Macleay Museum (1900)

Figure 7. Courtesy of the University of Sydney Archives, 1900 [G3_224_0348]. Macleay Museum. Photograph, https://www.sydney.edu.au/arms/archives/media/me_objects/4287.[1]

We have now arrived at the Macleay Museum, and this photograph was taken in 1900 (Fig. 7). Built between 1886 and 1887, the Macleay Museum was unique to the university, as it was the only building that was built at the request of a private individual.[2] The Hon. William Macleay wanted a building on the university grounds to house his family’s large 100-year-old natural history collection - the oldest of its kind in Australia today.[3] Macleay Museum was an outstanding display of nineteenth-century architecture – airy, naturally lit, fireproof and spacious.[4]  The contents of the Macleay Museum have now been moved over to the new Chau Chak Wing Museum which you passed earlier. Due to the size of the collection – the Macleay Museum previously was only ever able to display about 1% at any one time.[5]

     [1] “University Archives Mediabank.”

     [2] Kerr, Attenbrow, Stanborough, Ellsmore, and Marshall,  Appendix A, A30.

     [3] Kerr, Attenbrow, Stanborough, Ellsmore, and Marshall,  Appendix A, A30.

     [4] Peter Stanbury and Julian Holland, ed., Mr Macleay's Celebrated Cabinet: The History

Of The Macleays And Their Museum (Sydney: The Macleay Museum, 2006), 81, https://www.sydney.edu.au/content/dam/corporate/documents/chau-chak-wing/mr-macleays-celebrated-cabinet.pdf.

     [5] “Macleay Museum Closes Its Doors To Make Way For New Museum,” The University of Sydney, last modified November 22, 2016, https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2016/11/22/macleay-museum-closes-its-doors-to-make-way-for-new-museum.html.