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The phrase National Historical Collection conjures a vision of storerooms crammed with national treasures. The reality is very different. Rather than a monolithic miscellany documenting a national narrative, the collection is far more eclectic. There is no single story but many stories, with various collectors bringing different perspectives on what is significant and what should be preserved.
One of the first collectors was prominent orthopaedic surgeon Sir Colin MacKenzie. His collection of 2000 wet and mounted animal specimens and anatomical drawings was held at the Australian Institute of Anatomy. The Institute was also responsible for the National Ethnographic collection of more than 20,000 Indigenous objects from Australia and the Pacific. These were the building blocks of what would become the National Museum of Australia's collections.
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