issue no. 07 MAR 2014

S AU M ST U R ART . CULTURE . ANTIQUITIES . NATURAL HISTORY E A S L

U I A

M WINNER Best magazine and newsletter A W (Level B) 3 A 01 RDS 2 In recent years, Hollywood has released several big-budget films set in antiquity, such as Gladiator (2000), Clash of the CONTENTS UNIVERSITY Titans (2010), The Eagle (2011) and, coming in 3D to a cinema MUSEUMS SWORDS, near you in 2014, Pompeii. O1 SWORDS, SANDALS AND THE 19 MUSEUM ENHANCES LIFE Comprising the Macleay However, ever since it emerged as a new technology more Museum, SILVER SCREEN AS A STUDENT than a century ago, cinema has been fascinated with the and University Art Gallery SANDALS ancient world. Within a few months of the first public 03 THE VILLAGE AND ELSEWHERE 20 INTO THE FUTURE Open Monday to Friday, 10am to showings of moving images in 1896, the Roman Emperor Nero 4.30pm and the first Saturday of 06 DRAWN FROM EXPERIENCE 22 HEART OF THE COMMUNITY every month 12 to 4pm was brought to life on the screen trying out poisons on his Closed on public holidays. slaves. By the time sound was introduced into movies in the 08 ‘LIKE’ A COCKATOO 24 AROUND THE WORLD General admission is free. AND THE late 1920s, more than 800 films had been made that drew 27 THERE IS A BURIED DRAGON Become a fan on Facebook and inspiration from ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt or the Bible. 10 A GENTLEMAN AND A SCHOLAR follow us on Twitter. 13 ANIMAL HOUSE 28 COOL FOR KIDS Sydney University Museums A handful of these films that are feature length – such as Quo 15 SMART TALK 29 DONOR HONOUR ROLL 2013 Administration Vadis (1913, an adaptation of a novel about Nero’s persecution T +61 2 9351 2274 SILVER of the Christians), Cabiria (1914, a celebration of Rome’s 16 ALONG CAME A SPIDER 30 OUT AND ABOUT F +61 2 9351 2881 E [email protected] conquest of north Africa) and Ben-Hur (1925, containing perhaps the most spectacular chariot-race of film history) – 18 GAME OF THE NAME 32 WHAT’S ON Education and Public Programs To book a school excursion, an SCREEN have been restored and released on DVD or screened at film adult education tour or a University festivals. Yet the vast majority of these ancient-inspired films heritage tour Filmmakers have long been drawn remain largely forgotten. T +61 2 9351 8746 E [email protected] to the ancient world. Professor More than 400 of these films survive in archives across the world, some of them in multiple prints designed for different MUSEUMS EARN Maria Wyke, who will present types of audience. They range from historical, mythological and Macleay Building, Gosper Lane (off Science Road) some classics of silent cinema at religious epics, and intriguing adaptations of theatre and novels, MORE AWARDS to comedies, parodies, animated cartoons, documentaries T +61 2 9036 5253 a talk at the Nicholson Museum A WORD FROM THE DIRECTOR F +61 2 9351 5646 and travelogues. Their settings are just as diverse, covering E [email protected] on 3 May, discusses the timeless everywhere from Spain to the Near East and historical Our museums received more than 100,000 periods from Pharaonic Egypt to Late Antiquity. These fragile, NICHOLSON MUSEUM appeal of antiquity. visitors in 2013 – a record and a 6.4 In the southern entrance to percent increase on the number of visitors the Quadrangle in 2012. It’s wonderful to see the museums T +61 2 9351 2812 buzzing with activity. As well as record F +61 2 9351 7305 numbers of visitors, I am delighted to E [email protected] report that the work of our staff has been UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY recognised with industry awards. War Memorial Arch, the Quadrangle The exhibition catalogue J.W. Power: T +61 2 9351 6883 F +61 2 9351 7785 Abstraction-Création, Paris 1934, by Dr E [email protected] Ann Stephen (Senior Curator, University Bathurst Regional Art Gallery. It will travel to Art Gallery) and guest curator ADS MUSE edited by Michael Turner. Donaldson, published by the Power other regional centres in NSW throughout Produced by Marketing and Institute, won the inaugural University Art 2014/2015. Pompeii, the final of the Lego Communications, the University of exhibitions, will open in late June. Sydney, March 2014. Museums (UAMA) award for 14/3483 Best University Art Museum Catalogue Points of Focus, an exhibition of photographs ISSN 1449‑0420 ABN 15 211 513 464 at the annual Art Association of Australia of the Pacific, opens at the Macleay Museum CRICOS 00026A and New Zealand (AAANZ) conference on 1 March. This exhibition, curated by in Melbourne last December. Rebecca Conway, presents images from An expanded version of the exhibition will the Macleay Museum collection taken in the Pacific region in the late 19th and early Cover image: Detail from poster open at the National Library of Australia advertising the 1914 film, Cabiria, in Canberra on Friday 25 July, then travel 20th centuries and interrogates the use of See story pages 1-2 and full image on page 2 to the Heide Museum of Modern Art in photographs as an academic resource. 87t 3kg David Ellis photograph: Martin Ho Victoria in November. The Narelle Jubelin: The popular Jeffrey Smart exhibition CO2-e CO2-e Saved Saved Vision in Motion exhibition catalogue, Recondita armonia – strange harmonies of by Luke Parker and Ann Stephen, was contrast, curated by David Malouf, closes on highly commended in the Open Catalogue 7 March and will be followed by an exhibition Category also at the AAANZ conference. of work by prominent Thai artist Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook. The exhibition, titled Last November, the Lego Colosseum 2.9t 2.2t 3kg Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook: The Village and exhibition at the Nicholson Museum CO2-e CO2-e CO2-e won Best Exhibition in the medium-sized Elsewhere, is curated by Professor John Clark Saved Saved Saved museum category at the Museums and and Clare Veal and presented in association Galleries NSW IMAGinE awards. Following with 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art. its closure in the Nicholson Museum DAVID ELLIS last June the exhibition travelled to DIRECTOR, MUSEUMS AND This publication is printed on environmentally responsible paper, using vegetable-based inks. Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery and the CULTURAL ENGAGEMENT Printed on ENVI Recycled 50/50 by Spicers, which is NCOS certified. This is a PEFC‑certified paper, containing 50 percent recycled fibre, made from elemental and process chlorine free pulp derived from sustainably managed forests and non ‑controversial sources. ENVI Recycled 50/50 is Certified Carbon Neutral and Australian Paper is an ISO 14001 certified mill. ISSUE 07 MARCH 2014 1 Contemporary Thai artist Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook is set to exhibit her ground-breaking work at the University Art Gallery, which is proud to introduce her oeuvre to a new audience, writes John Clark. THE VILLAGE AND ELSEWHERE

Top: Two shots from Julius Caesar (1908) before and after his assassination. Bottom: Two posters advertising Cabiria (1914) The Village and Elsewhere: Thai Villagers and Gentileschi’s Previous page: Buster Keaton Judith and Holofernes, Jeff Koons, inkjet on paper (teak in Three Ages (1923) frame with non-reflective glass on top), 102 x 125cm.

sometimes damaged, prints, as well The project began with screenings in Professor Maria Wyke will be speaking as their associated publicity posters, London, Bristol, Los Angeles, Berlin and as part of the Academy Travel programs, and press reviews, are a Bologna of some of the most rarely sponsored ‘: travels in art. history treasure trove of material that awaits seen antiquity films (dating as far and culture’ lecture series in the exploration and understanding. back as 1903), and it continues with Nicholson Museum on Saturday 3 May further investigation of surviving prints at 2pm. The title of her talk is ‘The The persistent presence of antiquity in – including those in the National Film irresistible attraction of antiquity in early cinema compels us to ask: Why did and Sound Archive in Canberra. In 2013 ancient cinema’. This event will present so modern a medium have so strong an we published a collection of essays, many of these films for the first time in interest in antiquity right from its start? The Ancient World in Silent Cinema Australia. See what’s on pages 32 and What did antiquity do for cinema? And (Cambridge University Press), and 33 for booking details what did cinema do for antiquity? work continues to stimulate the proper Professor Wyke’s visit is sponsored Together with Pantelis Michelakis preservation and documentation of these by ‘Undoing the Ancient’, an from the University of Bristol and films, restoration of the most beautiful interdisciplinary research project in the in collaboration with historians of and complex, and – the ultimate goal – Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences antiquity and of cinema, film archivists, screening in cinemas along with freshly (sydney.edu.au/intellectual-history/uta) and festival exhibitors, I have been commissioned musical scores. developing a research project to make Professor Maria Wyke is a Professor this fascinating body of material better of Latin and co-director of the Centre known and appreciated. for Research into the Dynamics of Civilisation at University College, London (email: [email protected])

2 ISSUE 07 MARCH 2014 3 Van Gogh’s The Midday Sleep 1889/90 Conversation I, video and the Thai villagers, installation, 12 mins, digital print, 80 x 80 x five synchronised 20cm, 2007 screens, 2005.

The Village and Elsewhere, to be held at the University Her famous works include the artist reciting Buddhist texts to Rasdjarmrearnsook writes about art in newspapers, and in an of Sydney Art Gallery from 17 March, is an important corpses in a mortuary (somewhat shockingly as a woman and emerging genre of literary and intellectual magazines in Thai. retrospective of Thai artist Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook’s not a male monk), and the amusing display in Thai public spaces An insightful and wide-ranging 2007 interview from freeform work, including major prints not previously seen outside of large reproductions of famous Western artists from Vincent magazine will be translated for the catalogue. Thailand, and video works. van Gogh to contemporary American artist Jeff Koons. The University Art Gallery’s exhibition (opening 17 March) Rasdjarmrearnsook was born into a doctor’s family in 1957 in The images are shown in a market or temple, accompanied by coincides with the 19th Biennale of Sydney and with Trat Province in eastern Thailand close to Cambodia, and her recordings of comments from the local audience. In a temple, the 12th International Conference of Thai Studies at the life has been marked by personal tragedy: she lost her mother a local Buddhist monk narrates a sermon over the images. The (22 to 24 April). when she was three, and her grandmother, who brought artist is interested in the way culture positions art and how The exhibition will be curated by Emeritus Professor her up, when she was 30. Her father’s death from cancer in ordinary Thais might receive it. John Clark and Clare Veal, who is completing a PhD in 1994 also had a great impact on her life, resulting in several The artist’s work demonstrates how a person is constructed the Department of Art History and Film on contemporary installations around the theme of ‘Dinner with Cancer’. by their sometimes false expectations of “the other”. In one photographic expressions of Thai identity. It will be presented Rasdjarmrearnsook has become renowned internationally performance piece, recorded on video, the artist spent a few in association with 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art for her video installations, exhibiting at San Antonio, Texas in weeks pretending to be pregnant, a display so convincing which will hold an exhibition of the artist’s more recent video 1998, as well as the Asia-Pacific Triennale in in 1993, that female colleagues congratulated her for her courage in work as well as a major installation reconstruction, Araya the Biennale of Sydney in 2010, and Documenta 13 in Kassel, becoming pregnant rather later in life and her willingness to Rasdjarmrearnsook: Storytellers of the Town (14 March Germany, in 2012. have a child when unmarried. Her more recent work reflects to 10 May). The artist will give several public talks and Rasdjarmrearnsook is an associate professor in the new media on the artist’s life in relation to the natural environment and seminars for art students. department of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Chiang Mai University in particular to her dogs, several of which she has saved from An illustrated catalogue, to be published in May, will include in northern Thailand, where she has taught since 1987. She being put down after accidents or maltreatment. essays by Clark, Veal, and Thai scholars, analysing the artist’s graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from Bangkok’s Silpakorn An extract from her prose for a 2003 exhibition at Sculpture role in the Thai avant garde, her particular position as a University in 1986, and spent six years of postgraduate study Square in Singapore is called ‘One night I went there again’, woman artist, and the interaction of her visual oeuvre with her A Woman, intaglio on paper, 78 x 61cm, 1990. at Hochschule für Bildende Künste (College of Fine Arts) in and is read to dead bodies: All images copyright the artist. extensive literary work. Braunschweig, Germany. In her early career, Rasdjarmrearnsook The soundless listening of the bodies emanated Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook: The Village and Elsewhere won various prizes for prints in national art exhibitions. a perfume named Knowing, which – oh, opens on Monday 17 March in the University Art Gallery. Returning to Thailand in the early 1990s, she continued the emotional fluctuations, disappointment of innovative print-making she began in Germany. knaves. Even though they do not know the In her videos, Rasdjarmrearnsook often treats controversial nature of art, the bodies were ready to join the themes such as Buddhist consolations for death and the game to celebrate the emptiness of the Art dying, as well as narratives of insane people that embody the narrated by dejection and defeat The bodies allow themselves madness of the social world around them. to be covered by brightly colored drapes knowing perfectly well that it is unbecoming. 4 ISSUE 07 MARCH 2014 5 Left: Jean-Baptisté Pillement, [Treescape village ravine], date unknown, ink and wash on paper, 16.5 x 12.5 cm, donated through The Hon R P Meagher bequest 2011, University Art Collection UA2012.308 Right: Théodore Géricault, Hercules and Antaeus, c. 1816, ink on paper, 12.8 x 5.7 cm, donated by The Hon R P Meagher through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program 2010, University Art Collection UA2010.18 Opposite page: Elisabetta Sirani, Head of a woman, 17th century, pencil on paper, 32 x 24.5 cm, donated through The Hon R P Meagher bequest 2011, University Art Collection UA2012.327

There is no medium more central to artistic practice in the somewhere between these extremes are the delicate pen early modern period than drawing. It is at once a tool of drawings of figures observed from life by Della Bella, Sirani’s instruction, a form of visual communication, and an expressive expressive figure study, and Lawrence’s delicate portrait of medium for personal ideas and images. the beautiful Lucy Anne Bloxham. As drawing is a technology that almost all of us are taught To take in the diversity of these images, the exhibition to use, looking at historical drawings gives a unique sense is structured around four broad themes: people, which of our proximity to and distance from artists of the past. In comprises portraits, figure studies and character sketches; An exhibition of seeing the pressure of chalk, pen or pencil applied to paper place, which includes drawings of real and imagined historical drawings we may gain some insight into the artist’s process – the landscapes and settings; spirit, which encompasses drawings from the collection speed or development of the drawing and the kinds of strokes of holy figures and heavenly beings; and idea, which groups used – and yet the purpose or meaning of the image often the numerous sketches made by Romney, Gericault and others of Justice Roddy remains tantalisingly obscure. Unlike paintings, which are often for ambitious artistic schemes. By turns bold, sensuous, Meagher is not only finished images for public or private display, drawings often delicate and playful, the drawings reveal the variety and beautiful, it reveals form part of a larger artistic process of depiction, discovery complexity of artistic practice in the early modern era and its much about the and experimentation. They tell us much about the nature of public and private dimensions. artistic practice, the development of themes and ideas, and The works shown in this exhibition are a small part of the medium, explains the private world of the artist’s imagination. remarkable gift made to the University Art Gallery by the Georgina Cole. Fugitive forms and grand designs: 16-19th century drawings late Justice Roddy Meagher. While the best-known works from the Roddy Meagher Collection captures some of the in Meagher’s collection may be modern paintings or Asian diversity and richness of the forms and functions of drawing art and artefacts, his collecting also extended to historical from the 16th century to the early 19th century. It displays drawings, and this exhibition contextualises many works that works by artists such as Stefano Della Bella (1610–64), have never been displayed publicly. Elisabetta Sirani (1638-65), Jean-Baptiste Pillement ‘Fugitive forms and grand designs’, to be held at the University (1728‑1808), George Romney (1734-1802), Thomas Lawrence Art Gallery from 12 May to 31 August, is the first in a series (1769 -1830), Théodore Gericault (1791-1824), and Eugène of exhibitions and publications that will highlight the riches Delacroix (1798-1863). of Meagher’s collection and make them available to the The drawings range from carefully finished designs, such as public for study and enjoyment, as well as honour Meagher’s an extraordinary Rococo landscape by Pillement and a loving cosmopolitan legacy in Australian culture. DRAWN FROM Madonna and Child by Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-79), to Dr Georgina Cole graduated from the University of spare, linear sketches such as Gericault’s powerful drawing of Sydney in 2010 with a PhD in the area of Art History. Hercules wrestling Antaeus, a page of heavily robed women She is a Lecturer in Art History and Theory at the from Delacroix’s North African sketchbook, and Romney’s National Art School. EXPERIENCE melancholic, distorted images of prison inmates. Sitting

6 ISSUE 07 MARCH 2014 7 Social media is opening up surprising potential for research and the community is making an invaluable contribution, as Adrian Davis found when tracking a local cockatoo population.

‘LIKE’ A COCKATOO

Loud, large and lovable, the the public identifying individual birds and “Friends” of the Facebook page can sulphur‑crested cockatoo (Cacatua reporting their location. However, this follow an individual bird’s sightings, galerita) is a well-known inhabitant technique has never been applied to as well as comment and interact with of Sydney. It has always been present sulphur‑crested cockatoos – until now. others who have seen it. If a previously around the fringes of Sydney and unseen tagged bird is sighted, people Within several weeks of tagging our west of the Great Dividing Range check Facebook for the bird’s name and first cockatoos, various government and but, over the past few decades, the where it was reported. wildlife agencies within Sydney were sulphur‑crested cockatoo has expanded forwarding reports of tagged cockatoos Creating a sense of ownership of the its range, and numbers have increased they had received from the public. When birds, as well as the chance to interact dramatically throughout suburban we began receiving several reports of with both the project findings and the Sydney and into the city centre. cockatoo sightings a week, we decided researchers, leads to a strong sense of Yet despite its almost iconic status, to try out social media in an effort involvement and satisfaction among surprisingly little is known about the to extend the project’s reach, so we members of the community. Social media ecology of this charismatic bird. created a Facebook site. is a powerful tool for involving people and sharing knowledge about the state As part of my PhD studies, and in of the natural world. collaboration with the Royal Botanic SIMPLIFYING SIGHTING REPORTS Gardens in Sydney, I have been Facebook has made it easier for people You can follow the project at researching the movements, to report cockatoo sightings. We www.facebook.com/cockatoowingtags population size and site created the page to engage people in and by downloading our iphone app loyalty of the cockatoos the project and to get the message out Wingtags. within the gardens. The to a potentially very different audience. Adrian Davis is Collections relative accessibility of the We posted regular status updates of Management Officer and is responsible gardens’ cockatoo population recent sightings of a bird in a new for cataloguing and maintaining the gives us an opportunity to location, often with photos people had natural history collections in the trial a new marking technique sent in. People quickly began following Macleay Collection. that allows us to track individual “Cockatoo Wingtag” on Facebook, where birds. The cocky’s ability to grab our they could see their photos and provide attention makes it a great subject for comment on the posts. an interactive community-monitored When the cockatoos are tagged they project in an urban environment. are also assigned nicknames, and these Previous studies from the 1980s are far more personable than simple successfully monitored populations of identification numbers (such as 022). galahs and corellas using crude metal Once we publicised the names – such wing tags. In the United States, vultures as “Watermelon” or “Shakespeare” – have also been tracked with large on Facebook, people began to report plastic wing tags. A recent study used the cockatoos by name rather than ID number, particularly those people who Images: Participants in the Cockatoo plastic cattle ear tags to monitor the Wingtag project, photographers Australian white ibis, with members of were visited regularly by the same birds. L. Weidenauer, F. Adams, and M. Petrie

8 ISSUE 07 MARCH 2014 9 Page opposite: Hennessy and Sadik Abdullah excavating in Jericho, 1952. Far left: Hennessy’s team excavating at Stephania, Cyprus, 1951. Left: Emeritus Professor Hennessy in his office in the Quadrangle. Above: Hennessy opens the first trench in Pella in 1977. Photographs sourced from Basil Hennessy Archives, courtesy of Linda Hennessy

Hennessy travelled to the Middle East, where he worked on Hennessy oversaw several important excavations from several archaeological projects, visiting Israel, Jordan, Syria Sydney. The University excavated the Chalcolithic site of and Turkey, even hiring a taxi in Jerusalem for three weeks Teleilat Ghassul in Jordan from 1975 to 1977, and in 1979, for £21. In Turkey, he served as the first student scholar Hennessy inaugurated excavations of the multi-period at the newly established British School of Archaeology site of Pella (Tabaqat Fahl), also in Jordan, a project still at Ankara where he met many of the great Near Eastern running strong more than 30 years later. Various objects archaeologists of the era. from Pella take pride of place in the Nicholson Museum’s In 1951 Hennessy worked on various excavations in Cyprus, current exhibition Tombs, Tells and Temples: Excavating the and through his connection with Professor James Stewart Near East, along with a photograph of Hennessy guiding was involved in the excavations at Myrtou-Pighades, the first then prime minister Bob Hawke and his wife Hazel around excavation directly sponsored by the University of Sydney. the site in 1987. These excavations have become a training From this project Hennessy directed the excavation of a ground for generations of Australian scholars. series of Bronze Age tombs at an ancient cemetery site called Anyone who heard Hennessy lecture will remember the Stephania – many of the finds from these excavations are breadth of his knowledge and his passion for his subject, while Archaeology at the University of Sydney lost one of its displayed in the Nicholson Museum exhibition Aphrodite’s his generosity towards students and colleagues was legendary. legends, and the Nicholson Museum one of its great Island. Hennessy reminisced much later that the team He would work on unpublished Cypriot material in the lower A GENTLEMAN “bicycled to and from the site, lovely and cool in the morning supporters, with the passing of Emeritus Professor John Basil gallery of the Nicholson Museum, teaching research students Hennessy AO on 27 October 2013. His scholarly achievements but hellish hot in the afternoons”. Although he was never to archaeological drawing skills – a technique of illustration that AND A SCHOLAR in Near Eastern and Cypriot archaeology saw him achieve excavate in Cyprus again, his subsequent courses in Cypriot became known as the ‘Kenyon-Hennessy school’. Hennessy world renown, and his generous support of the Nicholson Archaeology at the University of Sydney inspired many was a great draftsman and encouraged students to draw using Museum and other archaeological museums in Australia students and future Cypriot scholars. items in the Nicholson collection. It is a practice we still use. was extraordinary. He established links between Australian In 1952 Hennessy worked at the famous site of Jericho under As well as distributing material from his excavations to the Emeritus Professor John researchers and Jordanian archaeological sites from prehistory renowned English archaeologist Dame Kathleen Kenyon, who Nicholson Museum, the University of New England’s Museum Hennessy has left an to the Islamic period that inspired generations of his students would describe him as “one of the most promising” students of Antiquities and the University of ’s RD Milns to explore the archaeology of this remarkable region. incomparable legacy – not just she had met. She later became his doctoral supervisor at Antiquities Museum and other Australian collections, Hennessy to the field of Near-Eastern Hennessy was born in Horsham, Victoria, in 1925, and joined Magdalen College, Oxford, in the early 1960s, and the two oversaw parts of the publication and acquisition of Bronze the navy during the Second World War. A childhood interest became life-long friends – their friendship was a contributing Age and other Cypriot pottery and finds from the excavations Archaeology, but also to the in archaeology continued into adulthood – he celebrated his factor in Kenyon sending a range of Jericho artefacts to and collections of his late teacher Professor Stewart to the Nicholson Museum, reflects 18th birthday by getting a copy of Sir Arthur Evans’s The Professor Stewart for exhibition in the Nicholson Museum. Nicholson and other museums. He was a great believer in the Dr Craig Barker. Palace of Minos. Hennessy was inspired to write to famous Hennessy’s thesis, The Foreign Relations of Palestine during role of museums in conveying the wonder and beauty of the archaeologist V. Gordon Childe, who suggested he read the Early Bronze Age (1967), remains a highly regarded work. ancient cultures he was so passionate about. anthropology at the University of Sydney after the war as the It was the first of many important published works. Hennessy founded the Near Eastern Archaeology Foundation basis for a career in archaeology. Hennessy returned to Australia and rejoined the Department (NEAF) in 1986 to enable a broader audience access to He enrolled at the University in 1947, at a point of profound of Archaeology at the University of Sydney, lecturing from research of this area. On his retirement in 1990 he was made change. He was one of the first students of the newly 1954 to 1961, having married Ruth Shannon in 1954. After his an Officer of the Order of Australia, and the University of established Department of Archaeology under the guidance doctoral studies at Oxford, Hennessy began a long association Sydney awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Letters three of Professors AD Trendall and James Stewart (both also with the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, serving years later. Nicholson Museum curators). He graduated with the first as assistant director and then director from 1965 to 1970. John Basil Hennessy was a great Australian archaeologist and Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Archaeology from the During this period, he conducted excavations at the Damascus teacher. He is survived by his wife, Ruth, and children David, University in 1950, while out of the classroom he distinguished Gate of the Old City, then at the temple at Amman Airport. He Sarah and Linda. Vale, Professor. himself with a University Blue in both Australian Rules returned to Australia in 1970 and was appointed permanently and athletics. to the Edwin Cuthbert Hall Chair of Near Eastern Archaeology in 1973.

10 ISSUE 07 MARCH 2014 11 The Macleay Museum sourced several of its first natural history treasures from a vibrant and thriving menagerie in the United States, writes Chris Jones.

Header for the first issue of Ward’s Natural Science Bulletin, 1 June 1881, showing the collection of specimens from around the world as well as taxidermy practices. ANIMAL HOUSE

Among the mammal specimens in the wrote. “Hanging from the ceiling are Ward’s workshop produced such Macleay collection are purchases from hundreds of skins, including apes, important taxidermists as William American merchant-naturalist Henry monkeys, wolves, bears, hyenas, lions, Hornaday and Frederick Lucas (who Augustus Ward in the early 1880s. tigers, sloths, ant-eaters, armadillos, together would form the Society of Ward set up his business, Ward’s buffaloes, deer, elk, moose, giraffe, American Taxidermists in 1880), and Carl Natural Science Establishment, in 1862 yak, wild boar, peccaries; besides an Akeley (who would later create the great in Rochester, New York. This was the immense collection of such animals as hall of African wildlife in New York’s beginning of a period of dramatic growth kangaroos, echidna, wombat, Tasmanian American Museum of Natural History). for natural history museums. Ward was devil, Ornithorynchus (platypus), The staff at Ward’s Natural Science responding to demand from museums, Thylacinus and other rare skins. Some Establishment were experienced field especially those associated with huge alligators, turtles and other reptiles collectors with a working knowledge of universities, to display the diversity of completed the display.” anatomy, osteology, and taxonomy, as animal, vegetable and mineral life from Ward’s was the training ground for well as taxidermy, combining an artistic around the world. While his influence several taxidermists who would go on to and scientific approach. They were is strongly felt throughout the United influence the profession in the US and inspired by ground-breaking taxidermist States, Ward’s clients included museums around the world. French taxidermist Martha Maxwell’s unique approach to from as far afield as South America, Jules Bailly was employed in 1872 and the field as demonstrated in her display Australia and New Zealand. became instrumental in training the at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Edward Sylvester Morse, co-founder of young Americans at Ward’s. Exposition. Maxwell moved away The American Naturalist, who visited Many who worked at Ward’s in the from stiff poses, instead presenting Ward’s business in 1873, described 1870s and 1880s would move on to specimens as they would appear in their it in the journal as a place busy with lead taxidermy in institutions such natural environment, complete with zoologists, taxidermists, osteologists as the National Museum of Natural landscaping and foliage. This kind of (who study bones), moulders and History (Smithsonian), the Milwaukee taxidermy served as an early proponent Tarandus rangifer carpenters, and thousands of Public Museum in Milwaukee, the of the conservation movement by raising (Woodland caribou) specimens.” The upper room of this Field Museum in Chicago, and awareness of endangered species. A from Brownville, Maine, local example of Ward’s presentation of purchased from Ward’s building is a wonder to behold,” he Carnegie Museum of Natural History in 1882, NHM.22 in Pittsburgh.

12 ISSUE 07 MARCH 2014 13 When one of Australia’s best-loved writers and friend of the artist, David Malouf, honoured the late Jeffrey Smart by curating the Gallery’s recent memorial exhibition, Jeffrey Smart 1921-2013: Recondita Armonia – Strange Harmonies SMART of Contrast, the gallery was truly energised. Our visitors responded with delight to the taut vision of both artist and curator. Fittingly, the exhibition’s special events focused on talks between friends. In December 2013, David Malouf, in TALK conversation with art critic Christopher Allen, spoke of his long friendship with Smart, and his interest in tracking the choices of an artist renowned for self-criticism. How did artist Jeffrey In January 2014, acclaimed film director Bruce Beresford and Smart, whose 2012 travelling writer Virginia Duigan discussed their friendship with Smart, which was cemented on a ship bound for Italy in the early retrospective coined the phrase 1960s. In Malouf’s words, Smart’s works “are like scenes “master of stillness”, create from a film or stills from a set where characters are so much conversation at the about to walk on”. University Art Gallery? Recordings of the talks can be found at sydney.edu.au/ museums/exhibitions-events/past-exhibitions-2013.shtml and sydney.edu.au/podcasts/2013.php

an animal group in natural poses can be Ward’s staff travelled extensively to Top left: Interior view drawn by Frederic Lucas, 1883. Note the kangaroo on the back table and a seen in the lion group on display in the collect a diverse array of specimens to kiwi on the front left table. Source: Ward’s Natural Australian Museum. send back to Rochester to sell through Science Bulletin 2 no. 1 (1883). International exhibitions provided an their catalogues. From 1875 to 1878, Bottom left: Specimen label for skull of a Cervus Hornaday visited Barbados, Trinidad, macrotis (Blacktailed Deer) from Nebraska, opportunity to promote Ward’s services. NHM.19 the Orinoco River in Venezuela, and Ward cemented his reputation as a Right: First page of manifest from Ward’s Natural leading museum builder at the 1876 India. Ward himself visited Hawaii, Java, Science Establishment, 1 February 1882 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, 1882 Borneo, Singapore, Siam (Thailand), Milwaukee Industrial Exposition, and the Saigon, China, and Japan in 1880 on his 1893 Chicago Columbian Exposition. He way to New Zealand and Australia. travelled to Australia in 1880 to set up According to the manifest (list of goods) a stand at the Melbourne International issued by Ward’s, Macleay purchased Exhibition (1 October 1880–30 April 54 specimens in February 1882, and a 1881) as a US exhibitor. Described in further 25 specimens in August 1883. the exhibition’s official record as “one These include articulated skeletons, of the most interesting exhibits under specimens in ethanol, bones, and skins. the heading of mining industries”, Ward The type of animals ranges from beavers displayed mounted skeletons, minerals and coyotes to gorillas and seals. Most and rocks, and casts of fossils. He of these specimens originated in North received a First Order of Merit and America: Canada, Montana, Alaska, was awarded a gold medal for his California, Kansas, Nebraska, Wisconsin, museum collection. Florida, Maine, and New York. However, It is likely that Ward met William Macleay there are also specimens from France, at the Melbourne exhibition. Macleay India, Sweden, Indonesia, Central is listed as receiving a diploma at the America, and Guatemala. exhibition, along with ornithologist Edward The specimens in the Macleay Museum Pierson Ramsay (Australian Museum), tell the story of a truly international Macleay’s cousin Captain Arthur collector as well as Macleay’s aspiration Alexander Walton Onslow, and University to enrich the collection with specimens of Sydney Professor of Mineralogy and from around the globe for the benefit Chemistry, Archibald Liversidge, all from of students and researchers at the Virginia Duigan, Bruce . Beresford, centre, University of Sydney and the Linnean and David Malouf Society of NSW. in conversation.

14 ISSUE 07 MARCH 2014 15 ALONG CAME A SPIDER

Theraphosa blondi, radiograph: Macleay Museum, Sydney EN2013.262

There is a large spider on display in the Macleay Museum. It To discover the nature of the wiring inside this rare specimen, is admired by budding entomologists, pointed at by excited we took the Macleay spider to the Sydney University children, and reviled by anxious arachnophobes. Recent Veterinary Teaching Hospital radiography department. The research reveals it is most likely Theraphosa blondi, the Goliath x -ray shows a thin wire running from the tip of each leg bird -eating spider. It’s the world’s heaviest species of spider, to meet in the spider’s cephalothorax. This contrasts with whose females have been known to live for up to 20 years. the spider in the Hunterian, which has a single run of wire This one however, probably crawled its last before 1800. controlling each pair of legs, with the feet connected by an Held in place by a single pin through a crater in its extra strand of wire. cephalothorax, this enormous arachnid sits under a very simple These two rare spiders probably came from traders in the caption “Large Spider; South America; Collected late 1700s”. northern region of South America. They were most likely Yet for those willing to peer closely, there are tiny wire hooks transported to Britain alive, then mounted for display by protruding from the ends of each leg, and fragments of an artist in Scotland and sold to private collectors such as wire are visible between leg segments, suggesting a wire museum founders Alexander Macleay or William Hunter. framework inside. Unlike butterflies and beetles, most spiders don’t survive On a recent visit to the Macleay Museum, Georgie Brown drying out for display – the majority of the Macleay’s arachnid from the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow, Scotland, chanced collection is held in glass jars and preserved with an ethanol The Macleay Museum is home to a upon the display and instantly recognised the spider’s shape solution. To the right of the giant spider in the Macleay large, rare specimen thought to be from and design as very similar to a specimen held in the Hunterian. gallery is a jumbled drawer of dry arachnids, a reminder that The Glaswegian specimen is also filled with a wire framework, specimens aren’t always ideally preserved, and that not every South America – but even more unusual and is considered unique to collections throughout the United specimen gets the kind of specialised attention reserved for Theraphosa blondi, Macleay Kingdom. No other spider is known to be mounted in this the most precious, such as Theraphosa blondi. is the technique of its preservation, Museum, Sydney EN2013.262 manner – until now, with this specimen in the Macleay. Rob Blackburn is a Curatorial Assistant writes Rob Blackburn. Photo: Carl Bento at the Macleay Museum.

16 ISSUE 07 MARCH 2014 17 Gymnoxenisthmus tigrellus. Photo by Sven Traenkner.

Descriptive names are usually derived appearance of the new species, as from classical languages. Some of well as to vote on suggested names. GAME the earlier names I have coined are a The response exceeded my little on the dull side: flavopunctatus expectations: the students suggested (Latin flavus, yellow, and punctum, a numerous names, and I received 847 OF THE hole or dot) for a species with yellow votes. The specimen’s distinctive spots; viridis (Latin for green) for a striped coloration was the impetus green species. Others have been a for most of the names: suggestions little more imaginative: clibanarius included bongo (a type of striped NAME (Latin for a soldier clad in mail) for antelope), candy cane, ruler, zebra, When taxonomist a species with chainmail-like dark milk caramels, and even Pippy edging on its body scales; kolythrus Longstockings. For some, the stripes Tony Gill was faced (from the Greek kolythron, a ripe were reminiscent of the grill marks with naming a new fig) for an olive-coloured fish with a on barbecued meat, so an array of species of fish, he bright purple tail; cerasina (Latin for names involving grilled fish, sausages, cherries) for a species covered in koftas and hotdogs was suggested. enlisted the help of bright red spots. The winning name, with 190 votes, some eager primary In early 2013 I received a specimen was “tiger” (well clear of its closest school students. of a new species of xenisthmid rival, “ruler”, with 148 votes). from a Russian colleague, Sergey To me, tiger seems a bit of a MUSEUM ENHANCES Bogorodsky. Xenisthmids are tiny stretch, as the specimen is less Taxonomy is the science of describing goby relatives that live in sand and classifying species. The work of than 2 cm long. Among the votes patches near coral reefs throughout and suggestions, however, I a taxonomist covers a wide range of the tropical Indian and Pacific oceans. tasks – from collecting specimens noticed that several students had LIFE AS A STUDENT The specimen, which Dr Bogorodsky in the field (which in my case often offered a slight modification on the collected in the Farasan Islands in the name: “little tiger”. Not much is involves scuba diving on coral reefs) southern Red Sea, represented a new The Nicholson Museum is the reason I There is no denying that the experience to looking down a microscope, and known about xenisthmid biology, genus. Although it resembles species but most appear to be ambush am studying at the University of Sydney. of tertiary study has been daunting, counting and measuring features of the genus Xenisthmus, it differs I came down from Bathurst to do my especially since it’s not just uni life I’m on century-old museum specimens. predators, feeding on smaller fishes most notably in that it lacks scales and crustaceans – “little tiger” Year 10 work experience at the museum adjusting to, but also life in the big city. However, the task that really captures in 2010, and fell under the spell of its on the body. We quickly agreed on seemed a perfectly appropriate Throughout this hectic year, the the public’s imagination is describing intriguing collection. I was determined a new genus name that reflected description. So, I finally had my name: Nicholson has provided me with a sense and naming new species. to come back – a decision I doubt I will this: Gymnoxenisthmus (from the Gymnoxenisthmus tigrellus. of stability: a welcome respite from The first question I’m invariably asked Greek gymnos, meaning naked). ever regret. the information overload that I willingly The new species has now been when I mention I name new fish However, we couldn’t agree on the I signed up to volunteer at the Nicholson absorbed (or tried to); an escape species is “Do you get to name them specific epithet (the second part of published in the scientific journal Museum’s front desk on the first day from the stress of having 5000 words after yourself?” The answer is no. It’s a species name). Zootaxa. But I frequently receive of O-Week, determined to keep the due in a week; and one of the nicest other new species to describe, and not that there’s any rule against it, it’s An opportunity to enlist a little help promise I made to my 16-year-old atmospheres on campus in which to just frowned upon. intend to offer species naming as a self that I would be back. What a nurse a hangover! from an unbiased audience came regular event for school children at difference this has already made to my The Nicholson is a haven for lovers of Taxonomists do, however, often when the Macleay Museum provided the Macleay Museum during school university experience. museums and all things antiquity. name species after colleagues or an activities booth at the Australian holidays. This is an opportunity for friends, particularly when they have Museum’s Science Festival Expo Now, with first year done and dusted, I hope my relationship with the museum children to be involved in the work it’s safe to say that the past nine months assisted in the discovery of the new in August 2013. Several thousand of a museum scientist. Who knows, is long and fruitful – it is already an species. Sometimes species are primary‑school age students came and went quicker than any of us integral part of my university life. perhaps it will inspire one or more of beginners ever thought possible. named after the places they were attended this event. My activity them to pursue a career in taxonomy. Trinity Gurich is a second-year Arts collected. Mostly, however, names looked at how new species are student at the University of Sydney. are descriptive, alluding to features or named, and I invited students to Dr Tony Gill is an expert in the behaviours that distinguish the new help me select a name for the new identification and classification of species from similar or related species. xenisthmid. I asked the students to fishes and is Curator of Natural suggest possible names based on the History at the Macleay Museum.

18 ISSUE 07 MARCH 2014 19 University museums are an international The question of how university museums One of the main discussions focused students from backgrounds traditionally programs. Like Sydney University engage with both the public and the on whether universities with historic under‑represented in higher education. Museums, the eight university museums phenomenon, but the relationship between academic community in the 21st century museum collections scattered across a Delegates were impressed with how at Cambridge have recently been operating as a public institution and an was the subject of an international campus should unite these collections in Sydney University Museums have brought together, while maintaining academic centre at the same time can be colloquium held in Ghent, Belgium. a new museum building (a process the developed MUSE for visitors. their individual locations, staff and Organised by the University of Ghent, University of Ghent is engaged in), or The highlight of the meeting was a identities. They have embarked on an complex. Dr Craig Barker, who represented Positioning Academic Heritage: keep the collections separate but unify public lecture given by the director exciting program of events and outreach Sydney University Museums at a recent challenges for universities, museums support networks for museum staff. of Oxford University’s Ashmolean activities, developing strategies for international conference, reports on and society in the 21st century was With the increasing professionalisation Museum, Professor Christopher Brown. providing better visitor experiences held from 17 to 20 November 2013 in of staff in university museums He spoke of recent renovations to the and increasing visitor numbers. It was current discussions. the Ghent campus’s historic Het Pand internationally, one of the key discussion Ashmolean’s building and display of incredibly useful to share experiences building, constructed in 1201 AD. points was how to best to work with collections, noting how the museum and knowledge between our two institutions. Some 45 papers examining the role academics who have traditionally been has become the centrepiece of cultural of university museums were given by custodians of collections. Other papers activities in Oxford, from blockbuster Many of the challenges the University museum directors, curators, educators examined the advantageous and unique exhibitions to student-only evenings (as of Sydney collections face are similar to and academics from university relationship university museums have he says, the “best place for students to those confronting university museums collections in Europe, the United States, with researchers and students, which do pick up other students”). The Ashmolean throughout the world. It is important INTO THE Japan and Australia. Four main themes not exist in state and private museums. had attracted more than a million visitors that we engage with our peers in were discussed: how to bring diverse I presented a paper highlighting the within its first year of reopening. the international community to see museum collections together; the role of Nicholson and Macleay museums Visits to the rich historic collections of how those museums adapt to those university museums in communicating and the University Art Gallery’s Ghent University were interesting. The challenges. We look forward to making science and history to visitors; the engagement with school students, university is home to archaeological, your experience of our collections FUTURE relevance of university museums to encouraging them to think of their medical and ethnographic collections, better each time you visit. society; and museum management in a visit to the museum as the first step as well as a zoology museum and Craig Barker is Manager, Education university environment. in a lifelong relationship with tertiary herbarium. I also visited Cambridge and Public Programs, at Sydney education. This is particularly the case University Museums in the United University Museums. with our work with the University’s Kingdom and met staff involved with Compass Program, developed for education and community outreach

20 ISSUE 07 MARCH 2014 21 ‘considering the pig’, Longgu 3 May 1933 Photograph Ian Hogbin. The small boy with a bag (left) is Florence’s grandfather. Opposite page: Florence Watepuru at one of the Longgu workshops. Photograph courtesy Deborah Hill.

In 1933, University of Sydney carving. Definitions in Longgu Hogbin’s photographs include a anthropologist Ian Hogbin, whose work and English have been developed men’s dance, the siokole, which comprises part of the Solomon Islands collaboratively through workshops requires dancing with shields. At the collection in the Macleay Museum, in Nangali and Longgu villages and time Florence Watepuru and Chief photographed a group of Longgu people discussions with elders in Babasu, Bungana visited Sydney, men had of the Solomon Islands preparing food Longgu and Nangali. stopped performing this dance, in for a feast. Some of Hogbin’s photographs, along part because the woven shields had The young boy in the photograph, with photographs taken in 2013, will almost disappeared. In June 2013, Daniel Besa’a Ogu, carries a kepoli be used to illustrate many of the the men performed the siokole at the basket on his shoulder as he watches dictionary entries. Florence Watepuru inauguration of the new Anglican Bishop the men make arrangements for the was instrumental at every step of of the diocese with makeshift shields. feast. In February 2012, Besa’a Ogu’s this project, from organising the It was the first time it had been publicly granddaughter, Florence Rachel Besa’a people who came to the workshops performed in more than a decade. In HEART Watepuru, came to Sydney along with (weavers, carvers, teachers, elders addition, provision of a video recorder Chief Steward Bungana of Nangali and village leaders) to articulating through one of the projects means this village, Guadalcanal, to view Hogbin’s to the community the importance dance has been recorded. photographs of Longgu district. Their of maintaining their culture. Her On a recent trip to continue the OF THE visit was the subject of an article in understanding of the community has dictionary work and to visit Florence MUSE in July 2012. been essential to this project. Watepuru’s grave in Longgu village, Florence Watepuru died in April 2013. Florence Watepuru’s conviction that I stayed with her uncle, Father John Her death is an enormous loss for maintaining language and culture Besa’a. He spoke warmly of how her family and friends in the Solomon is beneficial to the community has much the everyday things Florence COMMUNITY Islands and Australia, and highlights convinced others to continue her work. did and said had enriched his life. the significance of her contribution to In January 2013, a project focusing She enriched us all. her community. on carving, funded by the Australia Associate Professor Debora Hill Florence Watepuru was devoted One of the projects that links Hogbin’s Museum and led by University of was funded by the Hans Rausing photographs to the current generation Canberra researcher Dr Elizabeth Endangered Languages Program. to preserving the language and is a dictionary project that focuses on Bonshek, provided the impetus for She is Associate Dean (Innovation), culture of her Solomon Islands weaving and carving. The dictionary community members to commission Faculty of Arts and Design, community – and her work lives records words related to types of bowls from carvers in the village. The University of Canberra. baskets, house building, plants and trees, Paramount Chief of the area, Ben Livu, on, writes Deborah Hill. and actions of carrying, weaving and commissioned a large lali feasting bowl from the Nangali carvers.

22 ISSUE 07 MARCH 2014 23 It may seem odd to travel so far north to collection management staff, viewed moved thousands of kilometres to arrive research images from the South Pacific exhibitions and researched photographs at a museum in the first place, and are and its communities. However, from the relevant to the Macleay holding. often destined to move several more mid -19th century, based on curiosity I discovered the names of three proud times. We improve on their storage and and a desire to view the “exotic”, Solomon Islander men as well as documentation with each move, and Europeans developed a keen appetite for those of other previously unidentified learn a little more about them as we go. photographs of Pacific Islanders. individuals, places and photographers in Rebecca Conway is Curator, The photographers were early our collections. Perhaps part of my own Ethnography at Sydney University colonists, missionaries, researchers in colonial baggage, I thought the grass Museums. Research conducted during anthropology and the ever-expanding might be greener in European institutions; her travelling scholarship informed sciences, along with traders and however, I found that Sydney University development of the exhibition Points tourists. Photographs of Indigenous Museums compare well in terms of of Focus: historic photographs from peoples featured in international the quality, care, management and the Pacific, Macleay Museum, 1 March exhibitions and were circulated widely presentation of collections. to 1 November 2014. among private individuals and within When I left Sydney in early September museums and universities. Tens of we were in the middle of moving the thousands of photographs crossed ethnographic collections as part of oceans, finding their way to institutions the Fisher Library renovation and a Page opposite: Names put to faces through in the northern hemisphere. broader program of University-wide collaboration with specialist staff of the British Museum (from left), Tikipala, Vungga and Rikesuvo During a six-week period from September space management. I returned as the of Njava, Vella Lavella, Solomon Islands. Macleay to October in 2013, I visited the British historic photograph collections were Museum (HP87.14.39) Museum and the Royal Anthropological being crated for their move to a new Below, left to right: Institute in London, the Pitt Rivers storeroom in the RD Watt building on Protectively wrapped natural history specimens Museum at the Science Road. during interior court renovations of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History (entrance to and the Museum of Archaeology and Everywhere I went, collections were in a Pitt Rivers Museum), UK Photo: R Conway 2013 Anthropology at the University of similar state of flux. This was a revelation Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology collection manager Rachel Hand Cambridge. I also visited the Rijksmuseum – I thought it was just us! People often Volkenkunde (National Museum of assesses storage and move logistics, considering think collections sit behind closed doors possible impact of the replacement of 19th Ethnology) in Leiden, the Netherlands, and gather dust, but in fact they are century roof panels. Photo: R Conway 2013 and the Musée du quai Branly in Paris, almost constantly on the move. They Living wall of the research and staff offices, France. I talked with key curatorial and Musée du quai Branly, Paris, France. may have travelled around the world or Photo: R Conway 2013 AROUND THE WORLD

As a recipient of a University of Sydney General Staff Travelling Scholarship, Rebecca Conway visited European museums for research and to explore the Macleay Museum’s collections in an international context.

24 ISSUE 07 MARCH 2014 25 THERE IS A BURIED DRAGON Michael Turner describes an unusual pot with a fascinating story. It is currently on display in the Nicholson Museum’s exhibition, 50 Objects 50 Stories.

In 1961, archaeologist James Stewart This askos, an oil vessel, was found (1913–62) returned to Cyprus for the intact less than 30 cm below the final time. He was to die, tragically surface, some distance from the main young, the following year. Professor group of tombs, together with other of Near Eastern Archaeology at the pottery, which was “mostly very badly University of Sydney, curator of the broken”. Stewart suggested it had been Nicholson Museum, and one of the thrown out from one of the tombs great figures of Cypriot archaeology, that was being cleared for re-use. Stewart was returning to a site, Lapatsa, He described it as “one of the most that he had excavated before the war. beautiful Red Polished Ware askoi Lapatsa was situated on a hillside which I have ever seen”. above Karmi, the latter “a delightful The shape of the askos is intriguing. It village”, said Stewart, “miserably poor has the form of a quadruped, but which but extremely picturesque and full of one? Is it imitating, perhaps, the rare, cats”. Cats had a special significance wild mountain sheep of Cyprus, the for Stewart – he claimed they were the mouflon? Does the handle copy the only thing that kept him warm during the large, swept-back horns of the animal? winters of his years as a prisoner of war By arrangement with the Cypriot in Germany. There were often as many authorities, many of the finds from as 20 at his ancestral home, ‘Mount the excavation at Lapatsa came back Pleasant’, near Bathurst, in rural NSW. to Australia with Stewart for research Lapatsa itself was also beautiful. “Up and publication. Most of these are now in the mountains with a magnificent in the Nicholson Museum, as well as view over the sea … We have a little in museums around Australia and in church dedicated to Ayia Marina just New Zealand. below us and an excellent spring of Robert Merrillees, a student of Stewart’s water where there is a buried dragon … and one of the team at Lapatsa, On quiet days there is nothing except describes Stewart’s attitude to teaching the braying of donkeys and the sound and the use he made of the Nicholson of the woodman’s axe … At the moment Museum: “None of his students will ever the almond blossom is out and all the forget the practical lessons held in the wild flowers.” Museum, when cases were opened and students allowed to handle the objects for themselves.”

26 ISSUE 07 MARCH 2014 27 DONOR HONOUR ROLL 2013 SYDNEY UNIVERSITY MUSEUMS We extend a huge thank you to all our donors and supporters who have made a significant difference to what we have been able to achieve.

KEY SUPPORTERS Trevor Danos Richard Weinstein ($20,000 – $100,000) Gai Di Bartolomeo Margaret Williams Anonymous, in memory of Roger Doenau Dr Andrew Wright Leonard P Ullmann Paul Dressler Madeleine Yuill Power Institute Foundation John Eldridge Anonymous COOL Dr Judith Fryer AM PRINCIPAL SUPPORTERS CONTRIBUTORS Christopher Flynn ($5000 – $19,999) (Under $100) Susan Gabriel The Chancellor’s Committee Carl Andrew, Dr Robin Amm AM; Michael Hobbs FOR Gordon Darling Foundation Helen -Lea Alexopoulos, Dr Helen Bashir; Dr Donald Horning Anne Galbraith Susan Bernasconi; Patricia Biggers; Patricia Howard Neville H Grace Suzanne Birch; Dian Blackman; Elizabeth Joseph Janacek Britton; Dr Monica Bullen; Fiona Bush; Dr Valerie Havyatt Suzanne Kelly Lydia Bushell; Nigel Butterly; Cardest KIDS The Hon Justice François Kunc SC Zoe Kominatos Pty Ltd; Cheryl Crossland Baggs; The Hon David Levine AO, RFD, QC Gilles Kryger Pamela De Pomeroy; Marcel Dimo; Russell Robertson Karen Dwarte; Lorentz Engdahl; Gloria Dorothy Lamberton Here are some of the things we really like when we go to a museum: Seidler Architectural Foundation Gallaher; Professor Donald Gibson; Bill Blake, who is Geoff LeMarseny Dr John Tidmarsh Hans Groenewegen; Dr Richard Herlihy; THOM, 6 BILL, 9 Sindy Luu nine years old and Anonymous Dr Joan Hocking; Phyllis Jones; Adrian his brother Thom, IMAGINE YOU ARE INTERACTIVE DISPLAYS Anni MacDougall Kriening; Peter Larcombe; Astrid Lodens; IN ANOTHER TIME At the Alexander the Great exhibition at SUPPORTERS Amrit MacIntyre Warren Ma; Marrickville Heritage who is six, love When I look at the Lego Colosseum the Australian Museum, the best part ($1000 – $4999) Vanessa Mack Society; Gabrielle McDonagh; John or the Acropolis at the Nicholson was an iPad that showed the tiny objects Graham and Heloise Barr Professor Warwick Majcher McLaughlin; Louise Moodie; Steven visiting museums of Museum, I think about what it was like like coins or jewellery from all angles. Emeritus Professor WE Burke Emeritus Professor Bruce Mansfield AM Nicholson; Jan O’Reilly; Doug Paisley; in those times. I look at the gladiators You could zoom in and make them spin Julia Parker; Anne Philp; Alan Rees; all kinds. Here they Adam Carr Jennifer Manton and imagine I’m the Emperor watching around. There was also a big digital table Judith Roberts; Lady Winifred Stephen; Emeritus Professor John Chalmers AC Dr Jim Masselos tell us what they like the fight. When I look at the Acropolis with a map of Europe showing Alexander’s Benjamin Steyne; Robyn Stone; Rowena Dorothy Hoddinott AO most – and why. I imagine myself looking at the statues conquests. At the Maritime Museum, we Marrickville Heritage Society Talacko; Alan Taylor; Trevor Tryphon; and walking around the temples. It’s like played Viking chess on an iPad. Also, at R John Lamble AO Graham Matheson Elizabeth Vassiliades; Dr Robyn Veal; I’m a modern boy but I’ve gone back in the Australian Museum, the Tyrannosaurs David Tribe Museums are awesome because you Geoff Miller Mary Yeldham, and donors who wish to time. I also use my imagination when I exhibition had a huge table like a giant Anonymous get to see what older civilisations were Jenny Montgomerie remain anonymous. go to the Australian Museum to see the iPad where you can hatch eggs, move like. You get to see things that are really Dr Susan North dinosaurs. I imagine they are alive. dinosaurs around and complete a timeline. CONTRIBUTORS SPONSORS AND GRANTS old, like swords, spears and mummies. Mary O’Sullivan At the end, an extinction event happens. ($100 – $999) City of Sydney We both like looking at things that are MAKING THINGS Selwyn Owen That is really cool. Erik Bachmann Gordon Darling Foundation really precious and made out of gold, or I really like to build things in museums. Lucy Bantermalis Emeritus Professor Rolf Prince AO interesting weapons. DRESSING UP The Metropolitan Museum of Art Store I like to play with Lego or make a shield Elizabeth Pryce We like to take friends to the Nicholson Ian Barnett Australia You also get to see models of what or a mask. I also really like to build things Museum to dress up with togas, shields Dr Eugenio Benitez Jennifer Rapson buildings once looked like. Or maybe with giant blocks. At the Powerhouse EXHIBITION PARTNERS and swords and play fighting games. It Margaret Bickle AO Dr John Raven even a replica of a whole ship, like a Museum’s Oopsatoreum exhibition, Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of was fun to dress up like Romans or be Joseph Rooney Viking ship. You learn about how much we got to look at inventions then build Dr Alastair Blanshard Art, University of South Australia wrapped up like an Egyptian mummy. Nigel Russell we have changed over the years. our own things with huge blocks. We Dr Emmeline Boothroyd Roman kids had little dolls and wooden built a fort that you could climb inside, A GOOD GIFT SHOP Ian Bowie Fay Ryan DONORS TO COLLECTIONS pull‑along tigers. We have Nerf guns and a road. I like souvenirs like a little metal catapult Brock Surveys Pty Ltd Emanuel Skalvinas James Ede and Furbies. or a scarab. It’s something you can Elizabeth Casamento Emanuel Sklavounos PSM Dr Edith Lees take home and use as a toy to act out Susan Clarke Dr Jim Specht Dr Peter McGee historical stories. I really like a shop with Associate Professor Cynthia Coleman Maisy Stapleton Estate of Dr Margaret Olley AC good books, and got a great book from Gail Comino Elizabeth Starkey Penelope Seidler AM the Nicholson Museum about Greek Diane Truss Dr Ann Stephen mythology. I also like the paper 3D gods Associate Professor Noel Dan AM and heroes.

28 ISSUE 07 MARCH 2014 29 OUT AND ABOUT 4

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PLEASE ACCEPT MY: 1. Writer, novelist and poet David Malouf speaks 4. Macleay Museum Senior Curator Jude Philp, 7. Michael Turner about to give the first of the • Cheque • Money order • Credit card at the opening of the exhibiton Jeffrey Smart graphic designer Virginia Buckingham, Macleay 2014 Academy Travel-sponsored free Saturday (Please make payable to The University of Sydney) 1921-2013: Recondita Armonia – Strange Museum curator Rebecca Conroy and the afternoon talks in the series Italy: Travels in art, Harmonies of Contrast on 6 November 2013. Nicholson Museum’s Candace Richards at the history and culture. Sydney University Museums’ Christmas Party. Name: CREDIT CARD DETAILS 2. David Ellis, Director, Sydney University 8. Museums Education and Public Programs team, • Visa • MasterCard Museums, left, with David Malouf and gallerist 5. A crowded Philosophy Room on a hot summer’s Suzanne Kortlucke and Craig Barker, in the Address: Philip Bacon at the opening of the exhibition afternoon. The audience is listening to Derek Quadrangle. Card No: Jeffrey Smart 1921-2013: Recondita Armonia – Parker’s Nicholson Museum Champagne ———— ———— ———— ———— (———) 9. Sydney University Museums Collections Officer Strange Harmonies of Contrast. Cream Tea lecture on Lord Byron in Greece. PLEASE ACCEPT MY GIFT OF: Cardholder’s name: Rachel Lawrence and Conservator Ana Barros • $50 • $100 • $250 • Other $ 3. Macleay Museum curatorial and audit staff on 6. Nicholson Museum curatorial assistant Soares at the Sydney University Museums’ (Donations of $2 or more are tax deductible) Expiry: ——/—— Signature: Adrian Davis’s (seated, centre) last day at the Candace Richards has fun for #museumselfie Christmas Party. museum. A fond farewell from all and thanks to day – a Twitter event on 22 January when Phone: 10.Education Officers Lisa Pyers, Alina Adrian for his cockatoo story on pages 8-9. people around the world photographed I WOULD LIKE TO ALLOCATE MY DONATION TO: Kozlovski, Alexandra Lucas, Nikki Brown and themselves in museums and posted the • Digitisation Program • Acquisitions Email: Kane McMahon having fun at the Sydney results on social media. University Museums Christmas Party. • Macleay Museum • Conservation • Please send me information about how I can remember the University • Nicholson Museum • Research of Sydney in my will. • University Art Gallery • Museums and Art Gallery priorities • I confirm that I have included the University of Sydney in my will.

Sydney University Museums, A14/H120 T +61 2 9351 2274 E [email protected] ABN 15 211 513 464 CRICOS 00026A 31 University of Sydney NSW 2006 Australia F +61 2 9351 2881 sydney.edu.au/museums CFN 10369 ISSUE 07 MARCH 2014 Please see the inside front cover JUNE 2014 ACTIVITIES FOR for contact details for the Macleay CHILDREN Museum, the Nicholson Museum Saturday 7 June, 2pm and the University Art Gallery. Academy Travel’s Italy: Travel APRIL SCHOOL HOLIDAYS through art, history and culture APRIL 2014 lecture series Macleay Museum WHAT’S ON MACHIAVELLI’S PRINCE: LIFE AND POINTS OF FOCUS: HISTORIC Saturday 5 April, 12.30pm AFTERLIFE PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE Dr Francesco Borghesi PACIFIC AT SYDNEY Curator’s floor talk (University of Sydney) Weave Pacific patterns and stories. Make a fish, write postcards from the POINTS OF FOCUS: HISTORIC Cost: free UNIVERSITY PHOTOS FROM THE PACIFIC Pacific and explore the exhibition in Venue: Nicholson Museum the hunt for specific details – can you Rebecca Conway (Macleay Museum) spot them all? MUSEUMS Cost: free Wednesday 11 June, 6.30pm MAKE A NAME FOR YOURSELF! Venue: Macleay Museum Public events are subject to change. For further Public lecture Help Macleay Museum’s ichthyologist Dr Tony Gill to scientifically name a Saturday 5 April, 2pm ‘THE PUMP DON’T WORK information and to view the latest timetable, visit CAUSE THE VANDALS TOOK THE new species of fish in the April school Academy Travel’s Italy: travel MAY 2014 HANDLES’: REHABILITATING A holidays. All children who visit the sydney.edu.au/museums and click on ‘What’s on’. through art, history and culture FORGOTTEN BARBARIAN GROUP Macleay Museum get the chance lecture series Saturday 3 May, 2pm Dr Andy Merrills to enter our competition to name a new species! THE SACK OF ROME 408 AD Academy Travel’s Italy: travel (University of Leicester) Venue: Nicholson Museum Dr Peter Brennan through art, history and culture Cost: $32 ($25 for Friends of the MARCH 2014 (The University of Sydney) lecture series Nicholson Museum) Come and see the world’s largest THE IRRESISTIBLE ATTRACTION Venue: Nicholson Museum LEGO Athenian Acropolis on display in Saturday 1 March, 2pm Monday 17 March, 5pm Cost: free OF ANTIQUITY IN EARLY CINEMA the Nicholson Museum. Venue: Nicholson Museum Academy Travel’s Italy: travel through ARAYA RASDJARMREARNSOOK IN Professor Maria Wyke Wednesday 18 June, 6pm art, history and culture lecture series CONVERSATION WITH CURATORS (University College London) JOHN CLARKE AND CLARE VEAL Wednesday 9 April, 6.30pm PHOTOGRAPHIC ENCOUNTERS IN CLASSICAL INSPIRATIONS: THE Cost: free BRITISH NEW GUINEA IN THE LATE TIMELESS LEGACY OF CASTELLANI Cost: Free Public lecture SCHOOL HOLIDAY Venue: Nicholson Museum 19TH CENTURY ARCHAEOLOGICAL JEWELLERY Venue: University Art Gallery GALLIPOLI: THE BATTLEFIELD Antje Lübcke ACTIVITIES Dr Monica Jackson FSA Followed by official opening of Araya Professor Tony Sagona FSA Wednesday 7 May, 6.30pm (Australian National University) Fun activities all day for children aged 5-12 years, with arts and craft Cost: free Rasdjarmrearnsook: the Village and (University of Melbourne) Cost: free Elsewhere 6–8pm Museum Studies seminar series activities running throughout each Venue: Nicholson Museum Cost: $32 ($25 for Friends of the Venue: Macleay Museum day. Entry is by gold coin donation. Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook’s visit Nicholson Museum) THE RIGHT TO WORLD HERITAGE to Sydney has been made possible Professor Lynn Meskell Friday 7 March, 5pm Venue: Nicholson Museum APRIL SCHOOL HOLIDAYS through the support of 4A Centre for (Stanford University) Public lecture Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney. Cost: free Tuesday 15 April, 10am-4pm Tuesday 22 April, 6-7pm HERITAGE TOURS FROM MAKERS TO MUSEUMS: Wednesday 19 March, 6pm Venue: Sydney Law School foyer ANCIENT GODS, GODDESSES, PNG HISTORY THROUGH SKIRTS Sydney Ideas and Australian AND EDUCATION HEROES AND HEROINES: A AND PHOTOGRAPHS Association for Pacific Studies Public lecture PROGRAMS CHILDREN’S DAY Dr Erna Lilje (University of Sydney) Wednesday 14 May, 6.30pm THE VIRTUAL OBSERVATORY: Public lecture Sydney University Museums offer Unleash your inner Olympian and Cost: free Public lecture DEEP TIME TRAVEL IN THE PACIFIC OPENING UP TO OUR PACIFIC extensive school (K-12) and adult discover the world of ancient Greek Venue: Macleay Museum Australian Laureate Fellow NEIGHBOURS WRITING A LIFE: TRAVELS education programs and group mythology. heritage tours. Professor Dietmar Müller WITH JIM AND EVE STEWART IN Percy Jackson and the Lightning Stewart Firth AUSTRALIA AND CYPRUS Tuesday 11 March, 6.30pm (The EarthByte Group, School of (Australian National University) For more information, email us at Thief (rated PG) will be screened in Geosciences, University of Sydney) Dr Judy Powell [email protected] the Nicholson Museum from 4pm. Public lecture Cost: free () Cost: free Venue: Nicholson Museum THE DEMISE OF ANGKOR: Venue: see our website for further Cost: $32 ($25 for Friends of the Venue: Macleay Museum Follow us on Twitter at (in conjunction with Sydney ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS details sydney.edu.au/museums/ Nicholson Museum) Greek Festival) twitter.com/#sydneyunimuseum Professor Roland Fletcher research/aaps-conference.shtml Wednesday 19 March, 12pm Venue: Nicholson Museum (The University of Sydney) Or find us on Facebook by searching Thursday 17 April, 10am-4pm Cost: $32 ($25 for Friends of the Seniors Week event Friday 25 April, 5pm for ‘Sydney University Museums’. Monday 19 May, 5pm THE VILLAGE AND ELSEWHERE: A Nicholson Museum) FREE UNIVERSITY HERITAGE TOUR Sydney Ideas and Australian The Nicholson Museum, Macleay Museum CHILDREN’S DAY Association for Pacific Studies Sydney Writers Festival event Venue: Nicholson Museum and University Art Gallery also have their Get creative and inspired and join us THE REEF Thursday 20 March, 12pm Public lecture own Facebook pages and Twitter feeds. for a children’s day to create your Celebrated historian Professor Iain own artworks! Seniors Week event REMEMBERING WORLD WAR 1 IN All details are correct at the time of McCalman talks about his book, Venue: University Art Gallery FREE ART WALKING TOUR THE PACIFIC The Reef (Penguin 2013), and the going to press but events may change Both tours begin under the Clocktower. Convened by Kate Fullagar strategies he employed to write this due to circumstances beyond our (Macquarie University) human story of the living reef. control. For up-to-date information, visit Bookings essential: our website (sydney.edu.au/museums) Sponsor of the E [email protected] Cost: free Cost: free closer to the event, and follow the link Travel through Art, T 02 9351 8746 Venue: Sydney Law School Foyer Venue: Macleay Museum History and Culture marked ‘University calendar’. lecture series

32 ISSUE 07 MARCH 2014 33 MACLEAY POINTS OF FOCUS: HISTORIC MUSEUM PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE PACIFIC MACLEAY BUILDING, GOSPER LANE 1 MARCH – 1 NOVEMBER 2014 (OFF SCIENCE ROAD) THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY OPEN TO THE PUBLIC Historic photographs of the Pacific frame our understanding of MONDAY TO FRIDAY 10AM–4.30PM the region in the past and today. This exhibition features a rich FIRST SATURDAY OF MONTH 12–4PM CLOSED ON PUBLIC HOLIDAYS selection of images taken by a range of individuals including colonists, anthropologists and tourists from the 1860s onwards.

‘China Straits from Samarai Island Papua’, 1929, Photo: WJ Jackson, photographic print (detail), Macleay Museum (HP2013.1.1)