Summary

This series of five didactic exhibition labels from the Industrial and Technological Museum explains the process of extracting and processing fibre from the fibre balls, and the decaying remains of the Posidonia australia which forms along the coastal waters of South Australia, circa 1930.
It illustrates the history of extraction from 1905 and the cost of establishing the industry in South Australia. At the time of the display it states that research was still underway to find the most ecnomic use for this natural resource, although five million pounds had already been expended to establish the industry.

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.

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