Deep dives

Learn more about a selection of Museums Victoria's collections – some of the objects are on display at the Immigration Museum.

A collection relating to migration to Australia, and particularly Victoria, from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Letter written by Rebecca Greaves to her uncle in England containing an interesting and detailed account of what life was like in Melbourne during 1851.

During the long political process that led to Federation, a stronger sense of what it meant to be Australian was formed.

This collection of original and digital photographs is the result of a research collaboration (2016-19) between Museums Victoria and Dr Dzavid Haveric.

The Sigalas family's immigration story is a rich narrative, told by over 80 objects, which relates to a number of themes in the social and immigration history of Melbourne.

Karl Friedrich Muffler was born on 14 June 1900 in south-west Germany. He qualified as a pastry chef and confectioner in 1917.

Cuc and her husband, Huu Minh, escaped from Vietnam by river boat on 19 May 1978.

Bul was 13 when he arrived in Australia in October 1996 with his parents, younger sister and brother.

Zahra Jaffari was a teenager when her family (from the Hazara ethnic minority) fled Afghanistan around 2015. They lived in difficult circumstances in Indonesia, awaiting acceptance to come to Australia, which was Zahra's dream. That dream didn't eventuate, and she now lives in Canada.

Many objects and images in the Museum's collections depict racism, cultural stereotyping and cultural appropriation.