Museum of Economic Botany, within Adelaide botanic garden, a brilliant lone survivor in Australia from 1881
Papier-mâché models of fungi, made as educational guides in Germany in the 1880s, are part of exhibits at the Santos Museum of Economic Botany.
The last of its kind in Australia, the Santos Museum of Economic Botany, within the Adelaide Botanic Garden on North Terrace, presented a permanent plant materials collection that was mostly from its opening in 1881.
The museum was instigated and developed by the botanic garden’s first director Richard Schomburgk, who drew on his international network of like-minded botanists to gather a wealth of content. The plant materials on display ranged from essential oils, gums and resins, fibre plants, dyes, food and beverage plants and fibres. It was inspired by the museum at London's Kew Gardens, opened in 1847.
The Adelaide museum, at its opening in 1881, displayed 3,500 objects specifically designed to show the link between the raw material and the final consumer product. It demonstrated the practical, medicinal and economic use of plant materials, with a focus on minimising waste. The museum in the early 21st Century displayed more than 3,000 specimens, representing 99% of collected material.
The museum regularly hosted contemporary art exhibitions, such as Tamar Dean's photographic exhibition as part of the 2018 Adelaide Festival Biennial.
Among features of the museum were the fruit model showcase with life-like papier-mâché fruit models, made in Germany, used to educate farmers on establishing crops in the 1800s. The adjoining fungi model showcased 210 papier-mâché models, mixed with actual fungi, in different stages of growth. Artist Fiona Hall’s Grove cabinet of curiosities explored the relationship between nature and culture. The present blended with the past in designer Khai Liew’s exhibition space, a distinctive installation in timber and brass.
With its Greek-revival style facade, the museum was listed on the former register of the national estate in 1980 and on the South Australian heritage register in 1982.
