Names
Royal Queensland Show 'Ekka' Collection
IDs
QM00024
Offline Only
Descriptions
The Ekka collection includes an array of show bags (sample bags) and their contents ranging from the 1930s to the 1980s. The contents include confectionery packaging, novelty objects and toys, while the bags themselves range from cloth drawstring bags to printed plastic bags. The Museum also holds prize winning examples of embroidery and other handcrafts, along with the medals and certificates awarded to winners of craft and agricultural displays.
The Ekka is a 10 day annual festival that commences on the second Thursday of August held at the RNA showgrounds. The official title of the Ekka is the Royal Queensland Show, though it has had several names over the years. The first show was the Queensland Intercolonial Exhibition, held in 1876 and the Museum holds prize medals that go back to this date. The Show was intended to promote local industries, but also to showcase the agricultural, pastoral and industrial resources of the whole of Queensland, and this has continued to be the key purpose of the Show. Show bags, with samples of the wares of many different manufacturers and organisations, have been a distinctive feature of the Ekka for many years. Showbags were designed to provide samples of products produced specifically at the Royal Queensland Show, however the content expanded progressively to represent wider commercial interests, and later to tie in with film and television trends. Most of the Museum's showbags were donated by avid collectors the Chantler family.
Subjects
Agricultural shows; Confectionery; Embroidery; Royal Queensland Show; Textiles; Toys
Agriculture
Chantler Family
Sample bags
Coverage Spatial
Brisbane
Coverage Temporal
1930
1989
Related Collections
Dates
2012-05-30 23:40