South Australian Museum

There had been earlier attempts at setting up mechanics' institutes in the colony, but they struggled to find buildings which could hold their library collections and provide spaces for lectures and entertainments. In 1856, the colonial government promised support for all institutes, in the form of provision the first government-funded purpose-built cultural institution building.[3][4] The South Australian Institute, incorporating a public library and a museum, was established in 1861[5] in the rented premises of the Library and Mechanics' Institute in King William Street while awaiting construction of the Institute building on the corner of North Terrace and Kintore Avenue.[6]

In June 1856 the South Australian Legislative Council passed Act No. 16 of 1855–6, the South Australian Institute Act (An Act to establish and incorporate an Institution to be called the South Australian Institute),[7][8] which incorporated the South Australian Institute under the control of a Board of Governors,[9] to whose ownership all materials belonging to the old Library and Mechanics' Institute was immediately transferred. The Act provided for a library and a museum as part of the new organisation.[9][10]

Frederick George Waterhouse offered his services as curator of the South Australian Institute Museum in June 1859 in an honorary capacity. When the Institute building was completed, the Board appointed him as the first curator, a position he held until his retirement in February 1882. He was succeeded by Wilhelm Haacke, who in January 1883 recommended the South Australian Institute Museum be renamed the South Australian Museum (which did not happen then), and the position of Curator be changed to Director. Haacke was appointed the first Director,[10] but only held the position until he resigned in October 1884 after a series of disputes with the Museum's management[11]

The Museum Act (1939) gave the South Australian Museum autonomy from the Art Gallery and Library, and the South Australian Institute Museum was officially renamed the South Australian Museum.[10][12] This legislation was superseded by the South Australian Museum Act (1976).[13][14] At some point between 1996 and 2002, the Museum became part of Arts SA.[15]

In 1997, championed by state Arts Minister Diana Laidlaw, the SA Museum was funded to develop its ground floor Australian Aboriginal Cultures Gallery.[16]

14 Pieces, based on the forms of ichthyosaur vertebrae.

The following decade, Mike Rann, Premier and Arts Minister from 2002 to 2011, funded the redevelopment of the Pacific Cultures Gallery and the development of the South Australian Biodiversity Gallery.[17] In October 2005, a piece of public art incorporating water, 14 Pieces, situated on the forecourt of the museum, was officially unveiled by the Premier. Created by artists Angela and Hossein Valamanesh and commissioned by the City of Adelaide, it replaced the Lavington Bonython fountain that had occupied the site from 1965. Its form is based on the vertebrae of an extinct marine reptile, the ichthyosaur.[18]

In 2011 Mr Rann appointed former Adelaide Lord Mayor and Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith AM as chair of the Museum Board.[19]

In November 2020 Mr Kim Cheater was appointed as Chair of the Museum Board.[20]

The South Australian government is committed to splitting the Museum, retaining a natural history museum on its existing site and creating a new gallery for Aboriginal art and culture on the site of the old Royal Adelaide Hospital,[25] now known as Lot Fourteen.[26] In early 2019 a consultation process was begun, involving the state government, the Museum, the Art Gallery of South Australia, the State Library, Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute and South Australia's Aboriginal communities, in particular the Kaurna.[27]

An update on the Lot Fourteen gallery was announced by Premier Steven Marshall in February 2020, with a scheduled completion date of 2023.[28]

The museum contains the most significant collection of Australian Aboriginal cultural artefacts in the world,[10] housing about 30,000 objects.[30] This collection, along with several others in the museum, is being digitised, with many images and a great deal of data about each item now available for online browsing.[31]

In 2016, a private benefactor, Margaret Davy AM, provided funding for a new position for an Indigenous curator for five years, which she requested be named in honour of her late husband, William Geary. This position is known as The William and Margaret Geary Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art and Material Culture, with the first appointee being Glenn Iseger-Pilkington, a Wadjarri, Nhanda and Nyoongar man from Western Australia with a background in art curating.[32] This was the first time in the history of the museum that a lead curatorial role had been designated for an Indigenous person, and it is hoped that the collection will be developed in a way informed by Indigenous voices and worldview, and also help to make it, in the words of Iseger-Pilkington, "more relevant and accessible to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities".[33]

The museum holds the biggest collection of carvings by Arrernte artist and anthropological interpreter Erlikilyika, also known as Jim Kite, who lived at the tiny and remote European settlement at Charlotte Waters telegraph station.[34] It also holds a bound sketchbook of 24 pencil drawings of native trees, created during the Spencer and Gillen expedition and bought by Herbert Basedow before being acquired by the Museum, as well as photographs of "Jimmy Kite" and other related materials.[35]

• Edgar Ravenswood Waite, zoologist, ichthyologist, herpetologist, and ornithologist, Director of the SA Museum 1914–1928.
• Amandus Heinrich Christian Zietz, zoologist, assistant director of the SA Museum 1900–1910.
• Sir Douglas Mawson, Antarctic explorer, geologist and academic, Honorary Curator of Minerals at SA Museum 1907–1958, and Chair of the Museum Board of Governors 1951-1958.[47]

• Philip Jones, senior curator, historian and award-winning author[48]
• Jared Thomas, Nukunu man and award-winning children's fiction author, playwright and poet,[49] is the William and Margaret Geary Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art and Material Culture (from May 2018 and as of April 2019). He is also Ambassador of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation, member of the Australia Council for the Arts Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Strategy Panel.[50]