Collections

Three collections, millions of items, unlimited stories

Museums of History NSW is the new home of three of the state’s most significant and fascinating collections. Dive in and explore.

Stories from our collections

Browse all
https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/styles/juicebox_square_thumbnail/public/Galleries/Sydney%20Opera%20House/12708_00004.jpg?itok=nuDilYgu

The Sydney Opera House Books

Significant publications and reports on the Sydney Opera House project, including the rules for the design competition, plans, drawings and photographs at various stages of the construction

Onlookers stand behind barriers watching the streets being cleaned with fire hoses. Policemen stand on the road in front of the crowds

Purging Pestilence – Plague!

The Bubonic Plague hit Sydney in January 1900. Spreading from the waterfront, the rats carried the plague throughout the city. Within eight months 303 cases were reported and 103 people were dead

Original glass plate negatives from the NSW Police Forensic Photography Archive arranged on a lightbox.

Glass-plate photography

The collection of glass-plate negatives held in the State Archives and Justice & Police Museum are endlessly fascinating and revealing

Detail of the four poster bed and beaded watch pockets in the Principal bedroom, Vaucluse House

Watch pockets

Watch pockets hung on the head cloth of a four-post bedstead and originally served in place of bedside tables, which were uncommon in the 19th century

Acquisition of the John and Phyllis Murphy wallpaper collection

Wall to wall: a marvellous wallpaper collection

A remarkable donation of over 3000 wallpaper samples by John and Phyllis Murphy adds to our existing collection to form Australia’s largest repository of historic wallpapers

'Kioto', a house on the Belltrees estate, Scone, 1893

Home in the Hunter

The Hunter Region is the traditional home of the Wonnarua people. The first European settlers arrived in the 1820s, mainly squatters who claimed large areas of land on which to graze sheep

Two women on the steps of a sandstone building. One is crouching and holding a wooden tool, an axe rests beside her. The other and one sits on the step at a easel, under an umbrella

Queering the Interior: London, New York, Sydney, 1882–1929

Design practices of five figures from queer history: Irish playwright and poet Oscar Wilde, American actress and interior designer Elsie de Wolfe, and Australian artists Eirene Mort, Roy de Maistre and Adrian Feint (1894–1971)