Museum display shows 230 years of Victoria’s history

Visitors to the National Museum will, from Monday, see a chronological history of Victoria over the past 230 years.


The exhibition – Celebrating the 230th anniversary of Victoria, from 1778 to 2008 – shows through pictures, posters and leaflets the development of our capital since its foundation.

The display was mounted in December last year but has been repeated by popular demand, especially from schools whose students are doing research on the subject.

Senior curator Bella Rose explaining the salient points of the exhibition which opens on Monday

The museum’s senior curator, Bella Rose, said most people have only a dim idea of what Victoria looked like in the past, but the exhibition could change that for them.

“People visit or pass through the town every day, without really knowing much about it, or what it looked like in the past,” she said.

“The exhibition will also feature the five districts found within the Victoria boundaries – Mont Buxton, English River, Bel Air, Mont Fleuri and St Louis.”

The posters are both in colour and black and white, with some made at a time when colour printing was not available. There are other items to complement the display, such as a showcase depicting the landslide of 1862, which covered part of Gordon Square – now Freedom Square – an original statuette of Queen Victoria, a model of the clock tower and photographs of its unveiling.

There is also an artist’s impression of Lieutenant Charles Routier de Romainville, who was one of the key people in creating the town.

Miss Rose is asking that the general public, not only students, come to visit the exhibition and learn some interesting facts about Victoria.

The show is part of the museum’s programme to have an exhibition every three months, and this one will run until October 31. The next quarterly exhibition will be about Seychelles’ traditional architecture and is set to open on November 2.
http://www.nation.sc/index.php?art=16614

I.H.