Summary

This series of twenty-four didactic exhibition labels from the Museum of Applied Science includes three graphic labels and twenty-one smaller labels, circa 1950.
This display explained how a pearl forms and where, using a series of models that illustated the life stages of the oyster and the havesting of the pearls including specialist tools for extraction. It also included examples of cultured and naturaled pearls, like buttons, pearl shell knife handles and jewellery.

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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