Botanical Model Collection

School of BioSciences Botanical Model Collection.

Dr. Auzoux's Models of Plants and Plant Organs, ranging in price from 20 to 100 francs, and ten times the size of life, form a luxuriant assistance to beginners, which only those can appreciate who have worn out their eyesight and their temper over a composite floret or the glume of a small grass.

Tuckwell, W. 1869. Science teaching in schools. Nature, 1: 18-20

The School of BioSciences is custodian to a significant collection of approximately 150 botanical models.  The models are enlarged representations of plants, fungi, and bacteria, documenting the various life cycle stages of these lineages, and demonstrating their anatomy and morphology. The models are made from various materials: papier-mâché, fabric-mâché, wood, metal, brass, plaster, various types of hairs, and gelatine, to name a few.

The first models in the collection were donated to the University of Melbourne by the Department of Agriculture in 1908. The first professor of Botany at the University of Melbourne, Alfred Ewart, was likely instrumental in procuring the models.

The School of BioScience’s models were handmade by three producers: Auzoux and Les Fils d’Emile Deyrolle in France and R. Brendel & Co in Germany. During the second half of the nineteenth century models were sought after for botanical and zoological teaching as they were structurally accurate and enabled observation and handling in the classroom environment. The models in our collection were likely chosen by Professor Ewart for use in the range of Botany subjects taught during the early twentieth century, which emphasized training to support Australia’s primary industries.

The botanical models were used for teaching until the early 1980s. The models are now, once again, being used in object-based science teaching, through the creation of high-resolution and 3D digital images, see for example this 3D model of the Cocoa [Theobroma cacao (Malvaceae)] model from this collection.

Centre for Cultural Material Conservation (CCMC) Masters of Conservation students work with these models to learn museum object preservation and conservation skills.  It is with thanks to the CCMC students that the models are slowly being restored to their former glory.

Image credits: Images were created by Ben Kreunen of the University Digitisation Centre, Student and Scholarly Services and Laura Moschner, a Cultural Materials Conservation Masters student, with funding provided by the University Museums & Collection Department.