P006606 revised AU-VU:EOAS Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation

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 English AACR2 Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules Corporate Body created 2019-10-15 human Helen Cohn updated 2025-11-20 human https://www.eoas.info/biogs/P006606b.htm corporateBody Botanical Museum of Melbourne Colony of Victoria AACR2 Phytologic Museum of Melbourne 26 January 1853 December 1896 Start Place South Yarra, Victoria, Australia The Botanical Museum of Melbourne dated from 26 January 1853 with the appointment of Ferdinand Mueller as Victoria's first Government Botanist. Between then and 1896 Mueller assembled for the Victorian Government an herbarium of over 1,000,000 Australian and international specimens, a significant scientific and cultural asset for the Government. These specimens came from: Mueller's exertions as a collector and explorer throughout Australia; the many people who send him specimens; Mueller's paid collectors; and the purchase of significant collections from Australia and overseas. The work of the Museum was principally Mueller's research in describing from the specimens the many Australian plants then unknown to science, and in providing a plant identification service to government officers and the public. Between 1857 and 1873 the Museum was joined with the Melbourne Botanic Gardens, Mueller also holding office as Director of the Gardens. From 1873 the specimen labels used by Mueller in the Museum were headed "Phytologic Museum of Melbourne". In December 1896 the Museum was gazetted as the National Herbarium of Victoria.

The Museum was administratively under a number of different Victorian colonial Government authorities:
1853 - 1857 Chief Secretary's Department
1857 - Board of Lands and Works
1857 - 1867 Chief Secretary's Department
1867 - 1872 Commissioner of Crown Lands and Survey
1872 - 1873 Department of Agriculture (subordinate to the Department of Crown Lands and Survey until 1890)
1873 - 1896 Chief Secretary's Department

 French, Charles Hamilton (1868 - 1950)

Herbarium Assistant 1883 - 1895

 French, Charles (1842 - 1933)

Herbarium Assistant 1884 - 1889

 Blandowski, Johann Wilhelm Theodor Ludwig von (William) (1822 - 1878)

Blandowski's South Australian plant collections were acquired in 1863 as part of the Steetz Herbarium

 Mueller, Ferdinand Jakob Heinrich von (1825 - 1896)

Government Botanist 1853 - 1896

 Wilhelmi, Johann Friederich Carl (1829 - 1884)

Acting Government Botanist 1855 - 1856

 Luehmann, Johann Georg (1843 - 1904)

Clerk (Assistant Botanist) 1869 - 1891; Deputy Government Botanist 1891 - 1896

 National Herbarium of Victoria (1896 - ) 'Botanical Museum of Melbourne', in Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, Centre for Transformative Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology Botanical Museum of Melbourne Swinburne University of Technology, Centre for Transformative Innovation Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Book: Nature's art revealed: 150 years of botanical art at the National Herbarium of Victoria 1853-2003 Cohn, Helen M.; and Thurlow, J. Nature's art revealed: 150 years of botanical art at the National Herbarium of Victoria 1853-2003 South Yarra, Vic. National Herbarium of Victoria 2003 Thesis: Some Foundations of Science in Victoria in the Decade After Separation Cohn, Helen M. Some Foundations of Science in Victoria in the Decade After Separation Melbourne University of Melbourne 1990