Review of Charlotte Smith and Benjamin Thomas, 'Visions of Colonial Grandeur: John Twycross at Melbourne's International Exhibitions', Museum Victoria, Melbourne, 2014, pbk, ISBN 9781921833236, xv + 153 pp, $39.95.
'Visions of Colonial Grandeur' is luscious in the images it offers of decorative and fine art items acquired by nineteenth century Melbourne merchant and collector, John Twycross, and in its detail about the 1880 and 1888 Melbourne exhibitions from which Twycross acquired many of his works. It also provides a detailed inventory of the nature and extent of the exhibits at both exhibitions, and locates those events within the broader phenomenon of international exhibitions and within the economic and social life of 1880s Melbourne. The book is prefaced by curator and author Charlotte Smith's commentary on her first contact with Twycross's great grandson, Will Twycross, and on her excitement as she realised the depth and extent of the collection being offered to Museum Victoria. She exudes that, at least until the date of that encounter (October 2008), "the museum had never been offered such a well-provenanced collection, nor one that illustrated so richly the fine and decorative art displays that dominated the foreign courts at Melbourne's two exhibitions" (p. ix). Here was a museum's delight: a well-provenanced collection, thematic, and connected to the nineteenth century exhibition buildings that now sit opposite the front door to Museum Victoria.
Imaging family memories: My Mum, her photographs, our memories
Exploring the 'photographic turn' in oral history, Janis Wilton's moving reflection on the interplay between oral history, memory, and photography, shows how family photographs were used not only as the triggers for memory, but as a means of recording objects in the life of her late mother.
People and Place: Local History
Local history as a genre tends to attract research and writing by two, often overlapping, groups. There are local residents who have a belief in the importance of documenting and telling stories about their locality, their home, their place. Some have formal training as historians; some are self-taught. The second group are professional historians, people who have some level of formal training in history as a discipline. They can be 'insiders', residents of the locality about which they are writing. They can also be 'outsiders'; professionals engaged for their expertise or who are attracted to the history of a locality for the ways in which it illuminates bigger issues. Across these groups, and across time, local history in Australia has demonstrated different preoccupations. There is the now familiar observation that, in its origins, local history was concerned with 'pioneers' - white, male, prominent local residents who are seen to lay the foundations for a particular locality. These men 'tame' the land, establish towns, create prosperous local businesses. These are histories of achievement and progress against tough circumstances.