what's in store? shopping in australia 1880-1930
DESCRIPTION
This provides a visual map of the exhibition, ‘What’s in store? Shopping in Australia 1880-1930’. It helps teachers highlight major themes, AV, interactives and key objects to students before the visit. Most of the key objects are hyperlinked either to the Museum Online Collection Database or relevant online resources for easy reference. It also features relevant online resources and education programs that are available.TRANSCRIPT
What’s in store? Shopping in Australia
1880 - 1930
Cash register
Pre-visit exhibition slideshow
-: Powerhouse Museum Learning :-
What’s in storeexhibition
entrance from the Steam
revolution side
What’s in storeexhibition entrance
from the King Cinema side
1. The city store: selling in a modern world 2. The general store: a universal provider3. The Wong family: a story of migration and heritage
Exhibition entrance next to Kings Cinema
Kings cinema
The steam revolution
Entry
Exhibition entrance next to Steam revolution
Exhibition floor plan
‘… in Pitt Street and George Street you will find “commercial palaces” equal to those in London itself.’
1. The City Store focuses on the rise of the modern city department store and the dominance of brand names and advertising at the end of the 1800s. It also highlights technological advances in handling money, from the cash register to the centralised cash exchange system.
Many Australians enjoyed a high standard of living in the late 1800s. Wealth generated by gold and wool exports, together with the expansion of cities and general prosperity, created a revolution in shops and shopping.
Sydney’s Anthony Hordern’s lavish displays designed to tempt customers. Centralised cash exchange system
The Bushells tea window display: It was produced by the Sydney firm O’Brien’sPublicity Services. It cleverly combined Bushell’s established use of exotic imagery with a familiar scene of middle-class domesticity.
AV: A retail story(19 minutes)
Bushells tea window display
2. The General Store: a universal provider It explores the intimate relationship between local communities and their stores by telling the story of a pioneering Chinese–Australian family, the Wongs, and the small shop they ran on their grazing property near Crookwell, New South Wales.
Shopping by post
A world of goods
Sound body and mind
‘I will pay you after …’
Providing for a community
Interactive: Mail-order shopping, 1911Try dressing a country teacher’s family and
find out the cost of your selection.
Shopping by post:connecting city and
country
‘I will pay you after …’:credit at the Wongs’ store
A world of goods:Bolong and international trade
On display are objects from the Wong family’s store which operated between 1880 and 1916 on a sheep farm at Bolong, north of Crookwell in New South Wales.
Making do:drapery at the store
Sound body and mind: health and education supplies
A world of goods:Bolong and international trade
Providing for a community: from the cradle to the graveLike other small general storekeepers, the Wongs provided more than just merchandise. Their store was an important economic and cultural resource for the community.
Objects from the Wong Sat collection
AV: The Wong family storeRunning time: 15 minutes
Wong Sat and Amelia
A cultured household:books, figurines, magazine and riding crop
3. The Wong family: a story of migration and heritage Chinese-born Wong Sat and his English-born wife Amelia Hackney ran a general store on the NSW goldfields, and then further south at Bolong, near Crookwell, from the 1880s to 1916. This section explores the story of the Wong family and the community in which they lived.
Amateur photography:Henry Wong’s camera equipment
Chinese shop objects
Abacus
Guang Yu Long Trading House
Home delivery: shop wagonThis wagon belonged to Sat and Amelia Wong who ran a general store at Bolong, near Crookwell, NSW, from the 1880s to 1916. They used it to pick up goods from as far away as Goulburn (nearly 50 km, at least two days travel, away) and to make deliveries to nearby properties. The wagon was made by the Sydney Carriage Company around 1870.
Online resources1. What’s in store? exhibition and exhibition teachers notes,
http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/exhibitions/whats_in_store.php
2. Transport exhibition teachers notes and pre-visit slideshow, http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/exhibitions/transport.asp
3. Locomotive No. 1 exhibition teachers notes and pre-visit slideshow, http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/exhibitions/locomotive1.asp
4. History of Rail in Australia, http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/rail/trains/history.aspx
Relevant education program
1. Life in the Gold Rush workshop for yrs 5-6 http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/pdf/education/Education_brochure_July2012.pdf
Image credit: All images used are from the Powerhouse Museum collection
-: Powerhouse Museum Learning :-