Australian Museum photographic collections
Discover some of the hidden treasures in our photographic collections.
The Australian Museum photographic collections consist of images in several formats such as glass plate negatives, lantern slides, large format black and white negatives, roll film, colour negatives, 35mm and 120mm slides and medium and large format transparencies. Few have been viewed since they were originally developed.
The subjects in our photographs vary from fish specimens to anthropological displays. Apart from photographing scientific specimens, the Museum's early photographers would often capture images of scientists in the field, landscapes, birds, animals and people.
Australian Museum early photographers
The Museum's early photographers were a mix of talented amateurs and skilled academics.
Most of the oldest were photographed at the Museum by Henry Barnes and his son, Henry Barnes Jnr with the help of Curator Gerard Krefft.
Allan McCulloch volunteered at the Museum from the age of 13 and in 1906 was employed as vertebrate zoologist. American ichthyologist David Starr Jordan considered him, "unquestionably the greatest authority on fish in the southern hemisphere."
As the Museum's entomologist, a title later changed to Curator of Insects and Arachnids, Anthony Musgrave was a prolific lantern slide photographer.
Michael Sharland, as well as being a keen and talented photographer, also kept detailed diaries and field notes which are being digitised and transcribed by the Museum for general access.
