Summary
Exhibition label for the Okapi (also known as the Forest Giraffe) display at Museum of Victoria, circa 1985.
Physical Description
Rectangular label, vertical, single-sided with black printed on metal sheet. Upper and lower case TNR font with top and bottom border line. Illustration of the Okapi in jungle printed on bottom right Remnants of adhesive still on back.
Significance
The labels in the Historic Exhibition Labels Collection illustrate the changing styles in didactic interpretation, aesthetics and approaches to audience engagement throughout the history of Museums Victoria. From the earliest days of the National Museum of Victoria in the mid 1800s through the various incarnations of the Applied Sciences collection through to the amalgamation of all the branches into Museums Victoria, the labels chart a course through the changes in audience needs and desires in Victoria and across the museums' various sites. There are beautiful examples of hand written nineteenth century labels, some examples of extremely long didactic panels from the early twentieth century, and rare and unusual fonts in the mid twentieth century. The collection also illustrates the transition from hand-written labels to the use of typewriters, then lettera set and ultimately printed labels, culminating in the large format digital print room being introduced at Melbourne Museum in 2000.
More Information
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Collecting Areas
Museum History, Information & Communication, Public Life & Institutions
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Creator
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Inscriptions
OKAPI / Okapia johnstoni / Known from the equatorial forests of northern, central and eastern Zaire, and long hunted by the pygmies of Zaire, the Okapi was unknown to science before 1900. The arrival of a mounted animal from the Ituri Forest of East Central Africa in the Museum in 1916 caused immense interest. / The Okapi is a relative of the Giraffe, withwhich it shares a number of characteristics. The very long tongue, adpated for browsing on leaves, fruit and seeds, is flexible enough to reach the Olapi's eyes to clean them. / Wary and secretive, the Okapi lives alone, in pairs or small family groups, but never in herds. Active during the day, it moves along well-trodden jungle paths. Between August and October, the time of maximum rainfall, a single young is produced. / Cat. No. 60255
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Classification
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Category
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Discipline
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Type of item
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Object Dimensions
203 mm (Width), 3 mm (Depth), 243 mm (Height)
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Keywords
Exhibitions, Mammals, Museum Display Panels, Museum Exhibitions, Museums