FROM THE ARCHIVES
WILLIAM HOLMES AN EMPTY PICTURE FRAME SPARKED A PERSONAL QUEST FOR AMATEUR SLEUTH COLIN JOHNSTON.
enigma There have been just 16 directors in the Australian Museum’s 187-year history (with another, Kim McKay, due to take up the reins in April). Their photographs hang in two neat rows on the wall just inside the Museum’s William Street entrance. Walking past them each day, I was intrigued that two of the frames – those of William Holmes and William Galvin, the Museum’s first two custodians – were blank. Curiosity got the better of me, and I began to search for a portrait of Holmes or at least something about his life and times. SOURCES
My hopes of finding a portrait soon faded, as photography (invented in 1827) would have been in its infancy, and oil paintings were for the rich and powerful, not minor public servants. Turning to Ronald Strahan’s comprehensive history of the Museum, Rare and Curious Specimens, I was surprised to find only basic information about Holmes and a
Explore 36(1) Autumn/Winter 2014
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