Publications
50 Objects 50 Stories: Extraordinary Curiosities from the Nicholson Museum
Michael Turner (photography Rowan Conroy)
50 Objects 50 Stories: Extraordinary Curiosities from the Nicholson Museum is the book of the Nicholson Museum exhibition 50 Objects 50 Stories and of the ABCNews24 TV series Extraordinary Curiosities.
It is not about the most important, or the most beautiful things in the Nicholson Museum. It is about objects with a story to tell. Beginning in 1860 with antiquities from the original donation of Sir Charles Nicholson, it journeys through to the present day. Along the way, the stories introduce us to a cast of characters, curators and collectors who have helped shape the museum and its collection.
Sir Charles Nicholson, founder of the museum, a man of dramatically humble origins (whose story is told), newspaper reporter Edward Reeve, the museum’s first curator (1860-1889 in three terms), Enoch Powell, eminent Greek scholar, later radical English right-wing politician (curator 1938-39) and James Stewart, Cypriot archaeologist, prisoner of war and cat lover (curator 1954-1962). There are adventurous women such as Agatha Christie and the intrepid Mary Woodhouse. There are famous archaeologists Sir Austen Henry Layard, Sir Henry Wellcome, Sir Flinders Petrie, Vere Gordon Childe, Dame Kathleen Kenyon, Sir Max Mallowan, Sir Mortimer Wheeler and some pretty dreadful ones like Luigi Palma di Cesnola. And there are famous men and women Sir William Hamilton and his scandalous wife Emma, Thomas Hope, Orson Welles and D.H. Lawrence. All have a part to play as these wonderful stories unfold.
Price $29.95 (plus postage if order is to be mailed)
130 pages, hardback.
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Alexander Macleay from Sydney to Scotland
Derelie Cherry
This is a long-overdue biography of Alexander Macleay, the collector of the tens of thousands of insects that form the foundation of the Macleay Museum's collections. Cherry's biography charts Alexanders work in Scotland and England before his arrival in Australia as Colonial Secretary in 1826. It follows his role as a father of 11 (six children died in England) his progress as a public benefactor, his work in politics (as well as Colonial Secretary he was the first Speaker in the NSW Legislative Council) and his curiosity and passion for knowledge about the natural world.
450 pages with colour illustrations and comprehensive index.
Price: $50.00 - (RRP $59.95)
Japan in Sydney: Professor Sadler and modernism 1920-30s
Curated by Ajioka Chiaki and Maria (Connie) Tornatore-Loong with contributions by Catriona Moore, Nishiyama Junko, Kuwahara Noriko, Marsden Hordern and Silas Clifford-Smith
The fully illustrated, bilingual catalogue is supported by the Commonwealth through the Australia-Japan Foundation which is part of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Contributions from Australian and Japanese art historians and scholars analyse Professor Sadler's legacy, European modernist ideals, Japanese inspirations in Australian modernist printmaking and modern Japanese prints. This catalogue presents concentrated research on European, Australian and Japanese modernism in prints, particularly during the pre-WWII period and highlights Sadler's advocacy of modernism and Japonisme.
Published by the University Art Gallery, The University of Sydney
Total pages: 148, colour illustrations
Price: AUD $20.00 (plus postage if order is to be mailed)
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Exposed: Photography and the Classical Nude
M. Turner, with contributions from A.J.L. Blanshard, A. Carden-Coyne, and W.K. Zewadski
Sydney 2011
Exhibition catalogue. 141 pages, full colour, h/b
Exposed: Photography and the Classical Nude is a celebration of the naked human body in photography, and of the influence of the Classical ideal of Ancient Greece and Rome on that art form. Ranging from the beautiful to the bizarre, from the provocative to the thought provoking, it brings together 98 photographs from 61 photographers including Fox Talbot, Muybridge, von Gloeden, Riefenstahl, Cartier-Bresson, Chim, Brassai, Doisneau, List and Dupain.
Price AUD $29.95 (plus postage if order is to be mailed)
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Into the Light: 150 years of cultural treasures at the University of Sydney
Introduction by D. Malouf; essays by J. Philp, A. Stephen and M. Turner
175 pages, full colour, p/b
New Price AUD $49.95*
The University of Sydney has some of the largest and richest cultural heritage collections of any university in the nation. More than 700 000 works are held in the university’s Macleay Museum, Nicholson Museum and University Art Collection. With collections dating from antiquity to the modern age, from every continent and including cultural, artistic, scientific, and natural materials, they form a significant part of the national heritage.
Into the Light is published on the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the Nicholson Museum, the first university museum in Australia. Lavishly illustrated, with essays and captions written by curatorial staff and experts in their fields, Into the Light provides a glimpse into those collection and some of the ways they interconnect across disciplinary boundaries. The book includes an introduction by David Malouf and more than a hundred highlights of the collections, photographed by Michael Myers.
Price AUD $49.95 *(plus postage if order is to be mailed)
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Click here for the Nicholson Museum Publications
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NICHOLSON MUSEUM
Beauty and Betrayal: ancient and neo-classical jewellery
E. Bollen, with contributions from M. Turner and MM. Jackson
Sydney 2010
Exhibition catalogue. 75 pages, full colour, p/b
Jewellery can be a potent symbol of protection or of power. It can speak of an individual’s status, wealth, taste, education, and international connections. Or it can be desired or worn simply because it is beautiful. But there is a different side to jewellery that is made apparent in Greek myths: its beauty can often lead to betrayal. Desire for jewellery blinded Eriphyle to her duty to protect her husband, Jason once in possession of the Golden Fleece abandoned the woman who had helped him procure it, and Helen and Paris’ love based on beauty and desire brought war and devastation to thousands.
Collected together in this exhibition and catalogue are over 70 objects from the Nicholson Museum, other Australian university museums and public and private collections. Each piece displays the techniques of the jeweller, indicates the varied purpose of adornments and above all captures the ageless appeal of jewellery.
Price AUD $20.00 (plus postage if order is to be mailed)
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Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum. The Nicholson Museum, The University of Sydney. The Red Figure Pottery of Apulia
A. Cambitoglou and M. Turner
Sydney 2008
Full colour, h/b
New Price AUD $100.00*
This, the first Australian volume of the Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum brings together 86 whole pots and fragments from the collection of Apulian red figure pottery in the Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney. This volume is written by Alexander Cambitoglou, Director of the Australian Archaeological Insititute at Athens, and Michael Turner, Senior Curator of the Museum.
Limited edition of 500 copies
105 Full Colour Plates
Includes a CD of all plates and outline drawings
Price AUD $100.00* (plus postage if order is to be mailed)
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Treasures of the Nicholson Museum
D.T. Potts and K. Sowada (eds.)
Sydney 2004
120 pages, full colour, p/b
A selection of 47 of the most iconic pieces from the Nicholson Museum collection together with an introductory essay on the history of the Museum by Professor Potts. Lavishly illustrated with descriptive articles on each piece by some of the leading figures of Australian archaeology.
The Catalogue has now sold out but it is now available as a free download. Click here
Sigmund Freud's Collection: an Archaeology of the Mind
'The psychoanalyst, like the archaeologists, must uncover layer after layer of the patient's psyche, before coming to the deepest, most valuable treasures.'
Sigmund Freud
"Sigmund Freud's Collection: an Archaeology of the Mind brings together objects from Sigmund Freud's personal collection of antiquities held in the Freud Museum, London. The artworks - which travel to Australia for the first times, and are presented alongside related film and documentary material, including Edmund Engelman's celebrated photographs and Anna Freud's homemovies - odder a unique insight into Freud as collector, thinker and art connoisseur. They also reveal how Freud's study of art and antiquities influenced his theories of psychoanalysts."
Max Delany. Director. MUMA
The Catalogue has now sold out but it is now available as a free download. Click here
Faces of Power. Imperial portraiture on Roman Coins
P. Brennan, M. Turner and N. Wright
Sydney 2007
83 pages, full colour, p/b
The Catalogue of the 2007 Nicholson Museum exhibition of the same name. 132 coins illustrating the lives, achievements, hopes, loves and scandals of the Roman emperors from Augustus to Anthemius. With short (Suetonius-like) entries for each emperor by Peter Brennan, this is an excellent introduction to Roman history and its coinage.
'This catalogue ... is a fine publication. The short biographies are clear, concise and even witty. Each manages to pack in a surprising amount of information about the emperor and his family members. They are peppered with the 'juicy' bits of intrigue as well as famous sayings, such as Vespasian's 'I think I am becoming a god' remark just before his death. This reviewer appreciated the heading under the year 69 AD: 'One damn emperor after another'. (Rachel Meyers in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review 15 Nov 2007).
The Catalogue has now sold out but it is now available as a free download. Click here
Ancient Voices - Modern Echoes: Theatre in the Greek World. Exhibition Catalogue
J.R. Green, F. Muecke, K.N. Sowada, M. Turner and E. Bachmann
Sydney, 2003
88 pages, full colour, p/b
This Catalogue presents the 45 objects on display in the Nicholson Museum's exhibition, 'Ancient Voices - Modern Echoes: Theatre in the Greek World'. The pieces include Attic and South Italian painted vases, terracotta figurines and bronze statuettes, some of which have never been published before. The catalogue is prefaced with three essays by Professor J.R. Green and F. Muecke on ancient theatre and the theatre site at Nea Paphos, Cyprus.
ISBN 0-909602-16-6
Price AUD$25.00 (plus postage if order is to be mailed)
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MACLEAY MUSEUM
People, Power, Politics: the first generation of anthropologists at the University of Sydney
1st Feburary - 20th July 2008
Exhibition catalogue
Macleay Museum
Featuring images and objects taken by the first wave of anthropologists in the cultures they visited, as well as archival documents, this exhibition explored the work of Australia’s first Department of Anthropology in its early years. Focussing on ten individuals, including famous names such as Raymond Firth, A. P. Elkin, Ian Hogbin, and William Stanner, the exhibition focussed on their early fieldwork when they went into Australian Aboriginal and Pacific Islander communities to investigate and test the latest theories and methods of modern anthropology.
Free download Pdf click here
Museum by Robyn Stacey and Ashley Hay
A new book featuring over 100 stunning full-page images from one of Australia's leading photographers, accompanied by an engaging history from an acclaimed essayist and author.
Click here for further information and book order form.
Rational Order. Carl von Linné 1707-1778.
Exhibition catalogue
Macleay Museum.
In 2007 the Macleay Museum celebrated Linnaeus's 300th year with the exhibition Ratrional order. The exhibition included over five hundred animals from the Macleay collections. We only selected animals that had been described by Linnaeus, and arranged them according to Linnaeus's system.
Free download in PDF: click here
A Fragile Balance: The Extraordinary Story of Australian Marsupials
Written by the University of Sydney's Professor Chris Dickman this book tells the extraordinary story of Australian marsupials and their precarious state in an ever-worsening environment. A Fragile Balance takes an intimate look at 150 marsupials, many uncommonly heard of, and includes intricate detailed illustrations by highly awarded and respected natural history artist Rosemary Woodford Ganf.
A Fragile Balance: The Extraordinary Story of Australian Marsupials is published by Craftsman House, an imprint of Thames & Hudson ($85). The foreword to A Fragile Balance is written by renowned scientist and author Tim Flannery. Release date: December, 2007.
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Collected: 150 years of Aboriginal art and artifacts at the Macleay Museum
By Susie Davies, (with essay by Rose Stack) Published by University of Sydney, 2002
Softcover 108 pages
Collected is the first book to be published on the Macleay Museum’s important holdings of Australian Aboriginal art and artifacts. The book comprises 108 full colour plates, featuring some of Australia’s oldest bark paintings as well as shields, clubs, bags and body ornaments from the Macleay Museum’s historic collections. These artifacts, most of them collected in the second half of the nineteenth century, are show cased along with others collected in the twentieth century. These include a significant collection of bark paintings, pearl shell ornaments and a unique Wandjina figure. Supplements by about 30 historic photographs mainly from the Museum’s extensive collections, Collected highlights the rich artistic tradition of Aboriginal Australians.
Collected will be an essential resource for museum curators, historians, anthropologists, collectors and all those interested in the rich material culture and artistic traditions of Aboriginal Australians.
$60.00 + postage and handling
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Mr. Macleay's Celebrated Cabinet
ed. Peter Stanbury and Julian Holland
A history of the Macleay Museum and the Macleay Family over 200 years. As well as celebrating the Museum's 100 year presence at the University of Sydney, the book provides an insight into the scientific circles of Regency England and Victorian Sydney. (8 authors)
Published by the Macleay Museum, 1988. Pp 171, 24x18 cm.
Paperback $5.00 (was $26.95)
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Toys to Remember
Peter Stanbury, Lydia Bushell and Clare Watson
From an exhibition of simple toys and pastimes around the world.
Published by the Macleay Museum, 1987. Pp 32, 21x15 cm.
Paperback $2.00 (was $4.50)
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South Pacific Islands
edited by Peter Stanbury and Lydia Bushell
Comprises 10 chapters by experts in their fields including European exploration, land forms, botany, languages, arts, whaling, crops and farming, politics and independence.
Published by the Macleay Museum, 1984. Pp, 24x18 cm.
Paperback $5.00 (was $10.95)
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A Dictionary of Measuring Instruments
Dr. Valerie Havyatt
A reference book of measuring instruments from Abney level to Zymosismeter.
Published by the Macleay Museum, 1981. Pp 66, 21x10cm.
Paperback $1.00 (was $2.50)
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Microscopes and Microscopy
Julian Holland
Microscopes and related items in the Scientific Instrument collection.
Published by the Macleay Museum, 1989. Pp 52, 29x21 cm
Paperback $12.00
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The Macleay Collectors - A Working Notebook
Lois Tilbrook
A guide for those who work with the Macleay Collections or who are interested in the history of science in Australia. Includes biographical information.
Published by the Macleay Museum, 1992. Pp, 29x21 cm.
Paperback $15.00 (was $25.00)
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