Today we live in a society that is saturated with images. Everyone with a smart phone has a camera in their pocket, ready to capture the world around them and share online in an instant. In the 1920s, photography was just starting to become more accessible to Australians. Cameras were getting lighter, cheaper, and easier […]
This little silver mug, with its matching porringer bowl, might have been presented to the parents of a fortunate baby in the early 1900s. Baby-sized sets of silver tableware have been popular christening gifts since they were first introduced in Stuart England. Given by godparents, they were a kind of good-luck charm, invoking prosperity and […]
Jewellery is a very personal item and as such is usually held within a family and passed down through the generations. This beautiful silver locket was owned by Johanna Hermine (Mina) Wagner (née Rosler) (1858–1921) and has been handed down through the Rosler family. It is unknown when Hermine received the locket but as a […]
With most of our appliances requiring power, new houses have multiple power points. If you’ve ever lived in an older, unrenovated building the frustration of not enough power points is very real. Electricity was first introduced into Australia for lighting. Stoves burnt fuel such as wood, heating was an open fire or oil heaters, while […]
Bodyboards fished from the dam where they had spent hot summer days in Lovedale, on Wonnarua Country. Crutches collected and kept for safe-keeping after each broken leg or rolled ankle. A harness which had belonged to their donkey, Malcolm. Fireweed and wildflowers plucked from the bush surrounding their home. Thirty year-old carpet pulled from a […]
When speaking of his uncle, Maurice O’Shea, the Sydney-based artist Garry Shead (1942-) shows great admiration. According to Garry, his childhood memories of annual visits to O’Shea’s renowned Mount Pleasant vineyard in Pokolbin in the Hunter Valley recall ‘a cultured man who loathed pretension and arrogance’. Along with his thick glasses worn to rectify severe […]
Museums & Galleries of NSW acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the lands that comprise the state now known as NSW.
We pay respect to them as First Nations people with a continuing connection to land, place, waters and community
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are advised that this site contains stories, images, voices, and video of people who have died.
Some material may contain terms that reflect common usage of the period in which it was written or recorded but may not be considered appropriate today. Such terms do not reflect the views of Museums and Galleries of NSW and are provided only to reflect historical context.