Art. Culture. Issue 25 Antiquities. May 2020 Natural history. The old and the new A word from the Director, David Ellis It seems hard to believe that the you will soon enjoy – Egyptian next issue of Muse after this one will mummies en masse in the Mummy be delivered when the new museum Room; Natural Selections from our is completed. Macleay Collections; art exploring our coastline; and The Business of We reached a significant milestone Photography transporting us to 19th in that journey with the reveal of the century NSW. Also, in this issue, we 1880s of two lighthouses at South museum’s crisp exterior fabric and introduce several details of the Head. They represent an evolution voluminous interior gallery spaces. content, such as the historic cedar of the old into the new, wholly Most excitingly, it is the filling of cases made specifically for the appropriate at a time when we those spaces with exhibitions that is Macleay Museum in 1890, now given have just farewelled the Nicholson consuming our time from now until the opportunity for a spruce up and Museum in the Quadrangle to the opening. a new lease on life in the Chau Chak prepare for the unveiling of our new Wing Museum. museum across from the Great Hall. Preparators are making plinths and fabricating internal joinery to receive More insights see us witness As we go to press on this issue display cases; mounts are being the transformation of a painting, of Muse, the COVID‑19 virus is prepared to support objects; painters depicting what used to be known presenting many challenges that are transforming spaces with colour; as an ‘Old sea dog’ into what we have impacted our personal and curators are finalising label texts are now referring more reverently working lives. Keep up to date with and publications; conservators are to as a glamorous Dutch explorer developments of the Chau Chak continuing treatments; and collection or seafarer. Painstaking cleaning is Wing Museum through Muse Extra, managers are preparing for the literally illuminating lace and other our email newsletter. movement of thousands of objects details, as well as revealing the ghostly for installation. At our opening to palimpsest of process and technique. I hope you enjoy this issue of the public, no doubt it will all appear Science may yet bring to light an Muse as a harbinger of our next effortless – at least that is what inscription and identity of the subject. exciting phase. we hope! The cover image, drawn from our David Ellis In this issue of Muse, we present a historic photograph collection, Director, Museums and teaser of some of the 18 exhibitions features the short overlap in the Cultural Engagement Sydney University Museums Chau Chak Wing Museum Muse is edited by Luke Parker. Chau Chak Wing Museum Corner University Avenue and Parramatta Road, Opening 2020 opposite the Quadrangle and Fisher Library This issue contains names and images of people Camperdown Campus who have died. We acknowledge that, for some +61 2 9351 2812 The University of Sydney people and communities, these may cause distress +61 2 9351 2881 (fax) and sadness. Where possible, cultural permission [email protected] The Chau Chak Wing Museum comprises: to publish has been sought. sydney.edu.au/museums – Nicholson Collection: antiquities and archaeology Produced by Marketing and Communications, Education and Public Programs – Macleay Collections: the University of Sydney, March 2020. 20/8170 Book a school excursion, natural history, ethnography and science ISSN 1449‑0420 ABN 15 211 513 464 education or heritage tour. – University Art Collection. CRICOS 00026A +61 2 9351 8746 [email protected] Subscribe to our new monthly newsletter: Muse Extra, for more stories, latest news, Follow us online opportunities and upcoming events. Facebook: /ccwm.sydney sydney.edu.au/museum/subscribe Instagram: @ccwm_sydney Twitter: @ccwm_sydney #ccwmuseum In this issue 2 News 8 One chapter closes: farewell 18 The old and the new Following in the steps of Hongi to the Nicholson Museum A striking 1883 photograph tells Hika. Introducing our new Our space in the Quadrangle may the tale of two lighthouses on Academic Engagement Curators have closed, but the Nicholson South Head in Sydney. Collection will live on. 3 Case by case 20 Sneak peek Historic cabinets from the 12 What lies beneath A preview of some of the Macleay are being prepared for An original 17th century painting exhibitions on display when the use in the new museum. from the Dutch Golden Age is Chau Chak Wing Museum opens. emerging from centuries of grime. 5 Underpinning history 22 Donor Honour Roll, 2019 Taking a closer look at the 14 Vale Alexander Cambitoglou Our sincere thanks to all of our Macleay’s entomology cabinets. A tribute to Emeritus Professor generous donors and volunteers. Cambitoglou, former curator of 6 Chau Chak Wing Museum update the Nicholson Museum. 24 Making history Now unwrapped of its scaffold, See what our guests and staff the building is really taking shape. 16 The art of Jeffrey Samuels have been up to. The work of an artist and Aboriginal elder, assisting with displays of First Nations heritage. Clockwise from top: Bichrome IV Ware jug, Cyprus, 750–600 BC, Cypro-Archaic I period, Nicholson Collection, NM47.28 Students from Great Lake College, Tuncurry, learn about mummies on the last school education tour of the Nicholson Museum, February 2020 Hellenistic gold earrings, Greece, late 4th century BC, Nicholson Collection, NM49.8.1-2 On the cover: [Macquarie Lighthouses – old and new], c.1883, photograph by Charles Bayliss, Macleay Collections, HP2012.57.1 News Hongi Hika’s world tour In 1820, Hongi Hika, of the Ngāpuhi iwi (people) in Aotearoa/New Zealand’s Bay of Islands, set out with his friend Thomas Kendall and the young chief Waikato on a journey to England. Kendall, an Anglican missionary, was key to Hongi Hika’s political ambitions, just as Hika was crucial to Kendall’s hopes to convert him and his iwi. While in England, Hongi Hika met with King George IV and the three men worked at the University of Cambridge with Professor Samuel Lee on a comprehensive Māori‑English dictionary. Hongi Hika exploited his Pākehā (non‑Māori New Zealander) connections on his return to Aotearoa, introducing foreign agricultural products and techniques and wreaking terrible devastation upon many Māori thanks to the use of British muskets and his military skills. This year, Brent Kerehona, a relative of Hongi Hika, will be retracing the journey from Britain to Sydney and New Zealand. The journey will reunite, for the first time, three self‑likenesses said to have been carved by Hongi Hika’s own hand. Brent Kerehona with one of the carved portraits of Hongi Hika, in the Macleay Collections stores, December 2019 Introducing our new curators We welcome our new Academic Engagement Curators, Jane Thogersen and Dr Eve Guerry. They will act as the main liaison point between the Chau Chak Wing Museum and the University’s academic community, facilitating teaching use of the collections and coordinating use of the three object‑based learning (OBL) studios. Eve has a PhD in Egyptology (Macquarie University, 2010) and was the Head of Education Programs at Macquarie’s Museum of Ancient Cultures, linking artefacts to primary, secondary and tertiary curricula. Jane has an undergraduate degree in ancient history and a Master of Museum Studies, and has spent more than a decade working with art, social history and ethnographic collections. Her previous role as Manager of the Australian History Museum (Macquarie University) linked collections to the university curriculum across five faculties. Dr Eve Guerry (left) and Jane Thogersen Their work will ensure that our current academic stakeholders, as well as new ones, will have access to the collections for cutting‑edge teaching opportunities. 2 Case by case _ Collections aside, museum furniture can have its own historical significance. That’s why cabinets from the former Macleay Museum are being restored and repurposed for a new lease on life. By Chris Jones Many of the historic wooden display cabinets The Macleay Building has seen many changes from the Macleay Museum are being relocated since it opened to the public in 1890. When for use in the new Chau Chak Wing Museum, two concrete floors were inserted in 1918, the including in the galleries, education rooms, Macleay Collections were moved to the top boardroom and offices. floor, along with the cabinets. The cabinets pictured above are made of solid Most visitors to the Macleay will remember the Australian red cedar (Toona ciliata), except cabinets from their use to show exhibits. They for the top of the cornice, which is made of were also used for the storage of collections California redwood, a cheaper wood. They were not on display. More than 20,000 objects were made in March 1890 by what appears to be a housed; small labels and a variety of curatorial government cabinet shop; each is stamped numbering processes remain, detailing the with an image of a crown, and the letters variety of collections. VR MAR 1890 (ie, Victoria Regina March 1890). 3 When installed in the new museum, the cabinets will once again fulfil their role as fine, purpose-built exhibition furniture for a new generation of visitors. The contents are now being rehoused ahead of the move into the Chau Chak Wing Museum, and are as varied as the Macleay collections themselves – mounted birds, crustaceans, corals, fossils, scientific equipment and more. These items will be stored elsewhere in the new museum, as the Macleay cabinets will no longer be used for storage. As each cabinet is emptied, it is also being restored.