Significance 2.0: a guide to assessing the significance of collections
Roslyn Russell, Kylie Winkworth
© Commonwealth of Australia, 2010
ISBN 97 80977544363 (pbk)
Distributed collections and significance: Ned Kelly's story across collections
Armour worn by Ned Kelly and members of his gang is held in collections around Australia. This helmet is from the State Library of Victoria's collection, and was shown in the National Library's travelling exhibition, National treasures from Australia's great libraries (2005–07) Reproduced courtesy of the Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria
Perhaps no other story in Australian history has exerted such a strong influence on our visual and literary culture as that of the outlaw or 'bushranger' Ned Kelly, and his gang. It has inspired artists and musicians, historians and novelists, film and documentary makers and cultural tourists, and evoked a range of opinions about the outlaws. Were Ned Kelly and his gang vicious murderers, or champions of the poor and oppressed? Was Ned, their leader, a hero or a villain?
The diversity of collections relating to Ned Kelly underlines the need for a common language to describe the meaning and values of objects, documents, works of art and heritage places. The following 'statement of significance' introduces a presentation of Kelly memorabilia.
Statement of significance
A website devoted to Ned Kelly, Ironoutlaw, claims that 'From stamps to movies to the opening of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Ned Kelly has become one with the Australian psyche'.[18] Material held in archives and art galleries, libraries and museums across Australia has allowed Kelly's story to be researched, viewed, and interpreted for over a century. Preserved at the time when the exploits of Ned Kelly and his gang were capturing the attention of Australian colonists of the 1870s and 1880s, items and collections relating to Ned Kelly have been mined ever since to tell his story and to explain its grip on the nation's consciousness. These items and collections are thus of great historical significance. Australian artist Sidney Nolan in his Ned Kelly series of paintings created an icon–a stylised black helmet–that acts as a visual shorthand for Kelly's story, and evokes instant recognition in Australians, a distinction it shares with only a handful of other works of art created in this country. Nolan's Ned Kelly series is thus of great artistic significance for its evocation of the stark figure of Kelly framed in the vibrant colours of the Australian landscape, and for the pathos of his story captured in paint. Kelly's story is still being investigated at archaeological sites such as that of the siege of Glenrowan, where excavated material has research potential to shed more light on those fateful events. And the enduring story of Ned Kelly, described as 'our greatest folk hero' and 'one of the unsuspecting fathers of Australian nationalism' by the Ironoutlaw website, has immense social significance as successive generations of Australians identify with aspects of his story.
The Jerilderie letter, State Library of Victoria and National Museum of Australia
The Jerilderie letter has been described as Ned Kelly's 'manifesto'. Around 8000 words long, it was dictated by Ned Kelly to Joe Byrne in February 1879, and conveys his pleas of innocence, and his passionate desire for justice both for his family and for the poor Irish selectors of Victoria's north-east. It is one of only two documents by Ned Kelly to have survived, and the only one with a direct link to the Kelly gang and the events with which they were associated. The Jerilderie letter brings Ned Kelly's distinctive voice to life, and offers a unique insight into the man behind the legend.[19] The National Museum of Australia holds a digital copy of the Jerilderie letter.
Archaeology at Glenrowan, privately owned site
In June 1880 Ned Kelly and his gang held local people hostage at the Ann Jones Inn, Glenrowan, Victoria, while they attempted to fend off an attack by Victorian Police that ended in a shoot-out. Kelly was captured, and the other gang members were killed. The incident left behind a wealth of material culture—seven and a half thousand items—that was recovered in archaeological digs on the Inn site from 2006. The physical evidence of the battle tells us much about the course and direction of the Police attack, and where the gang members reloaded their rifles before resuming the defence. The online Victorian Heritage Database has a statement of significance for the site.[20]
Kelly in fiction, State Library of Victoria
Australian novelist Peter Carey won the Booker prize in 2001 with his best-selling novel, True History of the Kelly Gang, written in similar language to that used by Ned Kelly. Peter Carey's papers in the State Library of Victoria (MS 13475) contain a draft of what was later published as True History of the Kelly Gang. The papers also include notes Carey kept when he was compiling the work, as well as photographs and twig, plant and leaf samples.
McIntyre manuscript, Victoria Police Museum
The Victoria Police Museum holds two copies of a manuscript written by Thomas McIntyre, the only policeman to survive the murders of police by the Kelly gang at Stringybark Creek on 26 October 1878. He became the only living witness to give evidence at Kelly's trial, apart from Ned Kelly himself. The manuscript gives his account of the massacre at Stringybark Creek.
Ned Kelly's sash, Benalla Costume and Pioneer Museum
This sash was awarded to ten-year-old Ned Kelly for heroism, after rescuing a young person from drowning.
It illustrates the esteem that his community held him in and indicates that that Ned Kelly also valued life.
Reproduced courtesy of the Benalla Costume and Pioneer Museum, Benalla and District Historical Society Inc.
A young neighbour of the Kellys at Avenel, Richard Shelton, nearly drowned when he fell from a footbridge while crossing a creek on his way to school in 1865, but was saved by Ned Kelly, then ten years old. The grateful Shelton family gave Kelly a silk cummerbund or sash as a thank you gift. The 2.21 metre x 21 centimetre sash was found on Kelly's injured body after the siege of Glenrowan in 1880.
Sidney Nolan and Ned Kelly, National Gallery of Australia
Sidney Nolan's creation of an abstracted helmet with an oblong eyeslit has become a visual icon for the Ned Kelly story, and has been featured widely as an instantly recognisable Australian image, including its use in the opening ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. Paintings in Nolan's Ned Kelly series are in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, in the Canberra Museum and Gallery and in private collections.
Kelly papers, Public Record Office Victoria
The Kelly papers held by the Public Record Office Victoria are the primary documentary evidence of Ned Kelly's story and provide detailed factual information on Kelly, his gang members, family and supporters. The hundreds of official Kelly papers at PROV are the largest and most intact collection of historic documents on the subject, and range from the earliest police reports in the Kelly saga to the court records of Kelly's trial. The papers, dating from the 1850s to 1882, also document the reform of the Victorian Police Force as a result of the 1881 Royal Commission on the Police Force of Victoria, which was reviewed at the time of the Kelly breakout. The records provide substantial material evidence of the life and career of Australia's most notorious outlaw.[21]
The Story of the Kelly Gang, National Film and Sound Archive
Still from The Story of the Kelly Gang 1906
Reproduced courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive
Made in Australia in 1906 by Charles Tait, and believed to be the first full-length feature film (60 minutes) to be produced in the world, The Story of the Kelly Gang was a success in Australia, New Zealand and Britain. It is a testament to the birth of the Australian film industry, and exerted an influence on modern cinema production. The surviving seventeen minutes of fragments of the The Story of the Kelly Gang, along with its promotional booklet that gives a context for the tale, have historical significance as the first Australian narrative film, and as signifying the foundation of a vigorous Australian film-making industry. The film has creative significance as the surviving original filmic representation of the Kelly bushranger legend.[22]
Photograph of Edward (Ned) Kelly aged 25, shortly before his execution in November 1880. From the Kelly papers collection PROV, VPRS 515/P0 Central Register of Male Prisoners, Unit 17, No.10926
Photo: Charles Nettleton
Reproduced with the permission of the Keeper of Public Records, Public Record Office Victoria, Australia
IMG_7991 Aerial Photograph of Anne Jones Inn, Glenrowan, Victoria,
June 2008
Reproduced courtesy of Ken A Mackenzie OAM
Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang (2001)
Reproduced courtesy of University of Queensland Press
The McIntyre manuscript and illustration of Ned Kelly's Trial
Reproduced courtesy of the Victoria Police Museum and Historical Unit
Sidney Nolan Ned Kelly 1946
Enamel on composition board 90.8 x 121.5 cm
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Gift of Sunday Reed 1977
Letter written by Edward (Ned) Kelly to Sergeant James Babington of the Kyneton Police 28 July 1870. From the Kelly papers collection PROV, VPRS 937/P0, Inward Registered Correspondence [Victoria Police], Unit 272, 1870/D7256
Reproduced with the permission of the Keeper of Public Records, Public Record Office Victoria, Australia
This letter is the only extant example of Kelly's handwriting apart from a few signatures