Item HT 59771 Exhibition Labels - Set of Five, Childhood Burns, Museum of Applied Science, Melbourne, circa 1950

Summary

This series of five didactic exhibition labels from the Museum of Applied Science presents the statistics, impacts and treatment options for childhood burns, circa 1950.
The display consisted of one label illustrating burns and scalds, and the impact of varying percentage of coverage and their impact, including three dimensional models illustrating coverage and impact. Another illustrates percentage of risk by age from birth to age 14. Another employs an infographic for the ideal time between burn and hospital treatment. The next label illustrates the treatment options for severe burns and the final smaller label states the percentage of hospital beds continously occupied in children's hospitals for burns.

Physical Description

Five museum label about childhood burns. Single-sided, handpainted and illustrated black font on white painted particle board with red painted borders. One label has two cut out wooden figures of children and a resin three dimensional model of a child's forearm afflicted with a burn and blister. One label features two blue clocks and black shadow graphics of a child being burnt and laying in a hosptial bed. One large label is covered in small spray painted shapes representing children holding hands.

Significance

The labels in the Historic Exhibition Labels Collection illustrate the changing styles in didactic interpretation, aesthetics and approaches to audiences 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 branches into Museums Victoria, the labels chart a course through changes in audience needs and desires 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 typewriter, then Letraset and ultimately printed labels, culminating in the large format digital print room being introduced at Melbourne Museum in 2000.