Free monthly cataloguing clinics via Zoom. The clinics run for an hour from 11am – 12noon on the 4th Thursday of each month. It is a relaxed gathering of people who are finding their way through the intricacies of cataloguing material in historical collections which, as we all know, fall between a library and a museum with sometimes a bit of art gallery thrown in.

Following the 1938 annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, many members of Vienna’s vibrant Jewish community sought safe havens overseas to escape growing persecution. Amongst them were Michael and Regine Weiss and their family. Their story, as told through records held by the National Archives of Australia and other information provided by their descendants, reveals much about Australia’s attitudes towards Jewish refugees during these dark days.

Christina Browning, our new RHSV Marketing Manager, brings a wealth of experience to the RHSV - and not just in social media. Christina started her working life as a journalist before seguing into marketing. The forums are low-key and they not recorded. You can bring your questions and problems and you can also ask Christina
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Free monthly cataloguing clinics via Zoom. The clinics run for an hour from 11am – 12noon on the 4th Thursday of each month. It is a relaxed gathering of people who are finding their way through the intricacies of cataloguing material in historical collections which, as we all know, fall between a library and a museum with sometimes a bit of art gallery thrown in.

In June we are thrilled that Miles Lewis will be returning to the RHSV, in partnership with Engineering Heritage Victoria to talk about Iron Bridges. The earliest cast iron bridges imitated those in timber or stone, because there was no established idea of what an iron bridge should be like, and most of them were simple arches. But over the next century wrought iron, and then steel, became important bridge-building materials.  The arch bridge was joined by the suspension bridge, the box girder, the parallel-chorded girder, and even more elaborate forms.  And bridges fabricated in Europe were sent across the world to places like Latin America, Japan, and India.  Exported bridges faced special problems - the cost and difficulty of transporting the components, the lack of skilled labour at the site, and unexpected foundation problems and hydrological conditions. These prefabricated bridges will be the main focus of the presentation.

Christina Browning, our new RHSV Marketing Manager, brings a wealth of experience to the RHSV - and not just in social media. Christina started her working life as a journalist before seguing into marketing. The forums are low-key and they not recorded. You can bring your questions and problems and you can also ask Christina to tackle some specific issue in a future forum.

What can objects, photographs and recollections teach us about the history of childhood? In this talk, historian Carla Pascoe Leahy discusses the history of children’s play in the twentieth century, drawing upon evocative examples from her own research and Museums Victoria’s collections. Dr Carla Pascoe Leahy is an historian at the University of Tasmania where
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We are thrilled that Joan Beaumont, Professor Emerita of History at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University, will deliver our July lecture on her profound history of Australia’s Great Depression. Beaumont says, ‘The pandemic has much common with the Great Depression. Australians today have confronted external threats, that neither they nor their
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Free monthly cataloguing clinics via Zoom. The clinics run for an hour from 11am – 12noon on the 4th Thursday of each month. It is a relaxed gathering of people who are finding their way through the intricacies of cataloguing material in historical collections which, as we all know, fall between a library and a museum with sometimes a bit of art gallery thrown in.

On Sunday 31st of July, as part of Open House Melbourne, we will be offering free guided tours of the Australian Army Medical Corps Drill Hall which is now home to the RHSV and several performing arts companies. Our wonderful building is an art deco masterpiece built in 1938 as Australia and the rest of the world readied themselves for another world war.