Unboxing the museum: Ye Olde Xmas Program
Have you every wondered what Christmas in Melbourne was like in the 19th century.
Unboxing the museum
Have you ever wondered what you would find behind the scenes of our museums?
Latest episodes
Unboxing the museum: Mirka Mora Collection
Mirka Mora was all about being herself, her fashion style, her artistic practice, her friendships and creative circles, and her food culture.
Season two: Treasures series
Treasures of the Natural World is now showing at Melbourne Museum. In this series of videos our expert staff take you on an exclusive tour behind the scenes of our museums to show you some of our most treasured objects.
Unboxing the museum: Deinocheirus claws
The racks and collections in Museum stores contain many objects and memories this is Tim's personal story of just one.
Unboxing the museum: 19th-century hummingbird case
What weighs less than a 5 cent piece but is also a fighter pilot, fashion model and elite athlete? It's a hummingbird.
Unboxing the museum: 19th-century sewing samplers
What can 19th-century needlework samplers tell us about often forgotten figures from history?
Season one
There are over 17 million objects safely stored in boxes, drawers, cupboards, cabinets and jars across all of our buildings.
In this series of videos our expert staff take you on an exclusive tour behind the scenes of our museums. They “unbox” some of their favourite objects giving you fascinating insights into our collection and giving you an exclusive behind the scenes look in our museums.
NAIDOC week objects
In this episode of Unboxing the museum, Kimberley Moulton takes you into the store to show some of the objects collected from NAIDOC week celebrations in 1988 and 1989.
Bread samples
Did you know First Peoples were the first bakers in Australia. Kimberley Moulton shows some samples of bread that were collected in the 1800 and 1900s, including samples collected by the expedition that was sent to retrieve Burke and Wills after their fateful expedition.
Victorian river reed necklace
Kimberley Moulton takes you behind the scenes and into our collection stores. In this video she reveals a unique reed necklace dating back to the late 1800's and talks about a cultural practice that continues today.
Silk Moth cocoons
How do we get silk and how is it made? Marita Dyson Collections Manager at Melbourne Museum reveals object ST00001, a jar of Silk Moth cocoons collected in 1895.
Economic botany cabinet
What do a Japanese articulated dragon, a tennis racquet, a chain and a piece of plywood have in common? Nick Crotty collections manager at Scienceworks, shows off a curious cabinet of objects that fall into the category of economic botany, these are objects that are made of natural resources with a view to turning a profit
Lord Howe Island Stick Insect
The tale of a species back from extinction. It was believed that the Lord Howe Island Stick Insect, or the walking sausage as the locals called it, was extinct until a small colony was found on a remote rocky outcrop. Since then they have been bred in captivity with the hope that one day they will be returned to Lord Howe Island. In this video Simon Hinkley tells us all about this remarkable insect and its numbers are being carefully looked after across the world.
Aurora Australis
What would you take on a trip to Antartica? Ernest Shakleton and his team took a printing press and they produced the first book printed in Antartica, the Aurora Australis. Librarian Gemma Steele tells us why this book is her favourite object in the museum's collection.
Aunty Esther Kirby's emu egg
Aunty Esther Kirby is a master emu egg carver, a skill she learnt from her father, Uncle Sam Kirby. Her remarkably detailed carvings can contain as many as 15 colours all created by etching the egg shell at different depths. In this video Kimberley Moulton, Senior Curator of South Eastern Aboriginal Collections at Museums Victoria, unboxes one of Aunty Esther's intricate works of art.
Zahra's drawing
Zahra Jaffari is a young refugee who is looking to call Australia home. In this episode Dr Moya McFadzean goes behind the scenes to reveal a recent acquisition by the Museums Victoria. It is a picture drawn by a Zahra that depicts her journey from war-torn Afghanistan to Indonesia where she currently waits to be allowed to join her brother in Australia. The heartbreaking drawing sketches out her experiences and hopes and dream for her future in Australia.
The world's fastest beetle
Want to know what the world's fastest beetle is? How fast can it run? Tamara Morgan unveils the worlds fastest beetle, it runs so fast it loses vision!
Glass Sponge
In this episode Nish Nizar reveals an elusive and striking specimen, a glass sponge usually found in deep water off the Phillipines and Fiji.
Orchard Swallowtail
What is a Orchard Swallowtail and what is a gynandromorph? Simon Hinkley unveils a very rare gynandromorph in our entomology collection.