Help conserve a textile treasure
The National Museum’s Annual Appeal helps acquire, conserve and display significant objects from our shared history — for all Australians to access and enjoy.
Donations to our 2019 Annual Appeal will help us to conserve the oldest dress in the Museum’s collection — a magnificent silk brocade gown from the 1700s.
The dress was brought from England to Australia and passed down through five generations of the one family.
Cheryl Crilly, Curator
Beginning in the 1730s the story of this dress — its design and construction, how it was worn, altered, cherished and preserved — has been shaped by a long line of women.
The dress holds stories of London’s weaving and textile industry, colonial migration, pastoralism at Springfield sheep station near Goulburn and Sydney’s social life.
Part of the Springfield–Faithfull Family collection, the dress was donated to the Museum in 2005 by Jim and Pamela Maple-Brown and the late Diana Boyd, through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program.
We need your help to research the history behind this dress, to conserve it and place it on display.
Donor recognition
Donations of $50 or more will be acknowledged in The Museum magazine and on this website. Donors can choose to remain anonymous.
Contact us
Karen Pittar, Philanthropy Coordinator
Email development@nma.gov.au
Phone +61 2 6208 5373
National Museum of Australia, GPO Box 1901, Canberra ACT 2601
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Help the National Museum of Australia to enrich the cultural life of Australians.
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