Volume 4 number 2
October 2009

In this issue of reCollections: Journal of the National Museum of Australia:

  • Stefan Petrow enquires whether, by ignoring Tasmania's convict past and focusing on pioneers, the creators of the Van Diemen's Land Memorial Folk Museum have sanitised Tasmania's history.
  • Valda Rigg investigates an ornate illuminated album, interesting not only for its reflection of the nineteenth-century revival of medievalism, but also for what it reveals of the metropolitan and rural development of New South Wales.
  • Libby Robin discovers that stuffed animals are no longer relegated to dusty drawers and museum showcases and discusses how animals taken originally for scientific purposes have become part of a new and ethical art movement.
  • Our editorial poses some of the curly questions currently on the minds of museum professionals and researchers.

This edition also features reviews of recent exhibitions and museum-related books.