Nicholson Museum

Last updated

Nicholson Museum
Nicholson Museum - Joy of Museum.jpg
Entrance to the Nicholson Museum in the University of Sydney Quadrangle
Nicholson Museum
Former name
Museum of Antiquities
Established1860 (1860)
Dissolved28 February 2020 (2020-02-28)
Location University of Sydney Quadrangle, Parramatta Road, Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia
Coordinates 33°53′11″S151°11′20″E / 33.8864°S 151.1888°E / -33.8864; 151.1888
Type Archaeological museum
Collections
Collection size30,000+
Founder Sir Charles Nicholson
Director, University MuseumsDavid Ellis
(2013-2020)
Owner The University of Sydney

The Nicholson Museum was an archaeological museum at the University of Sydney home to the Nicholson Collection, the largest collection of antiquities in both Australia and the Southern Hemisphere. Founded in 1860, the collection spans the ancient world with primary collection areas including ancient Egypt, Greece, Italy, Cyprus, and the Near East. [1] The museum closed permanently in February 2020, and the Nicholson Collection is now housed in the Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney, open from November 2020. The museum was located in the main quadrangle of the University.

Contents

Introduction

Hathor capital from the Temple of Bubastis on display in the Nicholson Museum Hathor capital on display at the Nicholson Museum.jpg
Hathor capital from the Temple of Bubastis on display in the Nicholson Museum

The Nicholson Museum was named after its founder, Sir Charles Nicholson. In 1856-57, Nicholson traveled throughout Egypt and then Italy where he acquired the first thousand or so primarily ancient Egyptian, Greek, South Italian and Etruscan artefacts. [2] These he donated to the University in 1860. The museum's collection grew exponentially since this founding donation. Individual benefaction, donations, sponsored archaeological projects and curatorial acquisition have all contributed to the wealth of material in the Nicholson Collection. [1]

The museum had a mixture of permanent and temporary exhibition areas within its gallery. Permanent or ongoing exhibitions included: Egyptians, Gods and Mummies: Travels with Herodotus, Aphrodite's Island: Australian Archaeologists in Cyprus; The Etruscans: A Classical Fantasy; Tombs, Tells and Temples: Excavating the Near East as well as a permanent display of artefacts from the Greek and Italian Classical world. Temporary exhibitions included: LEGO Pompeii, featuring a large scale model of the site of Pompeii in LEGO and 50 Objects, 50 Stories – which was moved to Chau Chak Wing Museum upon the closing of Nicholson. [3]

The Nicholson Museum, along with its sister institutions, the Macleay Museum and the University Art Gallery, were united under a single director, David Ellis, in 2003 to form Sydney University Museums. [4] In 2005, Michael Turner was appointed Senior Curator.

Permanent collections

The permanent collections of the Nicholson Museum spanned the ancient world with primary collection areas including the Classical world of Greece and Italy, Egypt, Cyprus, the Near East and Northern Europe from the Neolithic to Medieval periods. The Collection also includes a significant historic photograph collection of over 1,350 glass negatives taken by former curator William J. Woodhouse. [5]

Egyptian collection

The ancient Egyptian collection included artefacts from a variety of ancient sites including Abydos, Alexandria, Bubastis, Fayum, Heliopolis, Memphis, Saqqara, and Thebes. [6] Egyptian material formed a large part of Sir Charles Nicholson's founding donation. He traveled throughout Egypt between 1856 and 1857 purchasing artefacts from dealers in Cairo and Luxor as well as collecting artefacts straight from sites, including Karnak where he collected a fragment of a red granite thought to be from Hatshepsut's obelisk. [7]

Cypriot collection

Beginning in 1860 with a single artefact from the original donation by Sir Charles Nicholson, the collection grew exponentially, especially under the curatorial direction of firstly William Woodhouse (honorary curator 1903-1938) [8] and then James Stewart (honorary curator 1954-1962). Many of the artefacts within the collection were sourced directly from Stewart's own excavations conducted at Bellapais Vounous, Karmi Palealona, Karmi Lapasta, Nicosia Ayia Paraskevi and Vasilia Kafkallia as well as from the excavations of at the sites of Myrtou Stephania and Myrtou Sphagion, conducted by Stewart's former student Basil Hennessy, who later became Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Sydney. As a result of these acquisitions, the Museum held many complete tomb groups of archaeological importance. [9]

Greek collection

The Nicholson Collection's Greek collections contains artefacts representative of the material culture of the Greek mainland, islands and surrounding regions, from the Bronze Age through to the Late Hellenistic period. During Sir Charles Nicholson's travels to Egypt and Europe between 1856 and 1858 he acquired, primarily in Rome, a range of Classical and Hellenistic Greek ceramics as well as terracotta figurines. In total over seventy significant Greek artefacts were included in the founding donation of the Nicholson Museum. Further material, representative of the Greek mainland and islands, was bought during the curatorship of A. D. Trendall. His proactive acquisition program involved purchasing a wide range of ceramic types of Greek origin as well as significant contributions of sherd material for teaching purposes sought from prominent museums and individual collectors and scholars, including Sir John Beazley. The collection was then expanded following a donation of hundreds of pottery fragments and small votive objects by the family of former curator William J Woodhouse in 1948. The majority of this material is thought to have been collected during Woodhouse's 1890s and 1930s trips to Greece, documented in the Woodhouse photographic collection. [10]

Italian collection

The Italian collection is representative of the diversity of the ancient Italian world with significant cultural material from Etruria, South Italy and the Roman World. From the museum's foundation the cultures of ancient Italy have been strongly represented in the collection. Sir Charles Nicholson spent considerable time in Rome collecting Latin inscriptions, Etruscan funerary urns and bronzes, South Italian vases and Roman lamps, figurines and ceramics. Additional large sculptural works were also acquired by Sir Charles including two life-sized togatus statues along with several fragmentary figures. The Italian collection was further developed with the acquisition of a significant corpus of South Italian vases by A.D. Trendall during his curatorial tenure. [11] Many of the significant pieces from the South Italian collection were comprehensively published in the first Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum of an Australian collection. [12]

Near Eastern collection

The Nicholson Museum's collection of Near Eastern artefacts represented many of the great cities and civilisations that flourished along the Levantine coast, across Mesopotamia and through to Pakistan and India. The Near Eastern collection began with just a handful of artefacts from Ur, donated by the British Museum in 1926. This was greatly expanded upon in the mid 20th century by the acquisition program of the curators A.D. Trendall and his successor James Stewart. Both curators wrote countless letters to museums and government agencies around the world requesting representative samples of artefacts to ensure the Nicholson Museum's holdings reflected the diversity of this expansive region. The University of Sydney also contributed financially to archaeological excavations and projects in the Near East, most notably Dame Kathleen Kenyon’s excavations at Jericho. In return for the University's support the Nicholson Museum received a consignment of objects at the end of each season including full tomb groups from the Bronze Age and rare finds such as our Neolithic over plastered skull. Other items have been acquired through generous donations of individual archaeologists, including Sir Leonard Woolley and Sir Flinders Petrie, as well as from archaeological institutes, museums and private donors. [13]

Temporary exhibitions

LEGO Pompeii

A modern display of Pompeii built with LEGO was featured in Nicholson museum. Professional LEGO builder Ryan McNaught assembled the work. The display showed Pompeii as it was the moment of destruction, as it was when rediscovered, and as it is today. The exhibit appears to be an attempt to appeal to contemporary audiences, and especially a younger generation, including current HSC ancient history students, as Pompeii is an early part of the curriculum taught. Upon seeing the exhibit it is apparent that a lot of work has gone into it (around 470 hours). The deep red glow – only noticeable from the rear of the piece – foreshadows the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which destroyed the town. The exhibit attracted new audiences to Nicholson Museum. [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Museum</span> National museum in London, England

The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present. Established in 1753, the British Museum was the first public national museum to cover all fields of knowledge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penn Museum</span> Archaeological museum

Penn Museum, formally known as The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, is an archaeology and anthropology museum at the University of Pennsylvania. It is located on Penn's campus in the University City neighborhood of Philadelphia, at the intersection of 33rd and South Streets. Housing over 1.3 million artifacts, the museum features one of the most comprehensive collections of Middle and Near-Eastern art in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manchester Museum</span> Museum in Manchester, England

Manchester Museum is a museum displaying works of archaeology, anthropology and natural history and is owned by the University of Manchester, in England. Sited on Oxford Road (A34) at the heart of the university's group of neo-Gothic buildings, it provides access to about 4.5 million items from every continent. It is the UK’s largest university museum and serves both as a major visitor attraction and as a resource for academic research and teaching. It has around 430,000 visitors each year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Secret Museum, Naples</span> Collection of sexually explicit finds from Pompeii

The Secret Museum or Secret Cabinet in Naples is the collection of 1st-century Roman erotic art found in Pompeii and Herculaneum, now held in separate galleries at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, the former Museo Borbonico. The term "cabinet" is used in reference to the "cabinet of curiosities" - i.e. any well-presented collection of objects to admire and study.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology</span> University museum in Berkshire, United Kingdom

The Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology is a museum of ancient Mediterranean archaeology, primarily that of ancient Greek civilisation but with smaller collections of Egyptian, Etruscan and Roman items. It contains one of the most important collections of ancient Greek pottery in the United Kingdom. The museum is part of the University of Reading's University Museums and Special Collections Services (UMASCS), and is located in and works closely with the university's Department of Classics. The museum is situated on the university's Whiteknights Campus, about 2 miles (3.2 km) from the centre of the English town of Reading, Berkshire. The museum is open to the public and entry is free.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rijksmuseum van Oudheden</span> National archaeological museum of the Netherlands

The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden is the national archaeological museum of the Netherlands, located in Leiden. It grew out of the collection of Leiden University and still closely co-operates with its Faculty of Archaeology. The museum calls itself "the national centre for archaeology" and focuses on ancient Egypt, the ancient Near East, the classical world of Greece, Etruria and Rome and the early Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Nicholson, 1st Baronet</span> Australian politician

Sir Charles Nicholson, 1st Baronet was an English-Australian politician, university founder, explorer, pastoralist, antiquarian and philanthropist. The Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney was named after him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Secretum (British Museum)</span> Former collection of sexually graphic items

The Secretum was a British Museum collection of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that held artefacts and images deemed sexually graphic. Many of the items were amulets, charms and votive offerings, often from pre-Christian traditions, including the worship of Priapus, a Greco-Roman god of fertility and male genitalia. Items from other cultures covered wide ranges of human history, including ancient Egypt, the classical era Greco-Roman world, the ancient Near East, medieval England, Japan and India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mensun Bound</span> British maritime archaeologist

Mensun Bound is a British maritime archaeologist born in Stanley, Falkland Islands. He is best known as director of exploration for two expeditions to the Weddell Sea which led to the rediscovery of the Endurance, in which Sir Ernest Shackleton and a crew of 27 men sailed for the Antarctic on the 1914–1917 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. The ship sank after being crushed by the ice on 21 November 1915. It was rediscovered by the Endurance22 expedition on 5 March 2022.

The Antikensammlung Berlin is one of the most important collections of classical art in the world, now held in the Altes Museum and Pergamon Museum in Berlin, Germany. It contains thousands of ancient archaeological artefacts from the ancient Greek, Roman, Etruscan and Cypriot civilizations. Its main attraction is the Pergamon Altar and Greek and Roman architectural elements from Priene, Magnesia, Baalbek and Falerii. In addition, the collection includes a large number of ancient sculptures, vases, terracottas, bronzes, sarcophagi, engraved gems and metalwork.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Emile Humbert</span> Dutch soldier and archaeologist (1771–1839)

Jean Emile Humbert was a Dutch lieutenant-colonel who can be credited with rediscovering ancient Carthage. As an agent for the Dutch government he procured vital parts of the collection of the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden. Humbert was awarded the Order of the Netherlands Lion for his archaeological work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Archaeological Museum, Florence</span> Archaeological museum of Florence, Italy

The National Archaeological Museum of Florence is an archaeological museum in Florence, Italy. It is located at 1 piazza Santissima Annunziata, in the Palazzo della Crocetta.

The Oriental Museum, formerly the Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art and Archaeology, is a museum of the University of Durham in England. The museum has a collection of more than 23,500 Chinese, Egyptian, Korean, Indian, Japanese and other far east and Asian artefacts. The museum was founded due to the need to house an increasing collection of Oriental artefacts used by the School of Oriental Studies, that were previously housed around the university. The museum's Chinese and Egyptian collections were 'designated' by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), now the Arts Council England as being of "national and international importance".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herculaneum</span> Roman town destroyed by eruption of Mount Vesuvius

Herculaneum is an ancient Roman town located in the modern-day comune of Ercolano, Campania, Italy. Herculaneum was buried under a massive pyroclastic flow in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museum of Classical Archaeology, Adelaide</span> Classical archaeology museum in South Australia

The Museum of Classical Archaeology is the teaching collection of the Department of Classics, Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Adelaide in South Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kelsey Museum of Archaeology</span> Archaeology museum in Ann Arbor, Michigan

The Kelsey Museum of Archaeology is a museum of archaeology located on the University of Michigan central campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the United States. The museum is a unit of the University of Michigan's College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. It has a collection of more than 100,000 ancient and medieval artifacts from the civilizations of the Mediterranean and the Near East. In addition to displaying its permanent and special exhibitions, the museum sponsors research and fieldwork and conducts educational programs for the public and for schoolchildren. The museum also houses the University of Michigan Interdepartmental Program in Classical Art and Archaeology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lego Pompeii</span>

LEGO Pompeii is notable for being among the largest of all Lego historical models. Lego Pompeii was developed by Ryan McNaught of Melbourne, Australia, a notable Lego artist known as "The Brickman."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chau Chak Wing Museum</span> Museum in Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia

The Chau Chak Wing Museum is a university museum at the University of Sydney, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museum of Archeology of the University of Pavia</span> Archeological museum in Pavia, Italy

The Museum of Archeology of the University of Pavia was established in 1819 and is, together with that of Padua, one of the oldest in Italy. The museum is located inside the ancient San Matteo hospital in Pavia.

References

  1. 1 2 "Nicholson Collection". Sydney University Museums: Collections. The University of Sydney . Retrieved 1 January 2020.
  2. ↑ Turner, M. (2012). "Sir Charles Nicholson: Who Do You Think You Are?". 50 Objects 50 Stories: Extraordinary Curiosities from the Nicholson Museum. Sydney: The University of Sydney. pp. 108–117.
  3. ↑ "Exhibitions". Sydney University Museums. The University of Sydney . Retrieved 1 January 2020.
  4. ↑ Bonham, B. (November 2003). "New Director of University Museums". Sydney University Museums Newsletter. Vol. 1. p. 2.
  5. ↑ Cambitoglou, A.; Turner, M. (2008). Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum. The Nicholson Museum, The University of Sydney. The Red Figure Pottery of Apulia. Sydney: Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens; The Nicholson Museum, The University of Sydney. p. 6.
  6. ↑ "Egyptian Collection". Nicholson Museum. The University of Sydney. 18 July 2013. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
  7. ↑ Sowada, K. (2006). "Sir Charles Nicholson: an Early Scholar-Traveller in Egypt". Egyptian Art in the Nicholson Museum. Sydney: Mediterranean Archaeology.
  8. ↑ Candace Richards, "Unexpected legacies: The collections of classicist William J. Woodhouse (1866–1937), then and now. Journal of the History of Collections 36, Issue 2, July 2024: 301–317. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhc/fhad045
  9. ↑ "Cypriot Collection". Nicholson Museum. The University of Sydney. 18 July 2013. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
  10. ↑ "Classical Collection". Nicholson Museum. The University of Sydney. 18 July 2013. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
  11. ↑ "Italian collection". Nicholson Museum. The University of Sydney. 18 July 2013. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
  12. ↑ "Nicholsohm Collection: Research". Sydney University Museums: Collections. The University of Sydney. 18 July 2013. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
  13. ↑ "Middle Eastern collection". Nicholson Museum. The University of Sydney. 18 July 2013. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
  14. ↑ "LEGO Pompeii". Nicholson Museum. The University of Sydney. 18 July 2013. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.