From Science to Heritage: the History of a Wood Collection

Abstract

There is a process by which scientific collections become heritage. The case of a wood collection, or xylarium, at the Australian National University (ANU) is discussed from its start in the Commonwealth Forestry Bureau in 1926, its association with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research/Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation from 1928, its transfer to ANU in 1965, its manifold uses at ANU, and its decline and heritage assessment in 2011. The collection, consisting of 8,400 wood samples, microscope slides, panels and artefacts, was used for teaching forestry students, research into wood anatomy, and for identifying timber. Its future is uncertain.