RARE & CURIOUS: The Secret History of Governor Macquarie’s Collectors’ Chest with Elizabeth Ellis

The Macquarie Collectors’ Chest is an antipodean cabinet of curiosities. It is associated with Australia’s longest serving 19th century governor, Lachlan Macquarie, and contains amazing arrays of preserved natural history specimens in hidden compartments covered by painted panels. Elizabeth will tell the story of the creation of the chest and its travels and return to Australia after languishing in a Scottish castle until the late 20th century.

Elizabeth Ellis is the Emeritus Curator at the Mitchell Library in Sydney and a former Mitchell Librarian. Her publications include Rare & Curious about the Macquarie Collectors’ Chest and a biography of colonial artist Conrad Martens.

Macquarie Collectors’ Chest, Australian, circa 1818, reproduced courtesy of the Mitchell Library, Sydney