Media

National Museum returns to the Glorious Days of 1913
It was a year when Australia, a new nation, embraced the modern world: aeroplanes, pocket cameras, roller-skates and cinemas. It was the year of Dally Messenger’s final premiership and Mawson’s fateful Antarctic exhibition. Sports-lovers cheered the exploits of Fanny Durack and Victor Trumper, while the nation was entertained by Dame Nellie Melba on the gramophone and bushrangers at the movies. Australians still looked forward to a bright future, unaware of the looming Great War. And many cheers greeted Lady Denman as she revealed the name of the new Federal Capital: ‘Canberra’.

Museum archaeologist Mike Smith awarded an AM in the Australia Day Honours list
The award ‘for significant service to archaeological scholarship, particularly of Australia’s desert regions’ recognises the work of Dr Mike Smith over the last 30 years in reconstructing the environmental and Aboriginal histories of these immense drylands.

New Aboriginal art movement showcased at National Museum
An exhibition of unique works from a new Aboriginal art movement emerging from the Western Desert will open at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra on Friday 7 December, 2012 and be on display until November, 2013.

Revealing the Collection of the National Museum of Australia and how it is cared for
The National Museum of Australia is displaying big objects from the National Historical Collection in the spectacular entrance Hall and opening a major exhibition on how the Museum’s conservators care for the collection

Fred Hollows eye-testing equipment donated to National Museum
The National Museum of Australia has received a donation of portable opthalmologist’s equipment used by the late Fred Hollows to restore eyesight for many thousands of people in Australia and overseas.

National Museum hosts major exhibition of contemporary Indigenous sculpture
A major exhibition of contemporary sculptures by established and emerging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists opens at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra on Thursday 12 July and will be on display until 14 October 2012.

International Museum Day
International Museum Day is a celebration of the crucial work of museums worldwide in collecting and sharing culture and preserving memory.

National Museum acquires rare drawings of remarkable stories
The National Museum of Australia has acquired two pen and ink drawings of a significant moment in Australian history drawn by an Aboriginal artist of the nineteenth century.

National Museum visitors travel the Silk Road
A major exhibition at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra will bring to life the Silk Road. Stretching from China to eastern Europe, the Silk Road was the most celebrated trade route for more than a thousand years.

National Museum acquires rare colonial ‘Holey dollar’
The National Museum of Australia in Canberra has acquired a rare 1813 New South Wales ‘Holey dollar’ – the first currency minted in Australia.

Life in Children's Homes and Institutions
An exhibition at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra will go behind the gates of Australia’s Children’s Homes and Institutions in the 20th Century and find the voices of the children who lived under institutional care.

National Museum displays horse racing treasures
The National Museum of Australia has acquired two significant trophies presented to winners of the Melbourne Cup.