Inside the Collection

Category: Exhibitions

Kellerman's mermaid costume

Origins of the Annette Kellerman collection

August 12, 2016

Peter Cox
Annette Kellerman's successes in a number of fields are extraordinary. Born in Sydney in 1886, she became an international celebrity as an endurance swimmer, a highly paid entertainer of the vaudeville stage and a star of American silent films. She played a key role in popularising the modern one-piece swimsuit for women, became a successful businesswoman and wrote self-help books about health, beauty and exercise.
Portrait of Stewart Walton

Stewart Walton for ‘Collette Dinnigan: Unlaced’

October 30, 2015

Melanie Pitkin
One of the greatest pleasures when developing a museum exhibition is collaborating with a breadth of highly talented creatives. In the case of Collette Dinnigan: Unlaced, Kat Bond and Fil Bartkowiak in our design team collaborated with Stewart Walton, an artist, illustrator and furniture designer based in England to create our paper doll making activity space.
'Heel appeal' showcase 2014

Curating shoes: from heel to toe

December 17, 2014

Melanie Pitkin
On 29 November 2014, the Museum opened 'RECOLLECT: Shoes' – a new exhibition inspired by the idea of visible display storage. Comprising more than 800 shoes dating from the 1500s to now, visitors can see everything from the first pair of elastic sided boots in the world made for Queen Victoria in 1837 to designer names like Louboutin, Yves Saint Laurent and Lacroix.
Souvenir of The Wirths' Circus collection booklet

Wirth’s Circus — showing the collection

November 24, 2014

Peter Cox
When Rill Wirth, the last surviving child of the great circus proprietor Philip Wirth (1864-1937), passed away in 2007, her relatives kindly donated to the Museum a remarkable collection documenting the family's involvement in the business from the 1870s until 1963.
Photograph of Pendant

A Fine Possession and solving the mystery of a French pendant

October 8, 2014

Anni Turnbull
Every now and again when working with a Museum’s collection, you will come across an object that was acquired so long ago that little is known about its provenance. There are a few meagre clues to help uncover what you hope will turn out to be an enriching and surprising story, something that shows that this piece is special.
Photograph of aluminium 'Tiara' by Fiona Hall, 1990

A major jewellery exhibition opens soon at the Powerhouse Museum

September 3, 2014

Eva Czernis-Ryl
This week we start installing this Museum’s most ambitious jewellery exhibition ever. Celebrating the central place of jewellery in cultures from antiquity to now, A fine possession: jewellery and identity will present over 700 pieces of jewellery from Australia, Europe, USA, Asia, Africa and the Pacific which were made and/or worn and collected in Australia.The exhibition opens at the Museum on 24 September.
Photograph of TARDIS

Fifty Years in the TARDIS: the golden anniversary of Doctor Who

November 23, 2013

Kerrie Dougherty
The weekend of November 23/24, 2013 marks the 50th anniversary of the first screening of the iconic British science fiction television series Doctor Who First screened in the UK on November 23, 1963, the adventures of the nameless wandering time traveller and his British police-box-shaped time machine, the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space, if you’ve always wondered what that acronym meant), have been shown in countries around the world and become firmly embedded in global popular culture.
Photograph of Opera House construction

The Opera House industry

October 18, 2013

Charles Pickett
We’ve just installed a small exhibition to mark the fortieth anniversary of Sydney Opera House on 20 October. The anniversary, by the way, is of the official 1973 opening by the Queen, not the first public performance there on the 28 September 1973, an interesting choice of dates.
Photograph detail of Doll's dress showing colour mauveine

Mauve, an unexpected discovery

October 2, 2013

Anni Turnbull
Mauveine, the first synthetic organic chemical dye, was discovered serendipitously by William Perkin in 1856. Perkin was 18 and working with Professor August Wilhelm von Hofmann, attempting to synthesise the anti-malaria drug quinine.
Photograph Anamorphic images and viewer

‘Playing with Light’, weird drawings and an anamorphic mirror

September 11, 2013

Debbie Rudder
  The excellent 'Playing with Light' exhibition opens at the Powerhouse Museum on 14 September to coincide with Ultimo Science Festival. Developed by Scitech in Perth, the exhibition invites curious visitors of all ages to interact with prisms, lenses, mirrors and colour.