Macleay Museum, Natural history museum at University of Sydney, Australia
The Macleay Museum was a natural history museum at the University of Sydney holding about 79,000 objects, including insect specimens, ethnographic items, scientific instruments, and historical photographs. Its entire collection has been permanently relocated to the Chau Chak Wing Museum on the same campus, where visitors can now access all these materials.
The museum was founded in 1887 and spent most of its existence in the Edgeworth David Building before closing in 2016. Its collections grew from early scientific missions that took place during the beginnings of scientific exploration in Australia.
The collection holds materials from Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, and Pacific Islander communities gathered during early scientific expeditions. You can see handcrafted tools, textiles, and everyday objects that reflect how these people lived.
The original building is on the University of Sydney campus, but visitors now head to the Chau Chak Wing Museum, where all the collections are housed today. This new location is also on campus and easy to find, with clear signage and open galleries to explore the different exhibits.
The collection includes rare specimens contributed by Charles Darwin and Sir Stamford Raffles, making it one of the earliest windows into scientific exploration of Australia. These valuable objects show how naturalists from abroad helped build understanding of local wildlife and plants.
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