[above: Reproduction of the list in AR 1870-71, pp.28-29, detailing Murphy’s donation] As mentioned, many of the casts originally selected for their general aesthetic and/or historical value to the Melbourne Public Library obviously came to be regarded increasingly as Gallery School assets, as the century progressed. Indeed, several groups of casts were clearly intended
[photo: Queen’s Reading Room, MPL, looking north (SLV H4740, accredited to Sears’ Studios, c.1910)] The initial group of casts ordered for Melbourne from Brucciani included “48 Busts of remarkable persons selected not for their artistic value, but for the celebrity of the persons represented”: see letter of 26 October 1860 from R.Chester Waters to Redmond
[photo: detail of one of Nettleton’s 1872 overviews of Melbourne’s cast collection (SLV H96.160/1790)] Casts are listed alphabetically by title, as they were in Melbourne’s early catalogues (1865 etc.). Dates of acquisition, e.g. {c.1860}, apply to the casts, which were purchased unless specified as donations (for details of individual donors, see Casts – Donors).
Most of Melbourne’s plaster casts were purchased from government funding for the MPL, especially in the early years of the formation of the art collection (1860-63). However, Redmond Barry also went to considerable pains during the same period to solicit donations from various individuals. These included a number of wealthy and/or prominent individuals, both in
The early engravings and photographs of Melbourne’s plaster casts, listed below, provide valuable information on the changing location and arrangement of the collection, as well as helping with identification of individual casts. Nos.1-3 document their initial exhibition in the first MPL building in the 1860s. Nos.4-8 and 10 show the casts in the Sculpture Gallery