The Museum 

From the founding of the Melbourne Mechanics’ Institute in 1839, the establishment of a museum was identified as an important part of meeting the institute’s purpose to impart literary, scientific and other useful knowledge to members and the public. The significance given to establishing a museum was reflected in the institution’s first Code of Laws written in 1840, which set out that the curator of the museum would form part of the Committee of Management. The inaugural curator was Dr David Elliot Wilkie who was appointed in the same year.

The first home for the museum was in premises in Bourke Street, which were leased by the Committee of Management in 1840 as a temporary venue. The Committee actively sought and welcomed donations from the colony’s inhabitants in forming the museum with the 1840 annual report calling for ‘specimens in the various departments of Nature and Art for a Museum’.

In 1842, the museum was relocated to the institute’s newly-built premises at 188 Collins Street. Two years later, the Committee of Management expanded the museum operations and established separate museum departments covering ornithology, entomology, conchology, zoology with comparative anatomy, botany, geology, mineralogy, fine arts and numismatics, as well as works of art and illustrations of the trade and commerce of the colony. These subject areas were identified by the Committee as ‘extensive fields for research’, but also reflected nineteenth century collecting practices that brought together the humanities, sciences and the visual arts often resulting in broad and eclectic collections.

In 1846 the museum was transferred to the large room of the institution’s hall, where it was reported that ‘cases upon an elegant and commodious plan have been constructed’. However, space to adequately display and access the collections was an ongoing challenge for the institution and by 1851 it was noted in the annual report that ‘a large quantity of materials for the formation of a museum is now lying useless in various parts of the present building’.

In the same year, discussions were taking place about the need to renovate the building to hold a larger hall as the existing one could not accommodate the increasing number of people attending lectures, classes and entertainments.

However, in 1861 the annual report noted that the museum had been in abeyance for several years. The Committee also set out in this report that to properly arrange and exhibit the collection would require a large outlay, and to efficiently care for it on an ongoing basis was beyond the means of the institution. A recommendation was made to deposit the collection with the National Museum (the forerunner to Museum Victoria) on the condition that it could be returned to the institution on demand at any time. It is unknown if this transpired.

To date, no catalogue for the museum has been located so the full contents of the collection remain unknown. Items that were donated to the museum were recorded in the institution’s annual reports and set out a collection that was broad and eclectic. It included British, Greek and Roman coins, a model of Sydney Cove, a chemical toxicological chest, samples of fossils and minerals, a vampire bat, wasps nest and a lithographic drawing of London as it appeared in 1847.

The museum also contained indigenous artefacts from across Victoria which were catalogued according to European classification under the heading of ‘Aborigines.’ Several of these objects had been sourced through George Augustus Robinson, the Chief Protector of Aborigines in the colony.  The inclusion of such artefacts was typical of the period where collecting practices were steeped in the colonisation of indigenous lands and exhibited within the lens of European settlement.

The Melbourne Athenaeum Archives holds records of the museum’s Curator until 1878, however whether the collection was transferred to another institution or institutions remains unknown.