Cultural Heritage
The Cultural Heritage team cares for and collects items that explore the social history of Tasmania.
The collection captures the life and times of both historical and contemporary Tasmania.
It seeks to answer questions such as:
- What is it like to live in Tasmania?
- What do Tasmanians value, and how have our values changed over time?
- What do Tasmanians bring to the world that is unusual, or special?
The types of items held by the Cultural Heritage collection is as broad as the stories of our lives: from three-dimensional objects to documents and photographs, we look to collect objects that represents Tasmanian life and times.
The collection's strengths include:
- Tasmanian social and maritime history,
- the Armed Services,
- Antarctica and the Southern Ocean,
- convictism,
- medical and pharmaceutical history, and
- world coins.
The Cultural Heritage collection is made up of almost 200,000 items and is always growing to better represent both Tasmanian history and our shared contemporary experiences.
When thinking about collecting Cultural Heritage items, we consider the history of the object and its ability to speak to significant moments, people or places connected to Tasmania: the provenance of where something has come from, how it was used and who owned it are crucial. It is these details that make something a valuable addition to the State Collection.
If you are considering donating items related to Tasmania’s First People’s, please reach out to our First People’s Art and Culture team.