What's on in History
Compiled by Fiona Poulton
Shrine of Remembrance
Panel Discussion:
Fromelles and Pozières
When: Friday 22 July 2016
Where: Auditorium, Shrine of Remembrance
Cost: Entry by donation
Bookings: Shrine website
Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial
July and August mark the centenary of the actions at
Fromelles and Pozières on the Western Front. These
two battles engaged all Australian Divisions on active
service and resulted in staggering casualties, over
5,500 at Fromelles and over 23,000 at Pozières.
Join historians and authors Dr Ross McMullin
and Christopher Wray in discussion with Shrine
Curator Neil Sharkey as they compare these two
extraordinary battles. Members of the Friends of the
Shrine program are invited to a special luncheon
before the talk, bookings essential.
PHA (Vic): Historically Speaking
The Invisible Farmer Project
Emerging Historians
Cost: Members $3/$5 (with pizza),
Non-members $6/$10
(with pizza)
Booking: Please RSVP [email protected]
(please indicate if you are having
pizza)
The Invisible Farmer project seeks to
address the historical and contemporary
invisibility of Australian farming women and
to celebrate the creative and vital role that
women play in sustaining Australian farms
and rural communities. The project involves
a partnership between Museum Victoria
and the University of Melbourne, as well
as collaboration from a range of collecting
institutions and community bodies.
Join PHA members Dr. Nikki Henningham,
Catherine Forge & Liza Dale-Hallett
(Museum Victoria) reflecting on the
complications and opportunities in saving
rural women’s history.
When: Tuesday 19 July
Where: RHSV Drill Hall,
239 A’Beckett Street,
Melbourne
(Entrance via William St)
Further details available closer to the
date.
This event has become a great way to
learn some of the new exciting areas
historians are researching. Hear from
two emerging historians, one RHSV
historian and one of our own PHA (Vic)
members, in this fantastic annual event.
Keep an eye on your email inboxes for
further details closer to the event.
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Battle of Long Tan: 50th
Anniversary Reflections
When: Where: Cost: Bookings:
Wednesday 27 July, 5.30pm arrival
for 6pm start
Auditorium, Education Centre,
Shrine of Remembrance
Entry by donation
Shrine website
Image courtesy of Dave Sabben
In the lead up to the 50th Anniversary of the Battle
of Long Tan, join 6RAR Platoon Commander Dave
Sabben as he discusses his experiences at Long Tan
where 108 Australian servicemen fought off 1,5002,500 Viet Cong. Dave was called up in 1965,
aged 20, for the first intake of Australia’s National
Service scheme. He served with 6RAR first tour and
was awarded a Mentioned in Despatches which was
later upgraded to a Medal for Gallantry (MG) for his
service in the battle. His illustrated presentation will
encompass the prelude to the battle, the tactics used,
the Armour and Chopper support and the aftermath.
State Library of Victoria
Uncovering the Shenandoah diary
Heroes and villains: Strutt's Australia
An ambrotype portrait of cadet Dabney Scales in US Naval Academy uniform,
Maryland, c 1859-60, housed in its original hinge-split case, on top of Scales'
Shenandoah diary, 1865
William Strutt, Black Thursday, February 6th, 1851 (detail), 1864,
oil on canvas, State Library Victoria]
When: 9 June 2016, 6pm – 8pm
Where: Queen’s Hall
Cost: Free
Bookings: Phone: 03 8664 7099, Email: [email protected]
When: 14 July 2016–23 October 2016, open daily 10am to 5pm.
Where: Keith Murdoch Gallery
Cost: Free
Bookings: Phone: 03 8664 7099, Email: [email protected]
Don't miss this once-in-a-lifetime chance to see a recently discovered original diary
written in 1865 by Lieutenant Dabney M Scales, a crewman on the Confederate
warship CSS Shenandoah when it docked in Melbourne for repairs.
Hear readings from the diary and newspaper reports of the time, along with a
discussion from our panel of experts on the Shenandoah's visit – an event that thrilled
and divided Melbourne.
The panel will also discuss the importance for Victoria of this rare manuscript,
which the library is currently raising funds to secure.
Discover the stunning artistry of William Strutt, who captured the brutal fury of the
landscape alongside the human drama of life in colonial Australia.
Relive Melbourne's golden age, when Victoria became a separate colony, gold
was discovered, bushrangers roamed and explorers launched bold expeditions into
the Australian interior. These dramatic transformations were captured in the stunning
artistry of William Strutt (1825–1915), whose work encompasses the brutal fury of
the Australian landscape and the human drama of life in the mid-19th century.
Strutt was a superb draughtsman and renderer of the human figure, whose ability
to compose complex dramatic scenes is witnessed in large narrative works such
as Black Thursday, February 6th, 1851 and The burial of Burke. The oil paintings,
watercolours, portraits, prints, preparatory sketches and large-scale history paintings
featured in the exhibition provide an unparalleled visual record of the hazards
and hardships of colonial life, and demonstrate the meticulous approach of an
academically trained artist.
This free exhibition brings together significant works from the extensive collections
of State Library Victoria, the National Library of Australia and other major Australian
collections.
The first retrospective of Strutt's work to be shown in Melbourne, the exhibition is
curated by Matthew Jones, a curator in the Exhibitions Branch at the National Library
of Australia, where he has co-curated The Life of Patrick White and displays in the
Treasures Gallery, the Library's permanent exhibition space.
Presented in partnership with the National Library of Australia.
Panellists
MC: Robyn Annear, author
Jo Ritale, Head of Collections, State Library Victoria
Dr Angus Curry, author of The Officers of the CSS Shenandoah
Terry Smyth, author of Australian Confederates
Readings by James Saunders, actor
Yarra Ranges Regional Museum
Emporium
When: Where: Cost: Sat 23 July - Sun 23 October, 2016
Yarra Ranges Regional Museum, Lilydale
Free
Welcome to the glamour of 1950s fashion! Ladies and gentlemen, please explore
and browse the shelves in Emporium, but men should avert their eyes in the ‘delicates’
department.
Emporium explores the rise of the department store, ready-to-wear clothing and
advertising in the mid-20th century. Department stores opened across Australia
in response to a rise in wealth, the evolution of shopping as a pastime and the
changing role of women from homemaker to active consumer.
The exhibition features merchandise and picture-based advertising material from
Albury's iconic ‘Abikhair's Emporium’, established by Syrian immigrants Saad Milham
Abikhair and his wife Shefia in 1928.
http://ach.yarraranges.vic.gov.au/Whats_On/Exhibitions
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National Trust of Australia (Victoria)
Sisters gathered at a local mansion in 1929 to celebrate
the marriage of one of them to the most famous lyricist of his day.
Storytelling at Labassa
When: 23 June, 6:30pm – 9pm
Where: Labassa Mansion - Music Room, 2 Manor Grove, Caulfield North
Cost: Gold coin donation
Bookings: Booking website
The Glen Eira Storytelling Festival invites you to an evening talk about
the social history of Labassa.
Home to more than 700 residents over 143 years, Labassa Mansion is
unique among Glen Eira’s historic buildings.
Social historian Vicki Shuttleworth presents the stories of six residents
whose lives reflect the changing dynamic of Melbourne’s south-east.
Hear the stories of Cobb & Co. partner Alexander Robertson; real estate
speculator and bridge champion Stanley Sergeant; Rosamond Pridham
Love and her celebrity family; World War II fundraiser Margaret Brown;
post-war migrants the Apfelbaums; and hippie pop star Hans Poulsen.
Light refreshments from 6.30pm with a 7pm start
The
of Melbourne
City University
Gallery
When: Where: Cost: 12 May to 12 August 2016
City Gallery, Melbourne Town Hall
Free
In 2016, the City of Melbourne’s ‘Future Melbourne 2026’ project urges
Melburnians to consider their city for the decade ahead. So what better
time to reflect on the kinds of futures that were imagined for Melbourne
in the past.
Some big dreams and ambitious visions have been realised, others have
not – for better or for worse. And it’s not just the appearance of the
city that these imaginings have shaped, but also how we interact with it,
move through it and inhabit it.
A History of the Future: Imagining Melbourne looks back in order to
look forward. For 180 years, city planners, architects, artists and writers
have imagined a future Melbourne from the vantage point of their own
time and place. The stories told here provide just a snapshot of the many
plans, schemes and dreams that have been variously realised or shelved
as Melbourne has considered its future self. They reveal changes in
attitudes – towards heritage, the natural environment and modernity –
that have shaped much of the city that we find ourselves in today.
Clare Williamson is an independent curator, arts writer and editor. She
was previously the senior exhibitions curator at State Library Victoria.
Circa Vintage Clothing presents
Celebrating Style - 1950s fashion in Melbourne
Date: What: When: 21 April, 6-7:30pm
Celebrating Style – 1950s fashion in Melbourne exhibition
3rd June – 10th July 2016, 10-5pm Mon-Fri and 1-5pm
weekends. Closed public holidays.
Where: Glen Eira City Council Gallery, corner Glen Eira and
Hawthorn Roads, Caulfield 3162
Cost: Free More information: see the Glen Era site or the
blog post on Circa's web blog
Showcasing 1950s Australian women’s
vintage fashion and couture, this exhibition
captures the international influences, style
and elegance of fashion during this decade.
Garments, accessories and fashion photography
by renowned Australian photographers Athol
Shmith and Bruno Benini sourced from public
gallery and private collections are included
in the exhibition.
Photos by Tira Lewis, from book
“Love Vintage” reproduced with
courtesy from Carter’s Publishing.
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Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, Tasmania
Unhoused: Encounters with the Hidden in the Allport
When: Where: 9 June – 30 September 2016
Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts
An exhibition featuring work by Linda Fredheim, Julie Gough, Brigita
Ozolins, Sally Rees and Elissa Ritson. Curated by Dr Emily Bullock.
The artists have responded to the Allport collection. They reflect on its
haunted and hidden aspects.
They consider what occurs
when a private collection
becomes public.
Between nightmare, memory
and imagination, Unhoused
alters the visitor experience.
The lights are low. The usually
carefully ordered displays have
been unsettled. Surprising
objects have been unearthed.
There is a sense of disturbance in the darkened rooms.
The work is installed in the main gallery and the room displays. It offers
an alternative understanding of one of the most historically significant
collections in Hobart.
Chinese Museum
The Univeristy of Melbourne
Australian Identity Through Cultural Materials Conservation
When: Where: Cost: 1 July 2016 – 30 April 2017, open daily 10am-4pm
Chinese Museum, 22 Cohen Place, Melbourne
Adult admission $10
While the power of Roman Empire was rising in the West, the Han dynasty (206
BCE-220 CE) founded the Eastern civilisation in China through a period of cultural
and technological development, economic wealth and territorial expansion. This
brand new exhibition showcases this significant period of Chinese history through the
Han dynasty’s remarkable people, progressive ideas, and great innovations.
The exhibition shares stories about people of the Han dynasty, such as the invention
of the earliest odometer by a Chinese engineer and when the Han Emperor
accidentally gave away one of ancient China’s Four Great Beauties to a tribal chief.
Visitors will be introduced to Zhang Qian, the great explorer who founded the Silk
Road, and will learn about Confucius’ enduring philosophy.
Witness the establishment of Silk Road, the expansion of the Empire’s borders, and
wonder at a world in miniature featuring pottery figurines and other objects from the
superb private collection of Hank Ebes. Explore the Han Emperors’ approach to law
and order, the notion of the Mandate of Heaven and the belief in life everlasting.
The Han dynasty heralded the invention of the papermaking process, advanced
metal-forging techniques and highly effective agricultural methods. The Han also
invented the wheelbarrow, applied negative numbers to mathematical calculations,
and created a device that detected earthquakes.
Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery
When: Thursday 16 June 2016 6pm –7pm
Where: Public Lecture Theatre, Old Arts Public Lecture Theatre
Cost: Free
Bookings: http://alumni.online.unimelb.edu.au/RobynSloggett
The material world surrounds us: feeding our senses, our imagination and our
curiosity. We inherit and we create cultural and scientific records that help us make
sense of this world. Cultural materials conservation employs materiality to understand
and protect these records, integrating knowledge acquired in the sciences and the
humanities with that developed by cultural knowledge holders and practitioners.
Conservation studies provide unique understandings of how cultural knowledge,
disciplinary knowledge and the materiality that surrounds us, can come together to
shed light on significant questions of knowledge and identity.
In this lecture Professor Robyn Sloggett explores the valuable contribution that
cultural materials conservation makes to the continual quest to understand our place
in the world. She examines how conservation studies expand our understanding of
Australia's diverse epistemological traditions and their significance in contemporary
Australian life and expand opportunities for economic innovation, referencing
Australia's rich, ancient and continuous Indigenous knowledge, the disciplinary
genealogy of the Western history of ideas, and our place in the Asia-Pacific region.
Her lecture concludes by addressing the question: Without a national strategy
for the preservation of its cultural and scientific record is Australia risking identity
amnesia?
Professor Robyn Sloggett AM is Director of the Grimwade Centre for Cultural
Materials Conservation at the University of Melbourne.
Monash University
Writers and their World seminar series —
Memory, nostalgia and unbelonging in The Other Side of
the World
When: Where: Cost: 6 June 2016 2pm-4pm
Room E365, Menzies Building, Clayton Campus
Free
Stephanie Bishop’s writing explores the experience of memory, nostalgia and
unbelonging. Her work explores the unstable relationship between emotional truth
and historical fact, and the novelist’s imperative to interrogate that boundary. In this
seminar, she will talk about these ideas and their impact on the writing process in the
context of her recent novel The Other Side of The World.
Grainger Museum
Curators' floor talk: Water, marks and countenances
Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg (1740-1812), A shipwreck off a rocky coast(1760s),
oil on canvas, 83 x 126.4 cm, Collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Tempest
When: 10 June 2016 to 20 November 2016
Where: Argyle Galleries 1-4, Central Gallery and throughout TMAG
Tempest is a major new art exhibition conceived and developed by internationally
acclaimed curator Juliana Engberg. With its roots in the Shakespearean play of the
same name, Tempest will transform TMAG’s galleries into a world of shipwrecks and
stormy seas, romance, discovery, tragedy and magic, creating a new and exciting
experience for visitors.
Historic works from TMAG and other state collections will be shown alongside
contemporary works by international and Australian artists including Tacita Dean,
Valerie Sparks, Fiona Tan, William Kentridge, Victor Alimpiev, Hernan Bas, Mariele
Neudecker, Rodney Graham, Pat Brassington, Rosemary Laing, Paul Wood, Ricky
Swallow, Kit Wise and David Stephenson.
A rich and dynamic public program will be presented throughout the six month
exhibition period, exploring themes from the exhibition in a variety of media. TMAG
will partner with local arts organisations and festivals such as Terrapin Puppet
Theatre, Festival of Voices, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Blue Cow Theatre
Inc. to deliver an exciting program of events, programs and performances.
Download a copy of the Tempest public programs guide here.
Tempest is presented by TMAG in association with Detached Cultural
Organisation and Dark Mofo. The project has been assisted by the Australian
Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
When: Tuesday 19 July 2016, 1:15pm
Where: Grainger Museum, The Univeristy of Melbourne
Cost: Free
Bookings: http://grainger.unimelb.edu.au/events/upcoming/curators-floor-
talk-water-marks-July
Join curators Brian Allison and
Astrid Britt Krautschneider for a floor
talk discussing their latest temporary
exhibition, Water, marks and
countenances: works on paper from
the Grainger Museum collection.
This event will run for approximately
45 minutes.
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