Page 15 - Pharmacy History 22 Mar 2004

The CSL Collection finds a new home at Museum Victoria
by Dr Nurin Veis – Senior Curator of Human Biology and Medicine, Museum Victoria
After 10 years of negotiations Museum Victoria has acquired the Commonwealth Serum
Laboratories (CSL) Collection.
CSL was founded in 1916 to
provide life-saving products to Australians isolated by war. The organisation made significant contributions to public health. In 1994 CSL Limited was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and has achieved considerable success in the international market for bioproducts.
The collection covers a period of 1916-1984 in the history of CSL and is predominantly made up of items that cover a range of the scientific activities carried out within the institution. The objects were originally collected by CSL staff and volunteers for the CSL Museum that was once located at the CSL site at Parkville, in the Heritage Victoria-listed Jennerian Building.
The collection was offered to Museum Victoria after the closure of the CSL Museum. It consists of those objects that were exhibited at the CSL Museum and other additional objects stored on the site.
Museum Victoria undertook extensive consultation with various groups and individuals whilst researching the
CSL collection. They include Health and Medicine Museums, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Powerhouse Museum, Medical History Museum at the University of Melbourne, a retired member of the CSL Museum Committee, as well as the archivist and management at CSL Ltd.
Museum Victoria has acquired about 700 objects, three-quarters of the original collection housed at CSL. The objects that have been selected cover the following main areas:
Figure 1: The Jennerian Building, built at the turn of the century to provide accomodation for smallpox vaccination.
• CSL’s historic involvement in the development of penicillin, insulin, antivenoms, vaccines, diagnostic products, veterinary products
and blood products. They include penicillin product packs from the 1940s-1980s, hormones from the 1920s-1970s, snake-catching sticks, vaccines from 1919-1980s, blood products from the 1920s-1950s and kymographs from the 1920s and 1960s.
• Examples of old laboratory practice. Objects include timing clocks, balances,
a photometer, laboratory glassware, examples of laboratory furniture, copper heating coils and flocculation testing racks.
• Examples of laboratory practice specific to CSL. They include a sample-case with
65 sample bottles from the 1930s, a microscope used
by the first Chief Executive of CSL, CSL bottle labels, examples of office materials and culture media produced
by CSL.
Some material did not meet Museum Victoria’s criteria for acquisition. These include general office furniture, building equipment, examples of objects that already exist within
the Museum collection and where the CSL items lack provenance to a specific research area, and multiples of objects (where only one or two examples have been selected).
Figure 2: Dr.William Penfold, first director of CSL.
volume 2 ■ no 23 ■ July 2004
Pharmacy History Australia ■ 15