2021 Projects List
Listed below are the projects that are offered through this year’s Museums and Collections Projects Program. New projects are added to the list during the year. To view available projects with a specific museum or collection, click on the collection link. Download individual project guides to find out more information on a specific project.
If interested in any of these project opportunities, please complete the Application form .
Please note that applications for the Program are open twice yearly to coincide with the start of each semester. Applications dates for 2021 are:
For Semester One project placements, please apply by 9 April 2021.
For Semester Two project placements, please apply by 13 August 2021.
For more information contact:
Helen Arnoldi
Museums and Collections Projects Coordinator
University of Melbourne
Tel. 8344 3103
harnoldi@unimelb.edu.au
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Architecture, Building and Planning Library: Rare Materials Collection
The Rare Materials Collection in the Architecture, Building and Planning Library includes 19th and 20th century material, seminal architectural texts, collections of major local architects and planners, original drawings, sketchbooks and scrapbooks, objects from the University's architectural atelier and theses.
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Baillieu Library Print Collection
Inspiring and visually striking, the Baillieu Library Print Collection includes approximately 9,000 individual works of art. It encompasses prints (engravings, woodcuts etc.), print albums, drawings, paintings, tools and books. Most the collection is European, featuring such renowned artists as Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt and William Hogarth. It is representative of Western printmaking practitioners and techniques (relief, intaglio and planographic) dating from the 15th to the 19th century, but it also includes examples from the 20th and 21st century. The Collection was originally intended as a teaching tool for students and it continues to be used particularly by students of art history and history here at the University.
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Burnley Campus Archives
The University of Melbourne's Faculty of Science, Burnley Campus, was formerly the Burnley Horticultural College amongst other incarnations. It has been teaching horticultural courses for a variety of educational institutions since 1891, although land was first put aside at the site for the Victorian Horticultural Society in the 1850s. The Burnley Archive Collection consists of over 15 metres of material that relates to the Burnley Horticultural College. The archive was initially assembled for the 1991 teaching centenary of the College and to form a research source for the publication, Green Grows Our Garden: A Centenary History of Horticultural Education at Burnley, by A.P. Winzenried, Hyland House, 1991. The Archive comprises of materials that date back to the 19th century including the College's official records (principals' administration records, registers, student attendance books, alumni deposits, student club documents etc.), photographs, news cuttings, maps, plans and films. It also contains artefacts such as ploughs, leadlight windows and jodhpurs.
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East Asian Collection, Special Collections
Originally housed in the East Asian Library, the East Asian Rare Book Collection was transferred to Rare Books for safe keeping. The East Asian Rare Book Collection comprises Chinese and Japanese language rare books. The Chinese material includes 7,000 volumes of works dating from the 1600s to 1935, as well as scrolls of painting and calligraphy, magazines published in the 1930s and diaries from the Cultural Revolution period. The East Asian Collection holds some 65 diaries from various periods in the Cultural Revolution. These unpublished manuscripts are mostly personal diaries, with some work diaries, and are important primary sources for this historical period. The Japanese rare collections are particularly strong in history, art, architecture, language learning and teaching and popular culture. There is a comprehensive collection of kokuho shuri hokokusho (restoration reports of 'national treasure' temples and other buildings); items relating to the Kanto Earthquake of 1 September, 1923 (Kanto Daishinsai); pamphlets and booklets advising the populace on how to prepare for American air raids during the Second World War; and ephemera from Japan's occupation of Manchuria in the 1930s.
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Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology Cultural Collections
The Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology cultural collections (FEIT) comprise the Mechanical Engineering Collection (which includes the A.G.M Michell Engineering Collection); the Electrical Engineering Education Collection; Surveying and Geomatics Engineering Collection; and the Computing & Information Systems Collection. The School is currently creating a unified collection database for the distributed FEIT cultural collections.
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Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology
The Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology collection comprises of approximately 10,000 objects. The main collection consists of dissected human remains (organs, systems or regions). There are some specimens still held in their original glass containers, dating back to the time of Sir Harry Brookes Allen (1854 –1926). Approximately one fifth of the collection is on display at any one time. The Harry Brookes Allen Museum also includes a significant collection of historical plaster, papier-mâché and wax anatomical models imported from Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. The museum is open to current and former students and staff for study and research.
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The Henry Forman Atkinson Dental Museum
The Henry Forman Atkinson Dental Museum documents the history of dentistry and dental education in Victoria. It includes historic records and archival material, as well as dental surgery, workroom and laboratory equipment dating from the 18th century to the present day.
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Ian Potter Museum of Art
The Ian Potter Museum of Art houses the University of Melbourne Art Collection. The collection is rich and varied and has major holdings of Australian art from the early 19th century to the present, as well as holdings of European art, International indigenous art and classics and archaeology. Numbering 20,000 works, these holdings form the largest university art collection in Australia. The diversity of the University Art Collection allows for constant re-interpretation and it is a great resource for the University, its academic programs and the public through changing displays and exhibitions
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International House
International House is a hall of residence owned by the University of Melbourne and houses 350 graduate and undergraduate students from Australia and overseas. International House was born from efforts by students and community members to ease housing problems faced by international students in the late 1940s and early 1950s. IH’s first residents (all male) moved in in 1957. The official opening was in 1958. The first female residents arrived in 1972, making International House the University of Melbourne’s first residential college to admit women. In 2017 International House celebrated its sixtieth anniversary. The International House Collection incorporates the IH archives and heritage collections and comprises of several hundred items which in addition to archival materials includes paintings, photographs, furniture, objects and building fragments e.g. stained glass windows. The collection has materials that relate to many important historical themes and events
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Law Rare Books Collection, University Library
The Law Rare Books Collection is an important public collection of rare and early legal texts. The collection is of research significance not only to lawyers, but also to researchers of legal, social and cultural history. It has particularly strong holdings of early printed law texts, law reports, seventeenth-century political pamphlets, classic legal texts and material relating to Australian Federation and the early years of the Commonwealth. Its 19th century holdings are a good representative example of a colonial lawyer's library and are significant for what they can tell us about the practice of law in early Victoria. The collection's links to the beginnings of the University of Melbourne – via the collections of individuals such as William Edward Hearn and Sir Redmond Barry – make it of significance to Melbourne Law School and the University community more broadly.
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Medical History Museum
The Museum houses a research collection which documents the history of the University of Melbourne’s Medical School, its teaching hospitals and achievements of its graduates and, more broadly, the history of medical practice in Victoria. The collection consists of medical, surgical and scientific instruments, archival photographs, academic certificates, personal papers and records, commemorative medals, art works and a fully equipped, relocated 19th century London pharmacy.
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Property and Campus Services Photographic Collection
The Property and Campus Services Photographic Collection comprises of slides, separate photographs, albums and binders of photographic materials and documents the built environment of the University of Melbourne. The Collection is a valuable historical and contemporary resource for those who wish to research and understand the physical development of the University. The Collection documents the substantial changes to the University in the post-World War II period, a time that witnessed an intense building and landscaping program. Evidence is recorded in detail of changing architectural styles and construction methods that were considered innovative at the time, and how these buildings have been subsequently altered and updated to suit changing needs. The Collection provides substantial photographic documentation of a number of University buildings that are now considered of State and National heritage significance. The collection comprises more than 20,000 images.
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Rare Books Collection - Baillieu Library
The Rare Books collection comprises of around 250,000 volumes of books, journals and ephemera that because of their age, beauty, rarity or other factors, are not suitable for placing on the open shelves. The International collection consists of early printed books, periodicals and pamphlets. The collections also include manuscripts, high quality facsimiles, modern limited editions, examples of fine binding and printing and notable private press collections, including Doves and Kelmscott Press. The Australiana Collections comprise books and some serials, newspapers and pamphlets published in Australia or on Australian subjects or by an Australian author. The Book Arts Collection holds around 350 artists’ books, the majority of which are Australian made with many created by Melbourne artists. The collection aims to demonstrate the history and development of artists’ books both within Australia and internationally.
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Rare Music Collection
Rare Music comprises music manuscripts, printed scores, books, archival collections and other music-related materials that are rare and in some cases unique. The collection includes items from the late 13th century through to the present day. The rich holdings of European music have at their core the Hanson-Dyer Collection of 15th to early 19th century music imprints, first editions and music manuscripts. Transferred to Melbourne in 2005, this 245-item strong collection includes French operatic works, British publications, works of the Italian renaissance and books on music theory, establishing collection strengths that have been built on with recent acquisitions. Rare Music also includes the very substantial archive of the French music publishing house, Editions de l’Oiseau-Lyre (1932–2013), founded by expatriate Louise Hanson-Dyer (1884–1962). Editions de l’Oiseau-Lyre is celebrated for its scholarly and pioneering editions and sound recordings of early music.
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School of Chemistry Collection
The School of Chemistry Collection comprises over 600 items used for chemistry teaching and research at the University of Melbourne from the 1850s to 1960s. It includes glassware, measuring and experimental apparatus, burners, chemical samples, balances, catalogues and lecture notes. Many items are of historical significance due to their association with key figures in the history of Australian science such as Frederick McCoy, Ernst Johannes Hartung, David Orme Masson and John MacAdam. A small selection of items is on display at any given time, while most of the collection, which is in storage, may be viewed by appointment or via the online catalogue.
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Archives and Special Collections
The Archives and Special Collections is the collective name given to the University of Melbourne Archives and the five University Library cultural collections comprising of Rare Books, Prints, Rare Music, East Asian and Rare Maps collections. Items in these collections are housed in special conditions by reason of their age, value or uniqueness in order to ensure their care and preservation for current and future generations of scholars and researchers, and as a record of our cultural history. See Special Collections blog
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Tiegs Zoology Museum, School of Bio Sciences
The Tiegs Zoology Museum of the University of Melbourne was established in the late 1880s and is Australia’s oldest university museum of zoology. The collection, accumulated over 120 years, has specimens contributed by the first Professor of the department, Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer. It has an extensive collection of specimens representing the whole animal kingdom, ranging from small invertebrates to prepared whole-mounts and skeletons of vertebrates including an African lion, and a moa (an extinct emu-like bird from New Zealand). There is also an extensive collection of microscope slides, with contributions from Professor Spencer and other former researchers in the department, and a large number of reprints and other historical documents of cultural significance.
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University of Melbourne Archives
The University of Melbourne Archives collects, manages and provides access to the historical records of the University, Victorian business, trade unions and other labour organisations, community and cultural organisations, as well as the personal papers of individuals prominent within them. Records date back to the first years of the colony of Victoria up until the present day and cover a wide field of endeavour. The Archives were established in 1960 and to date hold some 18 kilometres of records.
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University House
University House is the staff club at The University of Melbourne and aims to foster and maintain contacts and the exchange of ideas between the various disciplines represented by staff of the University of Melbourne. The Club was instituted in 1952 for the purpose of creating within the University a wider and more varied society than any single Department could offer, and in the hope that it would promote friendship and the fruitful exchange of ideas between people whose work is varied but has a common objective.
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University of Melbourne Herbarium
The University of Melbourne Herbarium (MELU) was established in 1926 and, with an estimated 150,000 specimens, is now the largest university herbarium in Australia. The collection includes specimens collected by Banks and Solander, as well as historic botanical objects and artwork. MELU is a vibrant and active teaching and research collection of international significance, with specimens of all major plant groups represented in the collection. The Herbarium compliments the National Herbarium of Victoria (MEL), Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, with which there is strong collaboration.
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Victorian College of the Arts
The Victorian College of the Arts, within the Faculty of VCA and MCM is located at the University of Melbourne’s Southbank Campus and brings together an extensive range of creative disciplines including Art, Community Cultural Development, Contemporary Music, Dance, Film and Television, Interdisciplinary Arts Practice, Music Theatre, Production and Writing. Over the past fifty years, the Victorian College of the Arts’ School of Film and Television (formerly the Swinburne School of Film and Television) has amassed an archive which comprises hundreds of short films. The Archive is a significant and unique resource of cultural information, sound, stories and images that document Australian life and history.