The Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery (QVMAG) is a

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

located in

Launceston, Tasmania Launceston () is a city in the north of Tasmania, Australia, at the confluence of the North Esk River, North Esk and South Esk River, South Esk rivers where they become the Tamar River, Tasmania, Tamar River (kanamaluka). As of 2021, the Launc ...

, Australia. It is the largest museum in Australia not located in a capital city.

History

The foundation stone for the original building to house the Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery was laid by the Mayor of Launceston, Robert Carter, on 21 June 1887. Alexander Morton, of the museum in Hobart, acted as honorary curator from its opening in 1891 until 1896, with Herbert Hedley Scott assuming the role of curator in May 1897. In 1926 the Launceston City Council amended the name to Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery to avoid confusion with the state of Victoria. Scott died in 1938 and was succeeded as director by his son, Eric Oswald Gale Scott later that year.

Collection and locations

Established in 1891, the Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery has a strong reputation for its collection which includes fine exhibitions of colonial art, contemporary

craft A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale pr ...

and

design A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...

, Tasmanian history and

natural sciences Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

, specifically a

zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...

collection. There is also a special exhibition of a full

Chinese temple Chinese temple architecture refer to a type of structures used as place of worship of Chinese Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, or Chinese folk religion, where people revere ethnic Chinese gods and ancestors. They can be classified as: * '' mi� ...

that was used by 19th-century Chinese tin miners, a working

planetarium A planetarium (: planetariums or planetaria) is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetariums is ...

, and displays related to Launceston's industrial environment and

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

workshops. The museum also houses the

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious decoration of the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British decorations system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British ...

awarded to Lewis McGee. The Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery is located on two sites, at Royal Park and at Inveresk, the site of the old Launceston Railway Workshops

Publications

As part of its work, the QVMAG has published several journals relating to Tasmanian ecology and history. These include ''Records of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery'', ''Occasional Papers of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery'', ''Technical Reports of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery''.

Gallery

File:Launceston Earth Drill (Hamilton).JPG, ''Earth Drill'' File:Launceston Progress Sculpture.JPG, ''Progress''

References

External links