Current exhibitions

Temporary Exhibitions

Griffith Taylor: Global Geographer

Foundation Professor of Geography at the University of Sydney, Griffith Taylor (1880-1963) was a remarkable man – a driven intellectual and a superb self-publicist. Taylor’s career in Australia the USA and Canada encompassed Antarctic exploration, ethnography and nation planning. His frank assessments of Australia’s arid country and concern for the environmental limits of settlement, derided in his own lifetime, have earned him renewed respect. This exhibition curated by historian Carolyn Strange explores the extraordinary world of a talented draftsman, teacher and provocative explorer of places and ideas.

Macleay Museum
7 June-15 November 2009

Click here for a listing of associated public lectures

Above: The Compleat Explorer, Griffith Taylor, University of Sydney Archives, The Archives of Griffith Taylor, P163/4/2.1

WS Macleay and the natural history circle

William Sharp Macleay’s natural history opus Horae Entomologicae (1819-1821) sought God’s order in nature through a system of organisation based on the affinities and analogies between organisms. This quinarian system, as it was known, was read and considered by London’s young radical naturalists in the 1820s and 1830s, amongst them the promising scholar Charles Darwin.

Macleay Museum
12 February-December 2009

Above - ‘five great circular groups in the animal kingdom’ - W.S Macleay, Horae Entomologicae: or Essays on the Annulose Animals vol 1 part II (London, 1821) page 318

A Small History of Microscopy

Confused by the difference between compound and simple microscopes? Ever wonder about the uses of objectives and microtomes? This small display on historic microscopy and slides will bring you into this tiny but fascinating world.






Macleay Museum
1 August 2008-August 2009

Above - Photomicrography by John Shewan, 1897, former Macleay Museum Curator.

Footprints in the Mythic Landscape: A bark painting story

The paintings made by artists and ceremonial leaders on bark are one of the most internationally recognised aspects of Aboriginal culture. This new selection of works follows the paths and mythic landscapes of ancestral beings from the broad religious tradition shared across Australia.

The unique threads of this religious tradition as they are expressed and shared by artists in these works are celebrated in this bringing together of artworks from across the peoples of the Northern Territory.


Macleay Museum
Ongoing 2009

Above - Barani of Groote Eylandt, Untitled (dune crossing), c.1946-47, collected by R.M. Berndt, ETP.2065

Permanent Exhibition

Macleay Reworked

This exhibition encapsulates the early purpose of museums - to exhibit the wonders of the world and its peoples. Housed in historic cedar cabinets within the Victorian surrounds of the Macleay Building, this exhibition is a unique opportunity to peak at the extraordinary diversity of the Macleay collections, from insects collected in the 1770s to medical instruments from Papua New Guinea and the University's first moves into computerisation.

Macleay Museum
Ongoing


Above - Photograph of Larus pacificus Latham, 1802, Pacific Gull, collected by George Masters, Elizabeth Bay, Sydney. Macleay Museum NHB.4615
© Robyn Stacey 2007
c-type photograph
Untitled
University Art Collection UA2007.13.