886 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0015 | Aboriginal rock art engravings recordings, maps and archeological surveys | Includes collections of RH Matthews (c1880-1890),27 drawings of ceremonial stones and sketch maps of localities visited by anthropolgist and surveyor RH Matthews plus manuscript describing carvings in the Darling River area (AMS 149); 1967 Archeological surveys by WE Moore and Ian Sim along proposed Sydney to Newcastle freeway route (AMS150); recordings of aboriginal rock art by Ian Sim along Newcastle to Sydney freeway (AMS152); 35 miscellaneous anthropolgical excavation recordings and maps, 1941-1978 (AMS417); Papers of Paul Tacon (AMS504) Coverage: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia; Darling River, New South Wales, Australia; 1890 - 1978 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0016 | Oral history interviews | Oral history interviews recorded for the Indigenous Australian Gallery project in 1996-1997. Participants came from across Australia including Torres Strait, Alice Springs, Bogabilla, Gulf of Carpentaria. Coverage: Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia; Torres Straight Islands, Australia; Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia; 1996 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0017 | Anthropology Department Field Trip Photographs | Photographic records of Museum staff and associates field trips. Many of these are to Papua New Guinea and the Pacific in the period 1970-1995. Coverage: Australia; Papua New Guinea; 1970 - 1995 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0018 | Pacific Photograph Collections | Donated and collected albums, prints and negatives documenting Pacific Islands and PNG from late 19th C to around 1930. Collections include those of traders, travellers and missionaries. Includes around 15 smaller collections. Of particular note are the Percy Money Collection from Collingwood Bay (1900-1910), albums from Santa Cruz and Solomon Islands c 1900, Charles Marshall collection from PNG 1927-1933, Robert Ethridge Collection 1900-1920 and the Waterhouse family collections from New Britain and Fiji. Coverage: Papua New Guinea; Fiji; New Britain; Solomon islands; 1890 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0019 | Walter Roth Photograph Collections | Photographs of Australian indigenous people, material culture and ceremonial life c1900 from Queensland, NSW, WA, Tasmania, Mornington Island and Bentnick Island Coverage: New South Wales, Australia; Queensland, Australia; Western Australia; Mornington Island, Austalia, Bentnick Island, Australia; Tasmania, Australia; 1895 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0020 | Early Collection Documentation | Early records of the Australian Museum ethnographic and indigenous collections. These records include Letters Received 1838-1888 (AMS7 and AMS8); early collection registers including the Palmer Register (1877-1880) (AMS253) and A/B Register (1887-1940) (AMS52), plus registers of Donations, Exchanges, Purchases and Accession registers and accompanying indexes. This large collection contains a wealth of information on early collectors, dealers, and donors, collecting activities across Australia and the Pacific,and the history and development of the Australian Museum's indigenous and ethnographic collections and its links with collections held throughout the world. Coverage: Australia; Pacific Islands; 1838 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0021 | Daniell Cookseay Collection: c.300 stone artefacts collected in 1910-1920s from the coastal areas of Newcastle, New South Wales | The first major, documented, collection of Aboriginal stone artefacts in Newcastle area was made by Daniel F. Cooksey of Mayfield in the 1910s and 1920s. Cooksey collected about 5,000 stone artefacts and donated some to the Australian Museum. Coverage: Mayfield, New South Wales, Australia; Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia; 1910 - 1929 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0022 | Collection of 193 String Figures from Yirrkala, Yolngu culture, Northern Territory, 1948 | This collection of 193 mounted string figures gathered at Yirrkala in the north-east Arnhem Land is the largest known collection from one community, made at the one time, in the world. The collection was made by Frederick McCarthy, Head of Ethnology at the Australian Museum, while participating in the American-Australian Expedition to Arnhem Land in 1948. Coverage: Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia; Yirrkala, Northern Territory, Australia; 1948 - 1948 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0023 | The Walter Edmund Roth Collection of Queensland Aboriginal Artefacts 1894-1904 | This collection of about 2,200 artefacts is the most extensive collection of its kind assembled and documented by English physician and anthropologist Walter Edmund Roth (1861-1933) in north-east Queensland. Coverage: North-East Queensland, Australia; 1894 - 1904 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0024 | The John Stacey Collection: north-west Canada, early 20th century | In 1911 and 1912 the Australian Museum bought a total of 56 north-west Canadian Pacific coast artefacts from a Sydney accountant, Mr Frank A Wilkes, who had acquired them from "Colonel" Stacey. The collection was from the Cape Mudge people of Quadra Island in British Columbia and comprised a range of artefacts including masks, clothes, stone tools, axes, canoe models and mats. Coverage: Cape Mudge, Bristish Columbia, Canada; 1895 - 1910 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0025 | The Thomas Steel Collection: late 19th century | Between 1887 and 1924 Mr Thomas Steel (1858-1925) donated a total of 103 artefacts to the Australian Museum. They were from several countries including Australia, Fiji and the United States. 86 were stone artefacts from Australia, Fiji (22 of which Mr Steel collected on Rewa River, Viti Levu in 1885-86) and New Caledonia. In 1927 Mr Steel’s widow, Mary Sinclair Steel donated 77 artefacts to the museum, many of which were stone arrow heads collected by her husband in the United States. Coverage: Fiji; Australia; New Caledonia; United States of America; 1887 - 1924 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0026 | The Francis Joseph Bayldon Collection: Melanesia, late 19th – early 20th centuries | In 1949 Captain Bayldon (1872-1948) donated a collection of 264 Pacific island artefacts to the Australian Museum. They were from Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia and Fiji. The collection comprised a range of items including clubs, paddles, shields, spears and dishes. Coverage: Fiji; Papua New Guinea; New Caledonia; Solomon Islands; 1872 - 1948 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0027 | The Harry Voyce Collection: Bougainville - Buka Islands, first half 20th century | In 1935 the Australian Museum bought 385 Buka Island (now Bougainville - Buka) artefacts from the Rev. A H Voyce. The collection comprised stone axes, body ornaments, bone implements, baskets, combs, aprons, spears and smoking pipes. The polished stone adzes and axes represent practically all the known types from Buka and some from Guadalcanal. Coverage: Buka Island, Papua New Guinea; Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands; 1926 - 1952 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0028 | The Arthur James Vogan Collection: Pacific, late 19th century | In 1889 the Australian Museum bought the Arthur Vogan collection of 55 Pacific island artefacts. Most were body accessories and stone tools from the Solomon Islands and New Zealand. In 1923 Mr Vogan sold the museum 61 artefacts from New Caledonia. Coverage: Solomon Islands; New Zealand; New Caledonia; 1875 - 1900 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0029 | The William Walford Thorpe Collection 1900-1932 | The William Walford Thorpe Collection consists of approximately 575 objects collected and donated by Thorpe, first member of the Department of Ethnology at the Australian Museum. It comprises of numerous artefacts, largely from within Australia, which contributed greatly to the Museums early collection of Aboriginal Indigenous artefacts. Coverage: Papua New Guinea; Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; Morna Point, New South Wales, Australia; Samoa; Niue; Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia; India; Port Stephens, New South Wales, Australia; Dark Point, New South Wales, Australia Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Micronesia, Niue, Tonga; Micronesia; Tonga; 1900 - 1932 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0030 | The Revered William Wyatt Gill Collection | From 1884 to 1898, Missionary Reverend William Wyatt Gill donated 98 objects to the Australian Museum. Collected during his travels on behalf of the London Missionary Society, the objects are largely from Papua New Guinea, as well as several objects from the Cook Islands, Indonesia and India. Coverage: Cook Islands; Papua New Guinea; Indonesia; India; 1884 - 1898 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0031 | The Tost and Rohu Collection | The Tost and Rohu Collection consist of approximately 130 ethnographic objects acquired by purchase and exchange between 1886 and 1925 from Jane Tost and her daughter Ada Rohu, professional taxidermists who worked in Sydney, and sold natural history and ethnographic material in their Sydney studio. Coverage: New Zealand; Micronesia; Solomon Islands; Vanuatu; Australia; Hawaii; New Caledonia; Papua New Guinea; Fiji; Niue; Kiribati; 1886 - 1925 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0032 | The Mrs I Hetherington Collection, Samoa, Vanuatu, late 19th century | The Mrs I Hetherington Collection consists of mostly Samoan artefacts, purchased in 1885 by the Australian Museum for six pounds. The collection includes wonderful examples of objects commonly used in daily Samoan life, as well as more decorative items. Coverage: Vanuatu; Samoa | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0033 | The Robert Hamilton Mathews Collection: NSW, late 19th – early 20th centuries | A collection of 171 Aboriginal stone artefacts mostly pounders, scrapers and axes and bullroarers collected by Robert Mathews in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. Coverage: New South Wales; 1875 - 1918 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0034 | The Anatole von Hugel Collection: Fiji, 1875-77 | A collection of 78 Fijian artefacts including clubs, plates, arrows, clothes, bowls and seven stone adzes from Fiji and Samoa collected in the late 19th Century. Coverage: Fiji, Viti Levu; Samoa; 1875 - 1877 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0035 | The E Schmidt Collection: Papua New Guinea, 1909 | A collection of 302 artefacts mostly weapons - arrows, bows, clubs and spears from from ‘German’ New Guinea, New Ireland, the Admiralty Islands and the Solomon Islands collected in the early 20th Century. Coverage: New Ireland; Papua New Guinea; Solomon Islands; Admiralty Islands; 1900 - 1909 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0036 | The Bishop Museum Collection: Hawaii, late 19th century | A collection of 101 artefacts from Hawaii including bowls, body ornaments, bark cloth beaters and stamps, bowls, fishing hooks, balls, rattles and adze heads acquired in 1893. Coverage: Hawaii; 1800 - 1893 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0037 | The George Brown Collection: Pacific, second half 19th century | A collection of Pacific island artefacts and photographs including 142 spears and over 900 glass plates negatives collected by the Rev Dr George Brown primarily during his missionary service from 1888 to 1905. Coverage: the Solomon Islands; Tonga; Samoa; 1850 - 1905 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0038 | The Lissant Bolton Collection: Vanuatu, 1990s | A collection of approximately 90 artfacts from Vanuatu mostly baskest and mats collected in the 1990s. Coverage: Vanuatu; 1990 - 1999 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0039 | The C. Binnie Collection, Polinesian bark cloths, early 20th century | The C. Binnie collection consists of 30 Pacific island bark cloths and grass mats donated to the Australian Museum in 1935. This includes 13 bark cloths from Samoa, Fiji and Tonga. Coverage: Polinesia; Samoa; Fiji; Tonga | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0040 | The William Dixson Collection: Australia, Pacific, early 20th century | A collection of approximately 1,500 artefacts donated to the museum by Sir William Dixson (1870 – 1952) The majority of the collection consists of Australian artefacts mostly weapons, including spears, clubs, boomerangs, spear heads and arrows. Also included are artefacts from New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. Coverage: Australia Guinea; New Zealand; Papua New Guinea | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0041 | Mr John Copp Collection, Pacific artefacts, late 19th century | During 1889-1890, Mr John Copp donated to and exchanged with the Australian Museum a collection of 27 mainly Pacific artefacts. The collection is comprised of various objects common in pacific culture. Coverage: India; Samoa; Papua New Guinea; New Caledonia; Vanuatu; Fiji; Malaysia; 1880 - 1890 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0042 | The Mary Bundock Collection: Australia, late 19th century | Mary Bundock spent much time with the local Bandjalang people, at Wyangari on Richmond River, New South Wales. She collected and documented weapons, baskets, net-work, camp work and some other aspects of Bandjalang culture. In 1895 she donated 21 artefacts to the Australian Museum. Coverage: Richmond River, New South Wales, Australia; 1870 - 1895 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0043 | Miss E A Farran Collection, Fiji artefacts, early 20th century | Miss E A Farran sold 27 artefacts to the Australian Museum in 1920. Originating from Fiji, the items within the collections include which bark cloths, and whale tooth and reptile bone neck ornaments. Coverage: Fiji; 1900 - 1920 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0044 | The Jean McKay and Stanley Gordon Moriarty Collection: Papua New Guinea, 20th century | A collection of approximately 225 artefacts from the highlands of Papua New Guinea collected by Stanley Moriarty between 1961 and 1972. Coverage: Papua New Guinea; 1961 - 1972 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0045 | Mr Smith Collection, Fiji, late 19th century | Mr Smith donated a collection of largely Fijian objects to the Australian Museum in 1889. The collection is comprised of both everyday and ornamental objects representative of Fijian life at the end of the nineteenth century. Coverage: Fiji; 1875 - 1889 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0046 | Captain James Cook collection from New Zealand: 1769-1777 | Captain James Cook collected many objects from New Zealand in 1769, 1773 and 1777 but his personal collection included less than 40 objects. They cannot be identified to a specific voyage, area or date. New Zealand artefacts a cloak, a number of body ornaments, feather boxes and musical instruments. Among weapons there is only one stone patu, and among tolls, three stone adze blades and two fish hooks. Coverage: New Zealand | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0047 | Traditional Textiles of Indonesia: 19th – 20th century | The Australian Museum holds a collection of about 300 Indonesian textiles. A quarter of these textiles had been collected by the 1970s and another quarter in the 1980s; while the rest were collected in the past two decades. However, some textiles date back to the late 19th century, and there are some contemporary examples. Most textiles are strongly linked to traditional methods of production, design and use. The collection includes about 180 ikat and 40 batik textiles. Coverage: Alor, Pulau, Indonesia; Alor, Indonesia; Jawa, Indonesia; Bali, Indonesia; Sumatra, Indonesia; Timor, Indonesia | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0048 | The Erromango Collection: Erromango Island, Vanuatu | The Erromango collection comprises 600 items, of which 150 were acquired from a Pesbiterian missionary, Reverent H. A. Robertson and his family between 1898 and 1914. The collection includes clothing and body adornments such as decorated bark cloths, grass skirts, neck ornaments, armbands, combs and shell necklaces. It also includes weapons, containers, and spiritual objects. Coverage: Erromango Island, Vanuatu; 1898 - 1914 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0049 | The Malangan collection (1885-1895): New Ireland, Papua New Guinea | The Malangan collection, acquired between 1885 and 1895, is one of the earliest in the world as well as one of the best, representing a wide variety of stylistic forms. The Malangan was an elaborate ceremonial system, focused mainly on the final rites for the deceased, and also on initiating boys who were to replace the dead as the clan members. The artefacts used in the ceremonies include various masks, free-standing figures, wall plaques of different forms, doll-like human figures, as well as other figures representing fish, birds, snakes, and supernatural beings. Coverage: New Ireland, Papua New Guinea; 1885 - 1895 | 30 May 2012 |
| AM0050 | The Reverend John Percy Money collection: Collingwood Bay, Oro Province, Papua New Guinea, 1901-1910 | This comprehensive collection includes over 900 ethnographic and archaeological artefacts from the Collingwood Bay area. The value of the collection is significantly enhanced by the field notes and photographs (Money donated his glass plate negatives to the Museum) documenting the environment, people and their customs. Money’s collection provides an insight into the everyday as well as ceremonial life of Collingwood Bay people in the early 20th century. Coverage: Collingwood Bay, Oro Province, Papua New Guinea; 1901 - 1910 | 30 May 2012 |