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{{Short description|Museum operator in Victoria, Australia}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}
{{Infobox museum
| name = Museums Victoria
| image = Melbourne Museum (217000837).jpeg
| caption = [[Melbourne Museum]], Museums Victoria's main campus
|mapframe=yes
|mapframe-caption=Interactive fullscreen map
|mapframe-zoom=12
|mapframe-marker=museum
|mapframe-wikidata=yes
|coordinates={{WikidataCoord|display=it}}
| former_name = Museum of Victoria, Museum Victoria
| established = 1854
|
| type = Natural history, cultural history, and science and technology
| website = [http://museumsvictoria.com.au museumsvictoria.com.au]
| founder = [[Frederick McCoy]]
| ceo = Lynley Crosswell
| publictransit =
}}
'''Museums Victoria''' is an organisation which operates three major state-owned [[museum]]s in [[Melbourne
[[File:Immigration Museum, Melbourne - Joy of Museums - External.jpg|thumb|Exterior of the [[Immigration Museum]], which occupies the former Melbourne Customs House.]]
[[File:Scienceworks Science Museum.jpg|thumb|[[Scienceworks Museum (Melbourne)|Scienceworks science and Technology Museum]]]]
[[File:Royal Exhibition Building Pic 05.jpg|thumb|The [[Royal Exhibition Building]], which is a World Heritage listed site.]]
== History ==
The museum traces its history back to the establishment of the "Museum of Natural and Economic Geology" by the [[Government of Victoria]], [[William Blandowski]] and others in 1854.
The Library, Museums and National Gallery Act 1869 incorporated the Museums with the [[State Library Victoria|Public Library]] and the [[National Gallery of Victoria]]; but this administrative connection was severed in 1944 when the Public Library, National Gallery and Museums Act came into force, and they became four separate institutions once again.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://guides.slv.vic.gov.au/slvhistory/museumgallerypro|title=The history of the State Library of Victoria|website=guides.slv.vic.gov.au|access-date=2020-04-23}}</ref>
Museums Victoria was founded in its current form under the Australian Museums Act (1983).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_act/ma1983125|title=Museums Act 1983|website=www.austlii.edu.au|access-date=2016-04-24}}</ref> Currently, Museums Victoria's State Collections holds over 17 million items, including objects relating to [[Indigenous Australians|Indigenous Australian]] and [[Pacific Islander]] cultures, geology, historical studies, palaeontology, technology & society, and zoology<ref>{{cite book| last = Clode| first = Danielle| title = Continent of Curiosities: A Journey Through Australian Natural History| year = 2006| publisher = Cambridge University Press| isbn = 978-0-521-86620-0 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/collections|title=Descriptions of the collections held at Museums Victoria|website=Museums Victoria Collections|language=en|access-date=2020-04-23}}</ref> Museums Victoria also contains a library collection that holds some of Australia’s rarest and finest examples of 18th and 19th century scientific monographs and serials.<ref>{{cite thesis| last = Stephens| first = Matthew Sean| title = The Australian Museum Library: its formation, function and scientific contribution, 1836-1917| year = 2013| publisher = University of New South Wales, School of Humanities| url=http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/fapi/datastream/unsworks:11593/SOURCE1}}</ref>
Significant events in the Museum's history include:
* 1854 – Founding of the "Museum of Natural and Economic Geology"
* 1856 – Collections moved to the [[University of Melbourne]] in Parkville by [[Frederick McCoy]]
* 1858 – McCoy appointed first "director" of the
* 1862 – New building opens on University site, museum renamed "National Museum of Victoria"
* 1869 – National Museum, embryotic Industrial & Technological (I&T) Museum, National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) and Public Library of Victoria merged into a single body
* 1870 – I&T Museum opened on Swanston Street site (behind the Public Library)<ref>{{cite web |title=Opening of the Industrial & Technological Museum, Melbourne, 9 September 1870 |url=https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/articles/16991 |website=Museums Victoria Collections}}</ref>
* 1893 – I&T Museum opens new building on Russell St as part of Library complex
* 1899 – National Museum moved to I&T Museum's building, and takes over its mineral collection; rest of I&T Museum put into storage
* 1915 – I&T Museum reopens in Library's now surplus Queens Hall, thanks largely to [[George Swinburne]] and [[John Monash]]
* 1927 – National Museum acquired the [[H. L. White Collection]] of Australian native bird eggs
* 1944 – Museums organisationally re-separated from Library, NGV and each other; all remain in one building
* 1945 – I&T Museum renamed Museum of Applied Science (MAS)
* 1946 – MAS takes over Melbourne Observatory
* 1969 – NGV moves to St Kilda Rd, MAS moves into its old buildings, Library gets back Queens Hall
* 1961 – Museum of Applied Science renamed Institute of Applied Science
* 1971 – Institute of Applied Science renamed Science Museum of Victoria
* 1981 – [[Melbourne Central railway station|Museum Station]] opened, providing train services
* 1983 – National Museum of Victoria and Science Museum of Victoria amalgamated to form the Museum of Victoria ('''NMV''')<ref>{{Cite web|title=Museum Victoria|url=https://www.gbif.org/grscicoll/institution/22c8fe88-400b-4e8a-92cd-f1c76683f5ba|website=GBIF}}</ref>
* 1992 – [[Scienceworks Museum (Melbourne)|Scienceworks]] opened in Spotswood
* 1997 – Swanston Street campus closed
* 1998 – Museum of Victoria renamed Museum Victoria; [[Immigration Museum|Immigration and Hellenic Antiquities Museum]] opened
* 2000 – [[Melbourne Museum]] at Carlton Gardens opened
* 2016 – Museum Victoria renamed Museums Victoria
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* 2002 – Dr [[J. Patrick Greene]]
==
The Museums Victoria Library collection was first established in the 1850s as a working collection for the Museum's curators, and has developed into one of the best collections of natural history books and journals in Australia. The library was located at [[University of Melbourne|Melbourne University]] until 1906 when it moved, with the museum, to be co-located with the [[State Library Victoria|Public Library]].<ref>{{cite thesis| last = Stephens| first = Matthew Sean| title = The Australian Museum Library: its formation, function and scientific contribution, 1836-1917| year = 2013| publisher = University of New South Wales, School of Humanities| url=http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/fapi/datastream/unsworks:11593/SOURCE1}}</ref>
Today, the library collection is located at [[Melbourne Museum]] and contains 40,000 titles, which includes around 1,000 titles that are considered to be rare due to one or a combination of factors, including: value; scarcity; aesthetic qualities; historic, scientific or institutional significance; fragility; or age.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/collections/16688 |title=Rare Books in Museums Victoria Collections |last=Webster|first=H|date=2019|website=Museums Victoria Collections|language=en|access-date=2020-04-23}}</ref> Collection strengths include natural history in the fields of zoology, geology and palaeontology, scientific expedition reports, society and institutional journal titles, Indigenous cultures of Australia and the Pacific, Australian history, technology, colonial and other exhibition catalogues, museum studies, and Museums Victoria publications.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://museumsvictoria.com.au/collections-research/library-and-archives/|title=Library and archives|website=Museums Victoria|language=en|access-date=2020-04-23}}</ref>
Many items from the Museums Victoria Library have been digitised for the [[Biodiversity Heritage Library]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/browse/contributor/MV#/titles|title=Browse Museums Victoria - Biodiversity Heritage Library|website=Biodiversity Heritage Library|language=en|access-date=2020-04-23}}</ref> as Museums Victoria is the home to the Australian node of this project. The digitisation operation is hosted by Museums Victoria and is nationally funded by the [[Atlas of Living Australia]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/collection/bhlau|title=BHL Australia|website=Biodiversity Heritage Library|language=en|access-date=2020-04-23}}</ref>
==Significant works==
{{gallery
|height=150 <!--landscape-->
|mode=packed <!--use same height-->
|File:Albertus Seba - Molucca Opossum, Didelphis molucca and Armadillo, Tolypeutes matacus - Google Art Project.jpg|A double plate from [[Albertus Seba]]'s ''Thesaurus''
|File:Helena Forde - Diamond Snake, Morelia spilotes - Google Art Project.jpg|Diamond Snake, ''Morelia spilotes'' from ''The Snakes of Australia'' by [[Gerard Krefft]]
|File:James Sowerby - Serrated Lobster, Cancer serratus - Google Art Project.jpg|Plate 8 from ''Zoology of New Holland'' by [[George Shaw (biologist)|George Shaw]]
|File:Voyage autour du monde (Pl. 10) (9005706045).jpg|Illustration of a potoroo from ''Voyage autour du monde'' by [[Louis de Freycinet]]
}}
{{gallery
|height=200 <!--portrait-->
|mode=packed <!--use same height-->
|File:James Whitley Sayer - Leadbeaters Cockatoo, Plyctolophus leadbeateri - Google Art Project.jpg|Chromolithograph from ''A Monograph of the Psittacidae'' by J.J. Halley
|File:Aurora Australis, 1908-09 BHL40240586.jpg|Frontispiece from ''Aurora Australis''
|File:Illustration from The Naturalist’s Miscellany by George Shaw, digitally enhanced by rawpixel-com 277.jpg|Granulated Cuttle illustration from ''The Naturalist's Miscellany'' by [[George Shaw (biologist)|George Shaw]]
|File:On the marsupial pouches, mammary glands and mammary foetus of the Echidna hystrix (Plate XXXIX) BHL48262790.jpg|Illustrated plate from ''On the marsupial pouches, mammary glands and mammary foetus of the Echidna hystrix'' by [[Richard Owen]]
}}
==Notes==
{{Reflist}}
==References==
* Wilkinson, I. (1996), "The Battle for the Museum: Frederick McCoy and the Establishment of the National Museum of Victoria at the University of Melbourne", ''Historical Records of Australian Science'', Vol.1, No.1, (January 1996), pp. 1–11. {{doi|10.1071/HR9961110001}}
==External links==
{{commons category}}
*[http://museumsvictoria.com.au/ Museums Victoria website]
*[https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/museum-victoria?hl=en Virtual tour of the Museums Victoria] provided by [[Google Arts & Culture]]
*[https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/collections Museums Victoria Online Collections]
{{MuseumVictoria}}
{{authority control}}
[[Category:1983 establishments in Australia]]
[[Category:Archaeological museums in Australia]]
[[Category:Ethnographic museums in Australasia]]
[[Category:Museum organizations]]
[[Category:Museums established in 1983]]
[[Category:Museums in Melbourne]]
[[Category:Natural history museums in Australia]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Technology museums in Australia]]
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