AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Scientific genius, star curator, tortured soul. The remarkable life of Allan Riverstone McCulloch.
'Allan Riverstone McCulloch (1885–1925) was a leading scientist and illustrator, and the Australian Museum’s most senior curator and its star exhibition designer, yet history has ignored his many contributions. Was it due to politics at the Australian Museum? McCulloch’s mental health problems? Or because he stole sacred objects from villages when he travelled to Papua New Guinea with acclaimed photographer and cinematographer Frank Hurley?
'This book, by long-time museum employee Brendan Atkins, reveals McCulloch’s scientific genius, artistic talents and his crucial role in the development of the Australian Museum. It also explores his life outside the museum and his demons.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Brendan Atkins, The Naturalist : The Remarkable Life of Allen Riverstone McCulloch
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society , June vol. 109 no. 1 2023; (p. 105)
— Review of The Naturalist : The Remarkable Life of Allan Riverstone McCulloch 2022 single work biography -
A Museum’s Fall Guy
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: Inside Story , December 2022;
— Review of The Naturalist : The Remarkable Life of Allan Riverstone McCulloch 2022 single work biography'Why was a successful scientist and gifted artist airbrushed out of history?'
-
Museum Life : A Thoughtful Illumination of a Complex Man
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 449 2022; (p. 23)
— Review of The Naturalist : The Remarkable Life of Allan Riverstone McCulloch 2022 single work biography'The Australian Museum is starting to develop something of a literary landscape of its own. This is not so much through official publications such as Ronald Strahan’s Rare and Curious Specimens (1979) or the flagship magazine in its various incarnations from Australian Natural History to Explore. Rather, it is through more creative or expansive stories of the weird, wonderful, and personable, from Tim Flannery’s amusingly fictionalised historical recounting of The Mystery of the Venus Island Fetish (2014) to James Bradley’s disturbing future fiction The Deep Field (1999). Museum spaces – front and back of house – have an intriguing capacity to inspire and document their own strange and evolving histories.' (Introduction)
-
Museum Life : A Thoughtful Illumination of a Complex Man
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 449 2022; (p. 23)
— Review of The Naturalist : The Remarkable Life of Allan Riverstone McCulloch 2022 single work biography'The Australian Museum is starting to develop something of a literary landscape of its own. This is not so much through official publications such as Ronald Strahan’s Rare and Curious Specimens (1979) or the flagship magazine in its various incarnations from Australian Natural History to Explore. Rather, it is through more creative or expansive stories of the weird, wonderful, and personable, from Tim Flannery’s amusingly fictionalised historical recounting of The Mystery of the Venus Island Fetish (2014) to James Bradley’s disturbing future fiction The Deep Field (1999). Museum spaces – front and back of house – have an intriguing capacity to inspire and document their own strange and evolving histories.' (Introduction)
-
Brendan Atkins, The Naturalist : The Remarkable Life of Allen Riverstone McCulloch
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society , June vol. 109 no. 1 2023; (p. 105)
— Review of The Naturalist : The Remarkable Life of Allan Riverstone McCulloch 2022 single work biography -
A Museum’s Fall Guy
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: Inside Story , December 2022;
— Review of The Naturalist : The Remarkable Life of Allan Riverstone McCulloch 2022 single work biography'Why was a successful scientist and gifted artist airbrushed out of history?'
