"Founders of the Museum and the Women Who Shared Their Vision"
Sue Turner & Patricia Mather
The Queensland Museum celebrated
International Women’s Day 2004 with a special morning of lectures held at the
Queensland Art Gallery on March 13th. The
conveners were Dr Margaret Kowald and
Dr Judith Mackay of the Cultural Heritage and History Program and the event was
chaired by Dr Patricia Mather AO, biologist, curator (retd), Honorary Associate,
chief author and editor of Time for a Museum, the History of the Queensland
Museum (1986). (For Patricia’s story, see WISENET J65, Ed.).
The presentations covered the
beginning and early history of the Queensland Museum, featuring two of the men,
and their consorts, who also were their mates and friends. They shared their
vision, and were passionate about knowledge and understanding. They knew that
both could be achieved by scholarly studies of objects - in fact by creating a
museum. The founding few believed strongly that without the museum the quality
of life available to the community, and even its survival, would be prejudiced.
Margaret Kowald (head of Cultural
Heritage and History) spoke about Charles Coxen, accepted as the prime mover and
fi rst honorary curator of the museum. Judith McKay, told of the life and times
of his wife Elizabeth Coxen (née Gould), who effectively became the first paid
woman curator for her duty of arranging their shell collection. These pioneer
settlers on the Darling Downs and in Brisbane City ensured the study of natural
history gained its rightful place in the budding colony.
Palaeontologist and historian of science Dr Sue Turner (Honorary Research Fellow in the Queensland Museum) gave an appreciation of Heber A. Longman, who was a member and long-term Director of the museum over 35 years in the early to mid 20th century. She first recognised the depth of his geological skill and perception. From that her interest spread to the man himself, his life, beliefs and contributions to the community. In his life and work, which included finding the first dinosaurs and other big reptiles in Australia, he was aided by his wife, Irene Maud (née Bayley).
This theme was continued by Patricia Fallon, who in ‘retirement’ enrolled in
Griffith University as a mature age student and gained a Masters degree for her
study of Irene. As well as satisfying an intrinsic interest in this woman who
was the first female member of the Queensland parliament, Pat was challenged to
restore her rightful place in the history of Queensland.
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