The Cabinet was an original piece, not an antique or reproduction, magnificently hand-crafted by Greg St John of the ANU School of Art. Inside were a series of eight artworks, each reflecting on an aspect of Australia’s scientific past. Together they sought to say something about the development of western science in Australia in the years following Joseph Banks’ voyage upon the original Endeavour.
I was the concept developer/historian/project manager for the whole thing, so for a peek inside the Cabinet I’ll hand over to a much-younger version of myself via the magic of Vimeo…
The Cabinet of Curiosities from Tim Sherratt on Vimeo.
You can have a closer look at the artworks on Flickr and unpack the Cabinet yourself. There’s also lots of background information on the Cabinet’s own website.
But where is it now?
After it’s jaunt aboard the Endeavour the Cabinet returned to Australia as part of the Natural History Museum’s Kaleidoscope of Life Exhibition and appeared at the Australian Museum and elsewhere. It then travelled back to London with the exhibition.
What happened after that? I heard that it might have been on display at the offices of the major sponsors RTZ-CRA (now Rio Tinto). Another report suggested that it had ended up at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. In theory, the Cabinet was presented to the Royal Society of London, but that was more a symbolic act than a transfer of ownership. I just don’t know.
I made a few unsuccessful inquiries a few years back and then gave up. But I thought it was time to try again, this time drawing upon the awesome power of the interwebs. Have you seen it? Do you know someone who might have had something to do with it? If you’ve happened upon a recent sighting or have any useful leads please include them in a comment below and we’ll see if we can finally track the Cabinet down.
It was a privilege to work with Greg and the wonderful group of artists and I’d rather like to know that their efforts are being well looked after somewhere…
Please help!
UPDATE 17 November: Reward offered!
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
[…] Has anyone seen my cabinet? In March 1997, a replica of the HMB Endeavour arrived in the UK from Australia. Aboard was a hand-crafted Cabinet of Curiosities……..Where is it now? Can you help? ….. Read more » […]
Tim hi,
what I thought had happened was that it went into the bowels of the Natural History Museum in London. Perhaps you could check there? I have lost the contact that We met when we presented it at Australia House who was in charge of archives including JB’s original Cabinets.
Nice to see the video again!
Greg
It’s an old post, but just in case any recent UK followers have information — ‘Has anyone seen my cabinet?’: http://t.co/BItZZak29X