The Friends magazine is produced for members of the Friends of the National Museum of Australia. To subscribe, become a Friend. It's one of the best ways to get involved in the Museum.
Friends magazine, vol. 20 no. 4, December 2009
The summer issue of Friends features stories about the international Water: H2O=Life
exhibition being hosted by the Museum and examines some of the interesting objects and places set to feature in the new permanent gallery, Landmarks: People and Places across Australia.
James Simpson cup
A silver cup presented to police magistrate James Simpson in Van Diemen's Land in 1834 offers a rich insight into Australia's colonial past and is one of the oldest pieces of silver in the National Museum's collection.
Sunshine, a suburb in Melbourne's industrial west, was once home to the Southern Hemisphere's largest manufacturer of agricultural implements. The Sunshine Harvester Works no longer exist, though local street names, memorials and reminiscences provide a link to the past.
The relationship between water and life is the focus of an international exhibition, Water: H2O=Life, being hosted solely by the National Museum in Australia. The exhibition also includes a new section on Australia's water story, covering subjects from the adaptation of local flora and fauna to the history of damming and the influence of climate change.
The December 2009 issue of Friends also features stories about mystery gold nuggets, artefacts associated with the early history of Port Phillip, a fascinating house museum that was the former home of the Davanzati family of wool merchants in Florence in the fifteenth century, and textile crafts in West Timor.
