Summary

Bronze bust of H. V. McKay on a granite pedestal. Made by Wallace Anderson.

It is not know when this bust was made. The inscription on the pedestal suggests that it was made following H.V. McKay's death in 21 May 1926.

Wallace Anderson worked as an artist for the Australian War Museum, located in an annexe of the Melbourne Exhibition Building from 1920-1930. In 1930 he worked independently as a sculptor, and between 1944-46 he moved to Canberra to work again for the Australian War Memorial. In 1947 he resumed private practice in Melbourne. Anderson's most famous work is 'Simpson and his Donkey' (1935), and a series of busts of nine former Australian prime ministers located in the Ballarat Botanic Gardens (1939-45).

The bust of McKay was presented to the Industrial and Technological Museum in 1957-8 by Cecil N. McKay (H.V. McKay's son) together with a scale model of the 'smithy' in which McKay had first fabricated his stripper harvester prototype. The bust was subsequently displayed in the foyer of the H.V. McKay Melbourne Planetarium, from its opening in 1965 to its closure in 1997.

The bust forms part of the H. V. McKay Collection, which includes an extensive collection of business records, photographs, trade publications and artefacts relating the H.V. McKay and his agricultural enterprise.

Physical Description

List of parts: Bust Pedestal Pedestal base

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