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The Beechworth Burke Museum
From the collection of The Beechworth Burke Museum
837 Items featured online

Photograph

  • Black and white photograph of the Burke Museum interior hallway with various objects, including artworks, documentation papers, iron and metal work pieces, and fabric wall hangings, placed on or against wall or in display cabinets, many of which appear to be of Asian (Chinese?) origin.

    7483 (Cropped)

  • Black and white with white border photograph of the Burke Museum interior hallway with various objects, including artworks, documentation papers, iron and metal work pieces, and fabric wall hangings, placed on or against wall or in display cabinets, many of which appear to be of Asian (Chinese?) origin.

    7483 (Obverse)

  • Back of photograph. Piece of text describing the plans for extension and updating of the Burke museum and Town Hall Gardens and public conveniences, while also describing the layout and intentions for the Shire Offices, Town Hall and Cells.

    7483 (Reverse)

  • Black and white photograph of the Burke Museum interior hallway with various objects, including artworks, documentation papers, iron and metal work pieces, and fabric wall hangings, placed on or against wall or in display cabinets, many of which appear to be of Asian (Chinese?) origin.
  • Black and white with white border photograph of the Burke Museum interior hallway with various objects, including artworks, documentation papers, iron and metal work pieces, and fabric wall hangings, placed on or against wall or in display cabinets, many of which appear to be of Asian (Chinese?) origin.
  • Back of photograph. Piece of text describing the plans for extension and updating of the Burke museum and Town Hall Gardens and public conveniences, while also describing the layout and intentions for the Shire Offices, Town Hall and Cells.

Historical information

This black and white photograph is estimated to have been taken c1900 inside the Burke Museum. Several objects part of the museum collection at the time can be seen, with a high number of Asian influence objects visible; potentially Chinese in origin, as several Chinese villages were located around Beechworth and across Spring Creek, from the mid 1800s.

The Burke Museum is part of the Precinct of Beechworth, which was established upon the discovery of gold in 1852. Originally built as the Beechworth Athenaeum in 1857, the museum was later renamed to the Robert O'Hara Burke Memorial Museum, more commonly known as the Burke Museum, in honour of the famous explorer and former Beechworth Superintendent of Police, Robert O'Hara Burke, after his death in 1861 at Coopers Creek during the famed ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition.

Significance

This photograph is contextually, historically and socially significant due to its connection to both the Burke Museum and Chinese culture in and around Beechworth during the mid-1800s through to 1900s. Around 4700 people of Chinese heritage lived at the Ovens goldfield by April of 1857, representing one-quarter of the entire population at the time. The object holds strong representativeness to the history of the Burke Museum and to the objects in its collection. Its interpretive capacity could be supported and enhanced with other photographs and objects in the collection. Collectively, these records and objects could provide an insight into the museum's collection and its relationship with the origins of the objects.

Physical description

Black and white rectangular photograph printed on paper. Unmounted; taped to paper.

Subjects

References

  • Beechworth: A Titan’s Field ISBN/ISSN: 0 949905 25 9 “Beechworth: A Titan’s Field covers the Ovens River district from the 1840s, concentrating on the nineteenth century.”
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