Museums Victoria Archives
Museums Victoria Archives preserves the Museum's organisational memory, documented in both physical and digital records, to be retained permanently (i.e. forever) and made accessible to the people of Victoria. Records in the Archives span the entire history of the Museum, starting at the foundation of the Museum of Natural and Economic Geology (later renamed National Museum of Victoria) in 1854. Today, records created by Museum staff that are deemed to be permanent records are actively collected for the Archives, adding to this important historical record. In addition to containing vital records about the State collections and the activities of the Museum's staff and honorary associates, the stories within the Archives represent a rich history that is closely aligned to the history of Melbourne.
The Archives include items from the Melbourne Museum, Immigration Museum, Scienceworks, IMAX, and of Museums Victoria's predecessor organisations, the National Museum of Victoria (1854-1983), and all iterations of the Science Museum of Victoria (1870-1983). Some of the Royal Exhibition Building Trustee archives are held in the Archives, while the remainder of these holdings are with the Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) and in the State collection. Melbourne Observatory archives and past proposed projects such as the National Air and Space Museum archives are also held in the Archives.
The Archives has a variety of types of items including photographs, audiovisual material, posters, exhibition ephemera, inwards and outwards correspondence, departmental files, architectural plans, registers and hardcover volumes, scrapbooks, newsletters, annual reports, catalogues, and artworks.
