Object Matters

In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by historian and author Dr Kiera Lindsey. Together they discuss her new book on colonial Sydney artist Adelaide Ironside titled Wild Love. Together they examine speculative history, writing biographies and art in  colonial New South Wales, and explore Adelaide's complex relationship with University of Sydney founders William Charles Wentworth and Sir Charles Nicholson. Guest: Dr Kiera Lindsey is a creative historian who works across the public and academic sectors. She works at the History Trust of SA (HTSA) as South Australia's History Advocate. She has over twenty years of research and writing experience in the area of nineteenth-century, Indigenous and women's histories and have also published nationally and internationally on the topics of speculative biography and life writing. She had served as Vice President of the History Council of New South Wales as well as a member of the Sydney Living Museum's Curatorial and Public Engagement Advisory Committee. She features regularly on radio and podcasts, and was a consultant and on-camera historian for a 4-part series entitled LAWLESS: The Real Bushrangers which first aired on Foxtel's History Channel in 2017. Kiera has also designed two online public history courses on the GLAM sector. Wild Love was published through Allen & Unwin in November 2023, joining her first book The Convict's Daughter, and a volume coedited with Donna Brien on the topic of speculative biography. Wild Love was the produce of an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) while she was at University of Technology Sydney (UTS).  Follow Kiera on X: @LindseyKiera Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on X and Instagram. Object details: Pietro Tenerani, life-size statue of William Charles Wentworth, marble, 1861. Purchased with funds from public subscription 1861 [UA1861.1]

In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Dr Anastasia Christophilopoulou, an archaeologist and curator at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and the 2023 Sir Charles Nicholson Lecturer. Together they discuss the Being An Islander project and associated Islanders: The Making of the Mediterranean exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum, as well as Anastasia's archaeological interests in material culture in island environments, including Crete, Sardinia and Cyprus, where they discuss an Archaic period cult sanctuary site called Salamis Toumba. Guest: Dr Anastasia Christophilopoulou is Curator of Greece, Rome and Cyprus at the Department of Antiquities of the Fitzwilliam Museum. She is responsible for research and exhibition projects and permanent displays in the fields of Greek, Cypriot and Roman collections of the museum. Anastasia gained her PhD in Classical Archaeology at the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge (2008) and was a postdoctoral researcher at the Topoi Excellence Cluster, Freie Universität Berlin (2009-2010), prior to joining the Fitzwilliam Museum. She served as leader of the 4-year research project ‘Being an Islander': Art and Identity of the large Mediterranean Islands, (2019-2023) which aimed to critically re-examine the concept of island life through material culture. In 2023 she visited the University of Sydney as the Chau Chak Wing Museum's Sir Charles Nicholson Lecturer. Follow Anastasia on X: @AChristophilop1 Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on X and Instagram. Objects details: Fragmentary human head, terracotta, Salamis Toumba, Cyprus, Cypro-Archaic, 750-475 BC. Donated by the Museum of Classical Archaeology, University of Cambridge 1947 [NM47.388]

In this special episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Egyptian archaeologist Dr Heba Abd el-Gawad. Together they discuss the unique role ancient Egypt plays in museums globally, the missing modern Egyptian voice in ancient Egyptian exhibitions, decolonising collections and her work as part of the AHRC-funded project ‘Egypt's Dispersed Heritage: views from Egypt', partnering with UK museums and archives to communicate the history of cultural dispersal and examining opportunities to create dialogue with modern Egyptian communities. Guest: Dr Heba Abd el-Gawad is an Egyptian archaeologist. She is the project researcher for the AHRC funded project: ‘Egypt's Dispersed Heritage: Views from Egypt' at the Institute of Archaeology, University College of London aimed at amplifying the voice, visibility, and validity of modern Egyptian communities in UK museums. She has previously led various curatorial roles in the UK. Heba specializes in the history of Egyptian archaeology focusing on the past and present Egyptian perceptions and representations of the collection and distribution of archaeological finds from Egypt to the world. Follow @GawadHeba on X. Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on X and Instagram.

For this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Dr Natali Pearson of the University of Sydney's Sydney Southeast Asia Centre (SSEAC). Natali is a critical heritage scholar, so together they discuss her work on the maritime heritage of Southeast Asia, including her own work and her recent publication on the Belitung shipwreck in Indonesian waters, and the importance of Australians knowing our nearest neighbours better. Moving from Southeastern Asia to the Mediterranean, together they discuss the second century BC transport amphora (Greco-Italic style) covered with shell encrustations, and muse upon the sea's influence on human cultural history, trade and transportation of commodities and the importance of the encrustation as part of the object's history. Guest: Dr Natali Pearson is a critical heritage studies scholar at the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre, specialising in maritime heritage in Southeast Asia, and an Honorary Associate in the Discipline of Archaeology. She hosts the SSEAC Stories podcast. Her research interests and experience include the ethics, provenance and laundering of underwater cultural heritage; heritage diplomacy; and the management of shared wrecks. Her book Belitung: The Afterlives of a Shipwreck was published in 2023 by University of Hawaii Press. She is the President of the Indonesia Council and an Expert Member, International Council on Monuments and Sites-International Committee on Archaeological Heritage Management. Follow Natali on X: @sea_greeny Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on X and Instagram. Objects details: 'Greco-Italic' Transport Amphora with shell encrustations, Gulf of Naples near Baiae, Italy, c. 200-130 BC. Donated by Sir Charles Nicholson 1860 [NMR.1031.1-7]

For this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by zoologist and 2023 Macleay Miklouho-Maclay Fellow Dr Angel Luis Viloria Petit, who has recently completed his research in Sydney, examining historic collections of butterflies.  The Chau Chak Wing Museum houses the natural history collection of Alexander Macleay (1767-1848) largely amassed prior to his arrival in the colony of NSW in 1826. Many of the insects were acquired by Macleay from other naturalists, including Dru Drury (1725-1804) who published three volumes on butterflies. In his three months in Sydney, Venezuelan-based Dr Viloria has examined thousands of specimens in the collection and has successfully identified more than 260 primary type specimens, many from Drury's collections dating back to the 1770-1790s, identifiable from hand-painted illustrations from within those publications. Together they discuss Angel's career and research, the history of insect collecting, and early European collectors and the process of identifying primary type specimens in two hundred year old collections of butterflies using historical hand-painted illustrations. Read more on Dr Viloria's research while in Sydney. Guest: Dr Angel Viloria is a zoologist and entomologist at the Ecological Centre in Caracas, Venezuela and Senior Researcher at the Centre of Ecology of the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Investigations (IVIC), specialising in South American lepidoptera. He received a first degree in Biology from the Universidad del Zulia, Maracaibo, Venezuela, and his Doctorate of Philosophy (zoology) from a joint program of the University of London (King's College) and the Natural History Museum, UK. He has pursued investigations on a variety of subjects related to zoology, theoretical biogeography, history and philosophy of the biological sciences. However, his main interest is on the systematics of butterflies of Tropical America, especially the Andean browns, members of the subfamily Satyrinae. In 2019-2020 he held the Simón Bolívar Visiting Chair at the University of Cambridge. He is is author and co-author of 110+ scientific papers, 210+ popular science articles and 8 books, including the standard reference, Catalogue of the hostplants of the Neotropical butterflies. Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. Objects details: The Dru Drury collection of butterflies and moths within the Macleay natural history collections. 

In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Chau Chak Wing Museum intern Isabella Trope. Isabella is a student at Macquarie University and has been researching a collection of ceramic sherds in the museum's education collection donated by Judy Birmingham in preparation of them being used in school education Object-Based Learning programs. In this conversation they discuss the influence of pioneering Australian archaeologist Judy Birmingham and her work at Irrawang pottery workshop near Raymond Terrace, where between 1833–56 James King produced commercial ceramics. In 1967 Birmingham lead an archaeological excavation conducted by the student Archaeological Society of the University of Sydney; the first ever historical archaeological excavation in Australia. They talk about museum internships and about developing educational activities with school curricula links, as well as the important role Judy played in the development of archaeology in Australia. Guest: Isabella Trope is a history and archaeology student at Macquarie University who has recently completed an internship at the Chau Chak Wing Museum. She works as a Volunteer Content Producer for Historic Houses Association of Australia. Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on X and Instagram. Object details: Collection of 23 sherds from the 1967 archaeological excavations at Irrawang, New South Wales, donated by Associate Professor Judy Birmingham, 2009 [IRN268679]. Also discussed is a bronze axe, Iron Age, 1000-600 BC, from Luristan, Iran [NM48.244].

As the Chau Chak Wing Museum gets set to host the UMAC2023 conference, for this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by UMAC President and Chau Chak Wing Museum Research Fellow Dr Andrew Simpson. UMAC University Museums and Collections, an International Committee of ICOM (International Council of Museums) was founded in 2001 to advocate for university museums and teaching and research collections for museums around the globe. In this discussion, Craig and Andrew talk about the role of museums on a campus from a global perspective, UMAC as an organisation and the aims and ambitions of the 2023 iteration of the annual conference. They also speak at length about Andrew's new book, The Museums and Collections of Higher Education (Routledge 2023). Guest: Dr Andrew Simpson is President of UMAC University Museums and Collections and has extensive experience in higher education, heritage, museums and galleries . Andrew has a science back and he began his museum career as a curator at the University of Queensland. At Macquarie University he introduced and developed Australia's first undergraduate degree program in Museum Studies followed by named postgraduate degree programs. These programs were delivered by the Science Faculty and designed as an alternative to the usual art history / cultural heritage study to career path. It produced graduates for the sector with an enhanced understanding of science in museum practice. His research interests are the history, role and functions of museums in society, in particular, university museums, museum education, natural history and the public understanding of science, as well as his own scientific interests.   Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram.

For this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Chau Chak Wing Museum colleague Jan Brazier, the Curator of History Collections. Together they discuss a carte-de-visite featuring a photograph of a bird taken by Sydney studio photographer Thomas Skelton Glaister in 1863. Not any bird, this is the first ever photograph of the endangered Didunculus strigirostris or tooth-billed pigeon. Jan leads us on a journey into the research she has undertaken about this image, tracking from Samoa to Sydney to London an meeting influential figures in 19th century natural history, and providing the story as to this remarkable bird's significance. Read more on the research into the three copies of the carte-de-visite. Brazier, Jan (2019). A rare bird - The tooth-billed pigeon Didunculus strigirostris. Muse: Art, Culture, Antiquities, Natural History. (23), pp. 4-5 Guest: Jan Brazier is curator of the History Collections, which comprise of the Historic Photographs Collection and the Science Collection. Previously, she was the archivist at the Australian Museum. Jan's earlier career was as a research assistant in the area of Australian history for the Department of History, Australian National University, and then for Professor Ken Inglis on his major histories of the ABC and war memorials in the Australian landscape. Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. Objects details: Carte-de-visite; photograph of the bird 'Didunculus strigirostris', the tooth-billed pigeon from Samoa where it is known as manu mea; photographer T Glaister,1863. Donated by John Pearson Ramsay 1996 [HP96.79] See also HP83.74.27 and HP83.74.28 both donated as part of the Ramsey Collection in 1974.

In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Chau Chak Wing Museum colleague Julian Woods, the museum's Public Engagement Co-ordinator. Julian discusses a photograph in the collection, acquired from the University of Sydney Union art collection in 2019, which Julian had previously featured in an exhibition he co-curated. The photography by Michael Riley (1960-2004) is a portrait of artist Tracey Moffatt taken in the mid-1980s. They discuss the work of both Riley and Moffatt, photography in Australia and the significance of the photograph within the context of the Boomalli Aboriginal Artist Co-operative. Guest: Julian Woods is Public Engagement Co-ordinator for the Chau Chak Wing Museum. In this role he assists with the development of public programs, education, and other outreach activities. Before joining the Museum, he worked at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery in audience engagement and curatorial. He has over 10 years experience working and volunteering in the arts and cultural sector and completed a BA at the University of Sydney with Honours in Art History and a Major in History, focusing on Australian art and Australian history. Follow him on @julianwoods92 Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. Objects details: Tracey (Moffatt) hands up, Michael Riley, 1986, positive print – gelatin silver. Donated by University of Sydney Union 2019, University Art Collection [UA2019.144] 

In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Chau Chak Wing Museum colleague Kelsey McMorrow, who is curatorial assistant, science collections. Kelsey discusses two x-ray tubes made in the early twentieth century. Together they discuss the importance of science collections and presenting science history in museums. The cover the discovery and the development of x-rays in the late 19th century, the early use of x-rays and the gradual realisation of the health implications of unsafe x-ray usage. They also cover the fascinating story of x-ray pioneer Harry W. Cox, who's firm manufactured the two x-ray tubes in the collection discussed. Guest: Kelsey McMorrow is Curatorial Assistant, Science Collections, Chau Chak Wing Museum. In this role Kelsey assists in the curation, research and management of the Museum's science collections, working most closely with the Macleay Collection of scientific instruments and apparatus. Kelsey is also passionate about museum accessibility and is a member of the Museum's Accessibility and Inclusion Working Group. Kelsey completed her BA/BSc at UNSW, studying history and psychology. She also completed her Master of Museum and Heritage Studies at the University of Sydney.  Hear Kelsey interviewed for the UMAC Futures series on global early career university museum employees. Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. Objects details: Electromagnetic instrument; Cox's x-ray tube, 1909-10917, Harry W Cox Ltd, London. Transferred to the collection in 1972 [SC1972.2] Electromagnetic instrument; gas x-ray tube, 1896-1910, Harry W Cox Ltd, London. Donated by Mr John Robinson 2021 [SC2021.10] (pictured)

Marking National Archaeology Week 2023, in this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Associate Professor Lesley Beaumont, a classical archaeologist in the School of Humanities, in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney. Together they discuss one of the most iconic objects in the Chau Chak Wing Museum, the Nicholson Hermes. This Roman marble statue of the 1st century BC or 1st century AD is carved from white marble, the surface of which is deeply weathered through contact with running water. Lesley and Craig discuss archaeology in the 21st century, the Zagora Archaeological Project, Greek and Roman art, the famed sculptor Praxiteles and teaching students in the museum. Guest: Associate Professor Lesley Beaumont is Associate Professor in the Discipline of Archaeology at the University of Sydney. Prior to taking up her position at the University, she was Assistant Director of the British School at Athens. Her publications include Childhood in Ancient Athens. Iconography and Social History (Routledge: 2012, 2015), and a Routledge Handbook on Children in Antiquity, co-edited with Matthew Dillon and Nicola Harrington. Her current archaeological fieldwork focuses on the Early Iron Age settlement site of Zagora on the Greek island of Andros. She serves as a Council Member of the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens, and as an Expert Examiner for the Australian Government's Office for the Arts under the Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act 1986. Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. Object details: The Nicholson Hermes, statue of an unknown man sculpted after Hermes by Praxiteles, white marble, Roman, 1st century BC - 1st century AD, Smyrna, Anatolia. Donated by the sons of Sir Charles Nicholson 1935 [NM35.120]. View the statue in 3D.

In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Classics PhD candidate and 2023 Fellow of the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens Alyce Cannon. They discuss two ancient vases from Athens relevant to Alyce's current doctoral research on dogs in ancient Greece. Using two choes (ancient small, squat wine vessels) in the University of Sydney's collection they discuss how dogs were depicted in Classical Athens, what role dogs had in society and the correlation between a new sense of childhood and relationships with pets in the traumatic era of the end of Classical experiment in Athens following plague and the decades long Peloponnesian War and examine the reasons why dogs may have been depicted on these vessels that symbolise childhood. Guest: Alyce Cannon is undertaking a PhD in the Discipline of Classics and Ancient History under the supervision of Professor Julia Kindt, as a part of the ARC Future Fellowship Project on “The Humanity of Man and the Animal in Ancient Greece”. Alyce's thesis is entitled: “KYNIKA: Thinking With the Dog in Ancient Greece”. She is currently in Athens as the 2023 Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens Fellow. Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. Objects details: Attic red figure chous, c. 425-400BC, ceramic, Athens, Greece. Donated by the Classical Association 1946 [NM46.49]. Illustrated. Attic red figure chous, attributed to Crawling Boy Work-shop, Class of the Sydney Chous, c. 430-420BC, , Group of Karlsruhe 66/140, c. 350-300 BC, ceramic, Athens, Greece. Donated by Sir Charles Nicholson 1860 [NM98.37]

In this special episode of Object Matters, hear a live recording of a public event held in March 2023, when visual artist Mikala Dwyer is interviewed by Toni Ross about the Chau Chak Wing Museum's fourth contemporary art project titled Mikala Dwyer: Penelope and the Seahorse.  The exhibition at the Chau Chak Wing Museum is an aquatic-themed installation bristling with allusions to hippocampus, the genus name of the seahorse, derived from the Ancient Greek meaning ‘horse' and ‘sea monster'. In a wide ranging discussion they cover Mikala's practices, memory associations, the endangered status of seahorses, how she engaged with museum collection items including seahorse specimens (for example MHF.266) and ancient Greek vases depicting maritime mythology (for example NM98.41 and NMR.1021.1 both of which are in the exhibition), and how the name hippocampi was used for a structure within the brain that is shaped like a seahorse. Humans and other mammals have two hippocampi, one in each of the temporal lobes. We are always with seahorses. Guest: Mikala Dwyer was born in Sydney in 1959 and now lectures at RMIT in Melbourne. Mikala Dwyer has exhibited widely in Australia and internationally since the 1980s and is known for her distinctive experiments in sculpture, installation, and performance art.  Her practice is predominantly installation-based, in which she constructs idiosyncratic, personal spaces within the conventional architecture of the gallery, using materials that have a strong association with the body. Mikala is interviewed by curator Dr Toni Ross, Honorary Senior Lecturer (Art Theory), Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW. Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. Exhibition details: Mikala Dwyer: Penelope and the Seahorse (until October 2023)

For this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by university administrator, historian and former museum administrator Dr Toner Stevenson. Toner is the co-author with Dr Nick Lomb, of the new book Eclipse Chasers (2023). Using a coin of the Roman emperor Nerva, minted in 96 AD when he came to power, they discuss how his funeral two years later coincided with a solar eclipse and how humans have interacted with eclipses for millennia. From Australian First Nation astronomy to the successful 1922 Australian scientific expeditions to capture data to prove Einstein's theory that gravity could bend the fabric of time and space - a project commemorated in its centenary year last year in postage stamps and in minted coins - bringing us back to Nerva's coin. Guest: Dr Toner Stevenson is Head of the School of Humanities in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney. She is also a Honorary Associate in the Discipline of History at the school. She gained her doctorate in Social Sciences in 2016, after a long career in museums with leadership roles at the the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, including the Sydney Observatory where she was able to combine her museology interests with her passion for astronomy. She witness a total solar eclipse in 2012.   Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. Objects details: Silver Denarius of Nerva, 96 AD, minted in Rome, Italy. Acquired before 2004 [NM2004.1667]

On this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by art historian and current University of Sydney Museum and Heritage Studies Program postgraduate student Dr Ksenia Radchenko. Ksenia is also a museum educator. Ksenia gained her PhD in Russian art history from the University of Southern California. However on Object Matters we are not discussing 20th century Soviet art. Instead we discuss her internship with the Chau Chak Wing Museum on more than 800 electrotype coins purchased from the British Museum in 1945 but remain uncatalogued.   Ksenia takes us through what electrotypes are, why they were made for research and teaching and an overview of the collection of electrotype coins in Sydney and their history. She discusses the importance of internships in museum research and then Ksenia takes us on a deep dive of a copy of a coin from Lydia in modern Turkey which features the earliest known portrait of a ruler in the history of coinage. Can we use copies to learn about the past? Ksenia thinks we can. Guest: Dr Ksenia Radchenko is an art historian and museum educator. In 2023 she completed an internship with the Chau Chak Wing Museum. Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. Objects details: Electrotype of a coin, c. 480-400 BC, Lydia Turkey. IRN 344404.

For this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Classicist and Greek cultural historian Professor Alastair Blanshard, from the University of Queensland. They discuss two of Alastair's favourite vases in the Chau Chak Wing Museum collection: two fish plates from ancient Magna Grecia (South Italy), NM46.55 and NM80.48. Together they cover the symbolism of the depiction of seafood in a social context in the ancient Greek world, the function of these vases, and the role of food in ancient societies as well as the joys of taking up fishing as a hobby later in life. Guest: Professor Alastair Blanshard is Paul Eliadis Chair of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Queensland. As a Greek cultural historian, Alastair's research interests include the social and cultural history of ancient Athens, Greek gender and sexuality, epigraphy, the classical tradition and the reception of the past in the modern world. He has authored books including Classical World: All That Matters (2016), Classics on Screen: Ancient Greece and Rome on Film (2012) and Hercules: Scenes from an Heroic Life (2005). Follow Alastair on Twitter at @AlastairBlan Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. Objects details: Campanian fish plate, The Torpedo Painter, c. 325-300 BC, ceramic, Campania, Italy. Purchased with funds from the Friends of the Nicholson Museum 1946  [NM46.55]. Illustrated. Apulian fish plate, Group of Karlsruhe 66/140, c. 350-300 BC, ceramic, Apulia, Italy. Donated 1980 [NM80.48]

In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Egyptologists and archaeologists Dr Melanie Pitkin and Pauline Stanton to discuss stelae and what they can tell us about ancient Egyptian society. Focusing on a stele (NMR.53) donated by collection founder Sir Charles Nicholson, they discuss the function, manufacture and meaning of stelae for ancient Egyptians. This stele features an image of the deceased Ahmose is sitting on a chair with offerings presented to him by his "brother" Ahmose. Behind the latter stands a woman called Ipdjuju who could either be the his wife or the daughter of the deceased. It is an insight into how Egyptians wanted to be remembered. Together they also discuss the current interdisciplinary Egyptian Stelae Project run out of the Chau Chak Wing Museum which has been generously supported by the Centre for Ancient Cultures, Heritage and the Environment (CACHE) at Macquarie University, and explain how important these objects are.  Guests: Dr Melanie Pitkin is the Senior Curator of the Nicholson Collection at the Chau Chak Wing Museum. She holds a PhD in Egyptology from Macquarie University and a Masters in Museum Studies from the University of Sydney. Prior to joining the Chau Chak Wing Museum, she worked at the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Powerhouse Museum. Pauline Stanton is a doctoral researcher at Macquarie University. She teaches ancient Egyptian languages at Macquarie and Monash Universities.   Follow Melanie on Twitter at @melanie_misr Follow Pauline on Twitter at @pauline03373392 Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. Object details: limestone stele, Thebes, Egypt, 18th Dynasty (1550 BC - 1295 BC). Donated by Sir Charles Nicholson, 1860 [NMR.53]

In this episode of Object Matters, the Brickman, Ryan McNaught joins host Dr Craig Barker to discuss his recent build currently displayed in the Chau Chak Wing Museum, Lego Tutankhamun. Together they discuss his career as a professional Lego builder, why he has worked with museums, how Lego is enjoyable for fans of all ages, and whether fun models like this have a role within a museum context. They also discuss past builds including Lego Colosseum, The Lego Acropolis and Lego Pompeii which is currently displayed at the Chau Chak Wing Museum as part of the Roman Spectres exhibition. All models have much media attention over the years and have served well as educational resources, but now is a chance to speak to their creator about how he has worked with museums over the years. Guest: Ryan McNaught, aka The Brickman, is the only professionally certified Lego Builder in Australia.  Since 2019 Ryan has been the judge on Channel 9's TV series, Lego Masters Australia. Follow Ryan on Instagram and @_TheBrickman on Twitter or visit The Brickman website. Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. Object details: Lego Tutankhamun. A model of the lid of middle coffin found in  Tutankhamun's tomb (KV62) by Howard Carter in 1923. Created by The Brickman in 2022 from 14,534 Lego bricks.

In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by museum archaeologist Associate Professor Alice Stevenson to discuss museum archaeology and a number of projects Alice is directing which is examining Egypt's dispersed heritage and how museums narrate collections of Egyptology. In a wide ranging conversation they talk about decolonising Egyptian collections, contemporary art in museum installations and finding ways to engage community voices in museum exhibitions. Guest: Associate Professor Alice Stevenson teaches and researches museum studies at the Institute of Archaeology at UCL in London. Her research interests include museum archaeology, the history of collections, human remains in museums and museum and source communities. She recently edited The Oxford Handbook of Museum Archaeology (2022), which brings together some 50 international scholars and professionals to present an original transnational reference point for critical engagements with the legacies of, and futures for, global archaeological collections. Follow Dr Stevenson on Twitter @aliceestevenson Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram.

In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by cultural historian Dr Cindy McCreery. 2022 is a particularly important year for the British royal family with the Platinum Jubilee. It is also a period of transition for the institution. Together for this episode Cindy and Craig discuss a commercially produced children's lantern slide of the first decade of the twentieth century featuring King Edward VII, Queen Alexandria and the Prince of Wales, later to be George V, and his wife Mary. Produced by W. Butcher and Sons, c. 1901-1907, the slide provides a remarkable insight into another time of transition for the monarchy, following the death of Victoria and the royal family's use of modern technologies to present themselves to the public in a reassuring manner. The conversation covers colonialism and royalty, mass consumption in the early twentieth century, Australia's complex relationship with the monarchy and the way historians can use materiality to better understand the past. Guest: Dr Cindy McCreery is a Senior Lecturer in the Discipline of History in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney. She is a cultural historian with an interest in visual and material culture of both the maritime British Empire and British royalty. She is author and editor of several books including The Satirical Gaze: Prints of Women in Late Eighteenth-Century England (2004) and 2020's Monarchies and Decolonisation in Asia and convened this year's 'Going Platinum: Australian responses to the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, 1952-2022' conference. Follow @DrCindyMcCreery on Twitter. Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. Object details: Magic lantern slide strip, coloured; rectangular glass slide with 4 images; royal family; portraits of King, Queen, Prince and Princess of Wales; from "Primus' Magic Lantern Slides set series VI Nursery Tales, produced by Butcher & Sons, c. 1901-1907 [SC1987.12.6.6] Read more about children lantern slides in the Chau Chak Wing Museum collection.

For this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Curator of Natural History Collections at the Chau Chak Wing Museum Dr Anthony Gill. In the lead up to National Science Week and the new exhibition Australian Seashores opening at the Chau Chak Wing Museum in August 2022, they discuss a photograph in the collection taken in the late 1940s in preparation for the book Australian Seashores. Professor William John Dakin (1883-1950), professor of zoology at the University of Sydney from 1929 until 1950, along with Elizabeth Pope and Isobel Bennett compiled the book Australian Seashores which was first published posthumously in 1952. Among the many photographs donated to the Macleay Museum collection in the 1980s by Dakin's family was an image of snapping shrimps taken in the 1940s. Tony and Craig discuss the snapping shrimp and the discovery of how the shrimp is able to create a noise by closing its claw so rapidly it creates shock waves, the importance of natural history collections, curating natural history exhibitions, Dakin's work and legacy and the role of citizen scientists. Guest: Dr Anthony Gill is a fish taxonomist, with decades of museum experience in Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. He is Curator, Natural History Collections at the Chau Chak Wing Museum. Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. Object details: Photograph of two snapping shrimps with a third claw next used in the book Australian Seashores in 1952 [HP84.7.38.1]

This episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Italian renaissance historian Dr Kathleen Olive to discuss Il Spinario, or the ‘Boy with Thorn'.  Il Spinario is one of the most famous works of bronze to survive from the Hellenistic-Roman world, a depiction of a young boy contemplating a thorn as he removes it from the sole of his foot. The ‘original' ancient bronze is now in the Palazzo del Conservatori in Rome. The Chau Chak Wing Museum is home to a bronze copy of the Roman statue produced by the Fondere Artistiche Riunite in the early 20th century. Between ancient Rome and 20th century Australia, the statue, and its many copies both ancient and modern, has inspired artists and storytellers. Kathleen and Craig discuss the long history of the bronze statue of the boy and its influence on the Renaissance and modern worlds and why the statue has become so popular. Guest: Dr Kathleen Olive is a popular educator on Italian art, history and culture, and presents on these subjects at the Italian Institute of Culture, Sydney, the Art Gallery of NSW and across Australia as a national lecturer for the Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Society. For many years, she has led cultural tours to Italy, France, Spain and Japan, and she is an honorary research fellow in the Department of Italian Studies at the University of Sydney. Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. Object details: Bronze cast of Il Spinario (The Thorn-Puller), produced by the Fondere Artistiche Riunite, Naples, Italy in the early 20th century [NM2008.27] The discussion also covers a photograph in the collection of a copy of Il Spinario in marble in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney photographed by Kerry & Co. between 1890-1915 [HP83.60.119] The image is of its 3D recorded form accessible via Sketchfab.  

This episode of Object Matters marks National Archaeology week. Host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Madeline Robinson, Support Officer for the Department of Archaeology at the University of Sydney. In recent years Madeline has overseen a project of recording a number of Chau Chak Wing Museum objects in 3D to be used in digital teaching of undergraduate courses.  Photogrammetry is a technique that creates accurate and fully textured 3D models from photographs. It can be used to record both landscapes and objects of all sizes; allowing 3D prints and orthoimages (scaled images without distortion or perspective). Madeline discusses the role of photogrammetry in archaeology and museum contexts, and the role of digital archaeology more generally. Together in depth they discuss how she has recorded one of the museum's numismatic items, a silver coin from Classical Athens and the complexities of recording a small object n 3D through marrying together hundreds of individual photographs and then how that digital recording may be used to allow greater access to the collection. In the discussion they prove that a digital recording of object matters as much as the object itself when it comes to engagement, teaching and research. Together they discuss new ways of seeing old objects, in celebration of National Archaeology Week. Guest: Madeline Robinson is Support Officer for the Department of Archaeology at the University of Sydney. She has considerable archaeological field experience in Australia and abroad and manages the archaeology lab at the university. She also manages the @sydneyarchaeology social media account on Instagram and can be followed on her personal Twitter account @MGP_Robinson. Host: Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. Object details: Athenian silver tetradrachm, Athens, Greece, 449-404 BC.  Obverse: Head of Athena facing right; reverse: owl standing facing right, olive sprig top left and moon to right. Acquired before 2004 [NM2004.655] The image is of its 3D recorded form accessible via Sketchfab.

In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by art historian and author Nicholas Croggon. They speak on the Power Institute, the Power Collection and the Light and Darkness exhibition. Nick discusses a work in the Power Collection by American artist Alan Sonfist. Sonfist is a US based artist most often associated with the birth of the Land or Earth Art movement. Crystalline enclosure was created in 1970, early in Sonfist's career. The work features a glass globe with a mineral compound inside. As the air around it heats up, the compound sublimes into a gas eventually crystallising on the curved walls of the globe. When the crystal lattice increases its density, parts of the compound drop back down to pile again in the neck, whereupon the cycle begins again. We are invited by Sonfist to observe a process. Nick explains how the work in Sydney was part of Sonfist's broader project of making visible our entanglement in the processes of the natural world. Nick also explores his interest in the language of visual culture and its relationship with human psychology through the work in the Chau Chak Wing Museum.   Guest: Nick Croggon is Events and Programs Officer at The Power Institute. He is an art historian, editor and doctoral researcher. He is co-founder of Discipline journal and a Sydney edition of Memo Review.     Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram.     Object details: Alan Sonfist, Crystaline enclosure, mixed media - iodine crystals, para-dichloro benzene crystals, gases, silicone, glass, 1970. Purchased with funds from the J W Power Bequest 1970. J W Power collection, The University of Sydney, managed by Museum of Contemporary Art. [PW1970.39]    Read Nick's catalogue entry on Crystalline enclosure.

In this episode of Object Matters Lauren Poole, a writer and disabled postgraduate student of museum studies at the University of Sydney joins host Dr Craig Barker. Together they speak about the more than 100 rubber fragments of the "Cotton aerodynamic anti-G (CAAG) flying suit" in the collection. Designed during World War Two at the University of Sydney by the Professor of Physiology between 1942 and 1955, named Frank Cotton, , the suit was produced in conjunction with the Royal Australian Air Force to minimise the effects of high-speed flying on pilots and to prevent blackouts. Representing a remarkable career Cotton (1890-1955) has also been inducted in the Australian Sports Hall of Fame for his contribution to sports science.  Although the Cotton Suit was designed for aviation use, Lauren sees it conceptually as a precursor to sequential compression devices (SCDs) used in treatment of blood pooling and to improve blood circulation in the legs. Lauren asks us to challenge ableism within a museum context. Why do we not see the Cotton suit as a disability object? And what other disability objects may we see in museum and gallery collections? Can we rethink the conversation in museums about disability representation within material culture? Guest: Lauren Poole is a writer and postgraduate student of the University of Sydney's Museum and Heritage Studies programs. Lauren is a trained archaeologist and a disability advocate, who has published recently in ‘Growing Up Disabled in Australia' And ‘Earth Cries: A Climate Change Anthology'. Follow Lauren @laurenlpoole on Twitter. Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. Object details: Parts from prototypes of the Cotton Aerodynamic Anti-G (CAAG) suit [SC1995.60.1-117] Read more on the Cotton suit in this paper by Dr Peter Hobbins, on the challenges of preserving the suit in this blog and for an image of Cotton and the suit being worn by pilots during the war from the Faculty of Medicine's collection visit here. 

Host Dr Craig Barker is joined by classical archaeologist Dr Alina Kozlovski to discuss the tradition of plaster casts of Greek and Roman antiquities popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Using the Nicholson collection's century old cast of the Boston Throne as a starting point they discuss the popularity of casting for educational and aesthetic reasons, the influence of casts on modern perceptions of the Classical past and the role of authenticity in collections and interpretations. The Boston Throne is three-sided marble relief sculpture now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts similar to the Ludovisi Throne and said to have been discovered in Rome in 1894. It has variously been interpreted as a mid-fifth century BC Greek original, a Roman marble copy and as a modern forgery. The Sydney cast would have been made in the early 20th century. Can we use casts, copies and replicas to understand the ancient past? Guest: Dr Alina Kozlovski is a Curator at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and soon to take up the role of Lecturer of Digital Innovation (Ancient History and Archaeology) at the University of New England. Her research on plaster casts has also seen her work at the Powerhouse Museum as a MAAS Research Fellow in 2021. Follow Alina @AlinaKozlovski on Twitter. Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head of Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. Object details: Plaster cast of the Boston Throne; NM2008.23

For Lunar New Year 2022, Object Matters host Craig Barker is joined by art historian and art writer Dr Alex Burchmore. They discuss this 19th century Chinese Willow Pattern dish and explore how it represents a complex series of cultural interchanges and cross-pollinaion between China and England, the principal motif elements in Willow Pattern ceramics and how they a 19th century audience responded to them, as well as the extent to which such pieces offered their owners an opportunity to indulge in escapist fantasy, introducing a note of the exotic into the domestic.   Guest: Dr Alexander Burchmore, Lecturer Museums and Heritage Studies and Department of Art History, The University of Sydney. Follow @DrAlexBurchmore on Twitter. Host: Dr Craig Barker, Manager of Education and Public Programs, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. Object details: Chinese Willow Pattern Dish, 19th century, Qing dynasty. UA2012.918

In this episode of Object Matters Matthew Huan joins host Dr Craig Barker to discuss several Australian Jezebel butterflies (genus Delias) from the museum's Macleay Collection. Matthew is a Museums Collections Officer and entomologist at the Chau Chak Wing Museum, and has a long fascination with butterflies. With over 250 known species the Jezebels, they are found from South East Asia to New Guinea and Australia. So what attracts Matthew to these deadly delights? In a wide ranging conversation they discuss the role of classical and Biblical history in the taxonomy of species, coloration and toxicity, how new species evolve, Matthew's own journey from Malaysia to Australia and the unique role of mistletoe in ecology and as the Jezebels' foodplant. Image: 18 specimens of six species of Australian Jezebel butterflies registered with numbers NHEN.65046 to NHEN.65139 and displayed in a snowflake arrangement. Starting from the top and moving clockwise, these species are the Black Jezebel Delias nigrina, Red-spotted Jezebel Delias aganippe, Red-banded Jezebel Delias Mysis, Yellow-banded Jezebel Delias ennia, Scarlet Jezebel Delias argenthona, and Imperial Jezebel Delias harpalyce.

In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Damien Stone. Damien is an archaeologist and works in the Collection Management team of the Chau Chak Wing Museum. He is author of Pomegranate: A Global History and is currently working on a second project exploring the Hittite civilization of Ancient Turkey. Damien has selected from the collection a cylinder seal from Late Bronze Age Syria and the two of them discuss sealing iconography and functionality, personal identity in the ancient Middle East and international diplomacy during the Bronze Age. Object Details: Cylinder seal, Levant region, 14500-1200 BC, NM52.54.1 View object online

Steven Gagau is an archivist and researcher with PARADISEC (the Pacific And Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures) - a digital archive of languages from the Pacific. Steven is also a co-curator of the Chau Chak Wing Museum's exhibition Pacific Views. In this episode of Object Matters he joins host Dr Craig Barker on a personal journey to his homeland of New Britain as recorded in photographs in two albums taken in the late 1920s by an Australian banker in Rabaul. It was around the time Steven's father was born. In this wide ranging discussion Steven and Craig discuss language, poetry, music, culture, colonisation and the power of photography to capture a changing world. Image: Photographs from album of views of Rabaul (HP2021.11.1-4)

Cultural producer and artist Dr Sarah Goffman joins host Dr Craig Barker in this episode of Object Matters to discuss her current exhibition at the Chau Chak Wing Museum titled Applied arts. In this episode they discuss Sarah's creative processes, her relationship with collecting and the use of plastics in her work and in particular discuss the role the AGNSW's Chinese scholar's table has taken throughout her career including the current exhibition. Join Sarah as she takes us into Applied Arts.

In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Mediterranean archaeologist and Project Officer of the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens Dr Yvonne Inall to discuss her research into ancient spears and the Chau Chak Wing Museum's red figure bell-krater from south Italy attributed to the Nicholson Painter. The vase features a scene of a warrior holding a spear alongside two women, and provides the inspiration for a discussion ranging from weaponry in the ancient Mediterranean world, the legacy of University of Sydney archaeological scholarship of South Italian vase painting and the way that we may read identity and cultural significance into a scene painted on a vase over 2300 years ago. Object details: Campanian Red Figure Bell Krater by the Nicholson Painter, Campania, Italy, c. 340-320 BC, NM46.1 View object online Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head, Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. __ Subscribe to Muse Extra, our monthly newsletter and follow @ccwm_sydney on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Learn more about the Chau Chak Wing Museum at sydney.edu.au/museum

Ngāpuhi leader and warrior, Hongi Hika (c. 1772 – 1828) was an important figure in Māori history. Hongi Hika successfully negotiated trade and missionary activities in the early part of the 19th century, living in Sydney from 1814 to 1819. In 1820 he visited England where he was feted by society and introduced to King George IV. His main aim however was acquire muskets; the weapons would be used in the Musket Wars in which Hongi was a successful military campaigner. The Chau Chak Wing Museum houses one of three busts of Hongi, one of which was a self-portrait carved by the warrior. In this episode of Object Matters Dr Craig Barker is joined by Brent Kerehona, an educator, film marker, Māori-Australian scholar, Director of Purakau Productions and a descendant of Hongi Hika. Brent has been engaged in years of research on Hongi which will culminate in a film. In the podcast we discuss the bust and explore Brent and Hongi's journeys through culture, family and through tāonga (artefacts). Note: this podcast was recorded prior to the Sydney lockdown when an event was at that staged planned to be hosted in the Chau Chak Wing Museum to mark Hongi Hika's bicentenary. That event will now place in early 2022. Object details: Bust of Hongi Hika, ETI.570 View object online Related article: Brown, D. (2016), Hongi Hika's self portrait, MUSE, 14, pp. 19-21 Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head, Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. __ Subscribe to Muse Extra, our monthly newsletter and follow @ccwm_sydney on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Learn more about the Chau Chak Wing Museum at sydney.edu.au/museum

Michelle Whitford is a doctoral researcher in Department of Physics and Astronomy at Macquarie University who has been conducting research on thousands of ancient Egyptian objects made from faience, including many from the Nicholson Collection at the Chau Chak Wing Museum, using new and innovative scientific techniques. In this episode of Object Matters she joins host Dr Craig Barker in a discussion about seven shabti buried in the tomb of Djedher in the fourth century BC and together they discuss ancient Egyptian religious practices, how faience was manufactured and the methods that Michelle employed to bring new data from these seven figures. Objects:  Shabtis of Djedher, 30th Dynasty (c. 380-343 BC) Nicholson Collection, Chau Chak Wing Museum NM02.2.1 to NM02.2.7 View NM02.2.4 online Journal article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102541 Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head, Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. __ Subscribe to Muse Extra, our monthly newsletter and follow @ccwm_sydney on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Learn more about the Chau Chak Wing Museum at sydney.edu.au/museum

Matthew Gibbs wears many hats. For eleven years he served as President for the Friends of the Nicholson Collection, but he is also the General Manager, Media and Communications at the ASX, a collector, and a lover of Shakespeare. He joins Dr Craig Barker to discuss one of his favourite collection items; the mounted specimen of a Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger. In a wide-ranging discussion they talk about Matthew's interest in Tasmanian Tigers and their enduring role in Australia's consciousness, as well as Shakespeare, extinction and the importance of museum supporters. Specimen details: Thylacinus cynocephalus (Harris, 1808), donated by Macleay Family 1865-1892, Macleay Collections NHM.496 Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head, Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. __ Subscribe to Muse Extra, our monthly newsletter and follow @ccwm_sydney on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Learn more about the Chau Chak Wing Museum at sydney.edu.au/museum

18 May 2021 was International Museums Day, an annual celebration created by the International Council of Museums (ICOM), designed to raise awareness about museums and their role in enriching culture and sharing knowledge. The theme for 2021 was The Future of Museums: Recover and Reimagine.    Four panellists from the Museum and Heritage Studies program at the University of Sydney joined Dr Craig Barker on International Museums Day in a live panel in the Nelson Meers Foundation Auditorium. Discussing the future of museums and some of the current issues facing the museum sector globally and here in Australia, this special episode of Object Matters dissects the concept of a 21st century museum.   Panellists:   Dr Anna Lawrenson  Dr Helena Robinson  Dr James Flexner  Dr Alex Burchmore Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head, Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. __ Subscribe to Muse Extra, our monthly newsletter and follow @ccwm_sydney on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Learn more about the Chau Chak Wing Museum at sydney.edu.au/museum

Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853-1942) is an important and somewhat controversial figure in the history of archaeology. The grandson of Matthew Flinders, Petrie rose from a surveyor to becoming the Professor of Egyptology at the University College London, where the Petrie Museum was named in his honour. He excavated more than 60 sites in Egypt during his career and a number of others in the Levant in his twilight years, pioneering a range of methodologies and techniques that would become standard practice in archaeology in the 20th century.  Under the auspices of the Egyptian Exploration Fund (EEF), now Egyptian Exploration Society, Petrie worked at the sites of Hu and Abadiyeh (Diospolis Parva) near Naqada in Upper Egypt for a single season from 1898-1899. His 1901 publication of the excavation contained a plate featuring illustrations of ceramic pots laid out in a chronological sequence that would revolutionise archaeology. From thousands of objects excavated from more than 2200 pit graves dated to the fourth millennium BC, each recorded on small bits of card, Petrie was able to develop the concept of sequence dating; that is that particular styles of pottery were associated with specific time period so a relative chronology could be developed where objects were older or newer than other objects from other graves within the sequence.   The Pharaonic Obsessions exhibition in the Chau Chak Wing Museum has a carefully recreated version of the published sequence-date chart including objects found during the EEF excavations at Diopolis Parva. The Nicholson Collection is home to hundreds of pots found by Petrie in the pre-dynastic graves of the cemeteries.    Chart details: Flinders Petrie “Diospolis Parva: The Cemeteries of Abadiyeh and Hu 1898-99” Plate 2. Courtesy of the Egypt Exploration Society. Guest: Dr Thomas Hikade is an archaeologist who specialises in Egyptian prehistory and occasionally lectures for the University of Sydney. In this special episode of Object Matters for National Archaeology Week 2021 he joins Dr Craig Barker to talk about the influence Petrie would have on archaeology, the importance of this chart in the way subsequent generations of archaeologists processed materials and his own work researching stone tools and ceramics from the fourth millennium BC in Egypt and the Middle East. Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head, Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. __ Subscribe to Muse Extra, our monthly newsletter and follow @ccwm_sydney on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Learn more about the Chau Chak Wing Museum at sydney.edu.au/museum

Behind the scenes it takes a mighty team to care for the Chau Chak Wing Museum's vast collections. In this episode, Craig Barker invites nine CCWM Collection Management staff members to discuss how they document, digitise, register, monitor and care for the objects that matter so much to us all.   We explore their roles at the museum, the philosophy and practicalities of collection care and the processes the team undertook to move more than 110,000 objects physically into the museum in 2020.   Guests: Maree Clutterbuck (Head, Collection Management), Chris Jones (Collection Manager, Documentation), Julie Taylor (Museum Registration Officer), Madeleine Sneddon (Acting Museum Conservator), David James (Museum Photographer), Virginia Ho (Assistant Museum Registration Officer), Aggie Lu (Assistant Museum Registration Officer), Rachel Lawrence (Museum Registration Officer), Damien Stone (Assistant Museum Registration Officer). Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head, Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. __ Subscribe to Muse Extra, our monthly newsletter and follow @ccwm_sydney on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Learn more about the Chau Chak Wing Museum at sydney.edu.au/museum

Middle Eastern archaeologist from the University of Sydney Dr Joseph ‘Seppi' Lehner speaks to  Dr Craig Barker about a number of bronze and copper alloy objects in the Museum collection, recovered in the British Museum and University of Pennsylvania excavations at Ur in Iraq, directed by Sir Leonard Woolley in the 1920s and 1930s.   In particular they discuss a copper alloy axe head found in one of the tombs dating to the Early Dynastic period (c. 2900-2350 BC), and talk more broadly about archaeology in Mesopotamia, the ancient trade in metals and resources, and potential links between metal objects in Ur and the mines and production centres Seppi is excavating in Oman. Object details:  Copper-alloy axe, 2900–2350 BC, Iraq, donated by the British Museum 1935, Chau Chak Wing Museum, NM35.9.1 Guest: Dr Joseph ‘Seppi' Lehner Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head, Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. __ Subscribe to Muse Extra, our monthly newsletter and follow @ccwm_sydney on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Learn more about the Chau Chak Wing Museum at sydney.edu.au/museum

In this special episode of Object Matters, Dr Craig Barker is joined by Toni Hurley, teacher, educator, historian, one-time president of the History Teachers Association and known to generations of school students as a co-author of the Antiquity series of textbooks. Toni is also the grand-daughter of renowned Australian photographer Frank Hurley (1885-1962).   In this podcast Toni and Craig discuss two lantern slides of Hurley photographs, formerly from the Geology Department collection. Both are images of the 1st AFC Australian Flying Corps campaigning in Palestine in World War One, and Hurley's pioneering work recording the missions of the Flying Corp in the Middle East both from the ground and from the air. We discuss Frank Hurley as a grandfather and a photographer, his love of the Middle East, his experiences in Antarctica and Papua New Guinea, the importance and controversies of his war photographs, including composite images and the role of museum collections in school history education. We also look at Frank Hurley's love of risk and his interest in aerial photography during this pioneering phase of aviation and aerial warfare. Photographs:  Frank Hurley, ‘Machines returning to the hangars', 1918, lantern slide, Chau Chak Wing Museum, HP90.28.2808 (pictured)  Frank Hurley, 'A machine descending to the Hangars of the 1st Australian Flying Corps, Palestine', 1917-1918, lantern slide, Chau Chak Wing Museum, HP90.28.2741 Guest: Toni Hurley Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head, Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. __ Subscribe to Muse Extra, our monthly newsletter and follow @ccwm_sydney on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Learn more about the Chau Chak Wing Museum at sydney.edu.au/museum

In this episode of Object Matters Dr Craig Barker is joined by Chris Jones the Chau Chak Wing Museum's Collection Manager, Documentation.   An oil painting by Walter Armiger Bowring (1887-1971) in the museum's art collection titled Cellist of c. 1927 has long intrigued Chris. A musician in an artists studio looks not a musical score but rather an abstract painting. Chris ponders if Bowring is gently mocking the 1920s modernist concepts popularised by Antonio Dattilo-Rubbo, Roy De Maistre and others about the relationship between art and music and questions who the cellist in the painting may have been. Chris also explores the role of data management and digitisation in a museum.   Artwork: Walter Bowring, 'Cellist', c.1927, oil on canvas, University Art Collection, UA1968.3 Guest: Chris Jones is responsible for the administration of the Sydney University Museum's collections database Axiell Emu and associated digitisation projects. He has previously worked in museums and archives in New Zealand, and the National Gallery of Victoria before joining the University in 2012. Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head, Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museumand Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. __ Subscribe to Muse Extra, our monthly newsletter and follow @ccwm_sydney on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Learn more about the Chau Chak Wing Museum at sydney.edu.au/museum

Dr Shuxia Chen, Curator of the China Gallery at the Chau Chak Wing Museum, joins Dr Craig Barker to welcome the Year of the Ox with two artworks from the collection. Photocopy works by Chinese-Australian artist Lindy Lee and Beijing artist Wang Youshen from the late 1980s and early 1990s are discussed in reference to Shuxia's own art historical research and together we examine how artists were looking for new ways to combine Eastern and Western traditions during that creative and experimental period. Artworks Lindy Lee, Untitled III (after Antonello da Messina), 1987, JW Power Collection, PW1987.18.a-p Wang Youshen, Portrait Series: Document I, 1990, mixed media, University Art Collection, UA2001.34 Guest: Dr Shuxia Chen joined the Chau Chak Wing Museum as its inaugural China Gallery curator in 2019. Her research interests include the relations between art, society and politics, cultural networks and artist groups in Asia. Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head, Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museumand Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. __ Subscribe to Muse Extra, our monthly newsletter and follow @ccwm_sydney on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Learn more about the Chau Chak Wing Museum at sydney.edu.au/museum

Diana Wood Conroy, Emeritus Professor of Visual Arts at the University of Wollongong is an artist, author and archaeologist with a long connection to the Chau Chak Wing Museum collections - as an undergraduate student in the 1960s she assisted in the Nicholson Museum stocktake and redisplay of the collection. Since the 1970s Diana has worked primarily in tapestry and has collaborated with Tiwi artists. Her practice explores relationships between classical, Aboriginal and personal worlds in tapestry and drawing, and her works are held in national and international collections.     A fragment of a Pompeian wall painting painted c. 60-79 AD is the starting point to discuss Diana's own archaeological work in Paphos, Cyprus, as well as exploring the concept of the artist in both ancient and modern cultures. In Paphos, Diana has studied and worked to reconstruct Roman wall paintings exposed by Australian archaeologists over the past two decades. Object record: NM80.49 Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head, Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museumand Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. Guest: Diana Wood Conroy, Emeritus Professor of Visual Arts at the University of Wollongong, artist, author and archaeologist. __ Subscribe to Muse Extra, our monthly newsletter and follow @ccwm_sydney on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Learn more about the Chau Chak Wing Museum at sydney.edu.au/museum

Conservation is one of the most important and often most misunderstood roles within a museum. In this episode of Object Matters Dr Craig Barker is joined by the Chau Chak Wing Museum's former Conservator Alayne Alvis to discuss the function of conservation and the role of a conservator in the process of collection management and exhibitions. The object the pair discuss dates to c. 730-720 BC and is a Neo Assyrian carved ivory plaque of a female figure that Alayne has worked very closely with. Excavated by Sir Max Mallowan from Fort Shalmaneser at Nimrud in Iraq in the 1950s, the discussion leads from the difference between field conservation and museum conservation, the ethics of working with ivory and the crime writer Agatha Christie's role in the excavation of Assyrian ivories. What can we learn from objects as a result of the close analysis and detailed observations afforded by conservation treatment? Object record: NM59.12. Muse article: Bollen, E. and Alvis, A. (2013) The Mystery of the Nimrud Ivory, MUSE, 5, pp. 15-17 Guest: Alayne Alvis was Conservator for the collections of the University of Sydney for over a decade, and the inaugural Conservator for the Chau Chak Wing Museum.   Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head, Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museumand Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram.  __ Subscribe to Muse Extra, our monthly newsletter and follow @ccwm_sydney on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Learn more about the Chau Chak Wing Museum at sydney.edu.au/museum

Museums often amass much ephemeral material as well as collection objects; these ‘minor' pieces can enhance our understanding of the broader pattern of collecting. In this episode, Dr Craig Barker is joined by Candace Richards, Assistant Curator of the Nicholson Collection. Together they discuss a ‘Promesse de mandat territorial'; a French bank note issued in 1796, two years before the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt. The note came to Australia via the family of the noted figure in Egyptology and University of Sydney alumnus Grafton Elliot Smith (1871-1937). This single piece of paper provides an opportunity to talk about European colonial influence in Egypt in the 18th,19th and 20th centuries, and the rush for European powers to uncover Egyptian antiquities. It also enables a discussion on the concept of object biographies and understanding how objects have their own histories, including the importance of these modern objects within collections of ancient artefacts and the modern engagement with ancient Egypt as explored in the Chau Chak Wing Museum exhibition Pharaonic Obsessions: Ancient Egypt, an Australian Story. Object: 'Promesse de mandat territorial', 100 franc paper bank note, France, 1796, Donated by Mrs Elwyn M Andrews and Miss Elizabeth C Bootle in memory of their great-uncle Sir Grafton Elliot Smith 1984, Nicholson Collection, NM2017.2    Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head, Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram.  Guest: Candace Richards is an archaeologist and Assistant Curator of the Nicholson Collection at the Chau Chak Wing Museum. Follow Candace on Twitter and Instagram. __ Subscribe to Muse Extra, our monthly newsletter and follow @ccwm_sydney on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Learn more about the Chau Chak Wing Museum at sydney.edu.au/museum

Director David Ellis joins Dr Craig Barker to discuss his love of mineralogy and the remarkable history of a mineral from deep in the earth's past, and its journey from Broken Hill to the Chau Chak Wing Museum. Cerussite is a mineral consisting of lead carbonate and as such is an important ore of lead. Indeed the name is based on the Latin word cerussa or white lead. Cerussite mineral specimens can also be extraordinarily beautiful and highly valued by collectors. The specimen David has chosen for this episode is no different. Acquired at Broken Hill in New South Wales in the 1890s, it passed through several hands before ending up at the University of Sydney. The specimen represents the important role the teaching of geology at the University of Sydney from the 1860s onwards had in Australia's economic and social history. David also takes on the journey from the conception of a new museum for the University's collections, to the opening of the new institution and his vision for the Chau Chak Wing Museum.    Specimen: Cerussite, collected in 1890s by Edward William Aldridge, Macleay Collections (SC2010.25)    Host: Dr Craig Barker, Head, Public Engagement, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram.  Guest: David Ellis, Director, Chau Chak Wing Museum. __ Subscribe to Muse Extra, our monthly newsletter and follow @ccwm_sydney on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Learn more about the Chau Chak Wing Museum at sydney.edu.au/museum

What can a jar of tiny brains tell us about human history and the role of museums in contextualising colonisation?   In this episode, Dr Craig Barker is joined by Dr Jude Philp, anthropologist and Senior Curator of the Macleay Collections. Together they discuss a jar of partially dissected bird and small mammal brains, each individually wrapped in muslin or gauze. These specimens were collected by Russian scientist Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay from the Madang province of Papua New Guinea in 1876-77 and donated to the University of Sydney by his Australian widow Margaret in 1889. From the jar tumble stories of Miklouho-Maclay's extraordinary life and adventures, his service to science, and remarkably open-minded attitude towards understanding human cultures and despair at European colonial impact upon the lives of others. The jar, and other items collected by Miklouho-Maclay also provide an opportunity to discuss some of the ethical considerations related to the collection of animal and human remains at the time which sit at the centre of modern debates about the roles of museums in understanding and contextualising colonisation and giving voices to those who lost them during the colonial era. Miklouho-Maclay's work was much admired during his lifetime: as legendary Russian author Leon Tolstoy wrote to him, "I do not know what contribution these collections and discoveries will make to the science which you serve but your experience among the natives is epoch-making in the science which I serve, namely the science of how people may live with one another. Write that story and you will make a great contribution to the service of humanity" (quoted in Mikloucho-Maclay: New Guinea Diaries 1871-1883, translated by C.L. Sentinella (1975 Kristen Press). Guest: Dr Jude Philp, anthropologist and Senior Curator of the Macleay Collections at the Chau Chak Wing Museum.  Host: Dr Craig Barker, Manager of Education and Public Programs, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. Object details: Jar of partially dissected bird and small mammal brains collected by Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay in 1876-77. Macleay Collections, NHB.8040.     __ Subscribe to Muse Extra, our monthly newsletter and follow @ccwm_sydney on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Learn more about the Chau Chak Wing Museum at sydney.edu.au/museum

Deep time is a geological concept - the idea of unimaginable lengths of time. Our guest this episode is Matt Poll, Curator of Indigenous Heritage at the Chau Chak Wing Museum, who selects a stone axe to illustrate the deep time history of Sydney.  The hand axe was found on the lands of the Deerubbin peoples of western Sydney, at Castlereigh, Penrith Lakes. Located by Father Eugene Stockton, it was donated to the Macleay Museum in 1984. It has since been dated using the scientific technique of thermoluminescence to c.45,000 years old: a true example of the deep time history of the people who inhabited the Sydney basin long before European settlement. Matt and Craig discuss the significance of objects such as this axe in terms of understanding the relationship between land and the Aboriginal people of Australia and in the value of overturning preconceived notions of history and archaeology in this country.   Guest: Matt Poll, Curator Indigenous Heritage and Repatriation Project, Macleay Collections, Chau Chak Wing Museum. Host: Dr Craig Barker, Manager of Education and Public Programs, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. Object details: Mogo, (hand axe) Deerubin peoples, Sydney  Castlereigh, Penrith Lakes GaK.3014 - 26,700 +1700 -1500 T/L DATE c.45,000. Donated by Father Eugene Stockton 1984, ET2014.431 [ET85.5.82.4].     __  Subscribe to Muse Extra, our monthly newsletter and follow @ccwm_sydney on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Learn more about the Chau Chak Wing Museum at sydney.edu.au/museum

Senior Curator of the University Art Collection, Dr Ann Stephen introduces us to Dr John Joseph Wardell Power (1881-1943), painter, author, medical doctor and philanthropist. In this episode, Ann introduces his life and work by focusing on a single painting, Femme à L'ombrelle (c. 1926), in the Chau Chak Wing Museum collection. JW Power, as he preferred to be known, is renowned in Australian art for his generous bequest to the University of Sydney which aimed to bring the latest ideas about contemporary art to the people of Australia; resulting in the establishment of the Power Institute and the foundation of the Museum of Contemporary Art. In contrast, his own work as an expatriate Australian artist who spent the 1920s and 30s painting and exhibiting in Europe is little known. Equally at home in London, Paris and Brussels he moved between these cities, immersing himself in both contemporary and historic art. His own hybrid style of painting, part-surreal, part abstract marked him as a member of the international avant-garde. As the renowned dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler recalled “We all knew Power, but we knew him as an artist, we did not know him as a rich man or a surgeon.” His widow Edith Power gifted some 1300 of his works to the university in 1961. Ann explains why art critic Robert Hughes once commented that, had Power painted these pictures in Australia, “he would possibly be now regarded as the most important figure in our early avant-garde”. Guest: Dr Ann Stephen, Senior Curator of the University Art Collection and chair of Art Monthly Australasia. Ann's research focuses on modernism and conceptual art and she is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Host: Dr Craig Barker, Manager of Education and Public Programs, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. Artwork details: JW Power, Femme à L'ombrelle (c. 1926), oil on canvas 130 x 79 cm, JW Power collection, University of Sydney, managed by Museum of Contemporary Art, Edith Power bequest 1961, PW1961.83.     __  Subscribe to Muse Extra, our monthly newsletter and follow @ccwm_sydney on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Learn more about the Chau Chak Wing Museum at sydney.edu.au/museum

Art historian Dr Ann Elias came across the haunting image of a scallop in an aquarium while researching ocean histories and early 20th century underwater photography. Captured by the camera while opening its valves, the scallop almost appears to be grinning at us. Dr Elias was immediately reminded of the work of artist Odilon Redon, who created hybrid human and non-human creatures in his paintings and drawings. The gaze of the scallop also captured the attentions of philosopher Henri Bergson and University of Sydney marine biologist William John Dakin, who proposed contradictory theories about the similarities of scallop eyes and human eyes. Science, philosophy, art and dreams are all on the table in this deep dive into an underwater lantern slide.   Guest: Associate Professor Dr Ann Elias is Chair of the Department of Art History at the University of Sydney and researcher with the Sydney Environment Institute. Host: Dr Craig Barker, Manager of Education and Public Programs, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram. Collection item details: 'Mollusca - Pecten', Zoology Department Lantern Slide Collection, c. 1909-10. Photograph by Francis Ward.    __  Subscribe to Muse Extra, our monthly newsletter and follow @ccwm_sydney on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Learn more about the Chau Chak Wing Museum at sydney.edu.au/museum

When Dr Paul Donnelly first saw the grieving figures depicted on this trio of white ground lekythoi, he felt an instant human connection. Created in the 5th century BC, these Greek ceramic vessels were intended as a graveside gift for a departed loved one, filled with oil for use in their afterlife. Paul speaks to Dr Craig Barker about these finely crafted vessels and their journey from ancient Athens to the Nicholson Collection in Australia, via World War Two Paris. Download transcript (docx, 1.1 MB)   Guest: Dr Paul Donnelly, Deputy Director of the Chau Chak Wing Museum and practicing archaeologist. Host: Dr Craig Barker, Manager of Education and Public Programs, Chau Chak Wing Museum and Director, Paphos Theatre Archaeological Excavations. Follow @DrCraig_B on Twitter and Instagram.    Object details:  1. Attic white ground lekythos, Athens, Greece, 450-425BC (NM41.1) View full object record 2. Attic white ground lekythos, Painter of New York 23.166, Athens, Greece, 450-425BC (NM41.2)  View full object record 3. Attic white ground lekythos, Triglyph Painter, Athens, Greece, 425-400BC (NM41.3) View full object record  __  Subscribe to Muse Extra, our monthly newsletter and follow @ccwm_sydney on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Learn more about the Chau Chak Wing Museum at sydney.edu.au/museum