Australian business leader donates unique early collection to National Maritime Museum Australian business leader donates unique early collection to National Maritime Museum  

The Australian National Maritime Museum is honoured to announce the first tranche of a donation of part of the personal collection from Australian business leader and collector, John Mullen AM and his wife Jacqui.

The gift, valued at several million dollars, is to be known as the John and Jacqui Mullen Collection and is one of the most significant acquisitions to the National Maritime Collection in its history.

Over the last 50 years, John Mullen has built an exceptional collection focusing on the early maritime history of Australia. This selection of manuscripts and objects includes rare and important primary records which provide invaluable insights into the emergence of European knowledge of the ‘Great South Land’, its coastlines, peoples, plants and animals from the early 1600s to the 1840s.

The collection includes Petrus Plancius’ coloured engraving of the known world in 1617, which depicts New Guinea and a landmass titled Beach to its south-west. It also includes the exceptionally rare Memorial No. 11 (1611) by Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, in which he sought the Spanish King’s support for a further voyage of discovery having, he thought, found evidence of a southern continent in 1607. 

Other significant works include the first volume of Melchisédec Thévenot’s Relations de divers Voyages Curieux, featuring the first complete French translation of the Dutch Commander Pelsaert’s account of the West Australian coastline and the wreck of the Batavia. The collection also holds a 1729 edition of William Dampier’s A New Voyage Around the World, acquired by Phillip Parker King in 1817.

The collection also contains the richly illustrated volumes produced by Louis de Freycinet following his 1817–1820 voyage through the Pacific, as well as a rare first edition of Dumont d’Urville’s account of his 1826-1829 scientific voyage in the Astrolabe. These are some of the most important published works by French explorers in the Pacific. 

Over the four years of d’Urville’s expedition, enormous amounts of scientific data and natural history specimens were gathered. These materials significantly increased European understanding of the history, topography and anthropology of Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific.

Also included in the Collection are important chronometers and a set of silver dinner plates owned by Viscount Sydney, providing a rare direct link to the city named in his honour. 

Also included in the Collection is a rare 1770 large, six sheet map of the world which has been updated with astronomer Sir Edmund Halley’s celestial observations. Halley later had the privilege of having a famous comet named after him.

This material is of national and international significance. It offers direct connections with the earliest Spanish voyages to the Pacific Ocean, the reshaping of European geopolitics, and the profound consequences of these encounters for Indigenous communities from Indonesia to New Guinea and Hawai'i. 

Through this material, we can trace the critical voyages of Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, British and French navigators who traversed the Pacific. These voyages expanded European knowledge and ambition in the Pacific world. The collection allows the museum to explore European perceptions of the lands and peoples of Australasia and the Pacific. It also provides a basis for considering the impacts of empire and the comparative knowledge systems of First Nations peoples and colonising powers, through both historic and contemporary frames.
 

John Mullen AM said, ‘Jacqui and I are delighted that this collection will now belong to the Australian people and be cared for by the Australian National Maritime Museum. These objects and manuscripts tell extraordinary stories about how the world came to understand this continent and its peoples, and we hope they will inspire curiosity, research and reflection for generations to come.’ 

Ms Daryl Karp AM, Director and CEO of the Museum said, ‘This collection represents the finest, most significant acquisition offered to the National Maritime Collection in its 35 years. It is a collection that museums have been formed around. We are so thankful to John and Jacqui for not only their generosity in giving this to the Australian public but also for John’s singular and discerning vision in amassing this collection.

‘This collection of objects greatly enhances the Museum’s capacity to tell the story of the emergence of knowledge and the Great South Land in Europe since the early 1600s.’

Curator of the exhibition Dr Kimberley Webber said, ‘John and Jacqui Mullen’s extraordinary gift enables the museum to tell the stories of early European interest in the southern continent, and the courage, skills and determination of the adventurers who sought to learn more about it. Importantly, it also includes first-hand accounts that document some of the earliest encounters between Europeans and First Nations peoples, providing a rich resource for exhibition, research and teaching.’ 

Selected items from the John and Jacqui Mullen Collection are on display at the museum from July 23.

The John and Jacqui Mullen Collection was donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program by John Mullen AM and Jacqui Mullen. The exhibition is presented with the support of the Australian National Maritime Museum Foundation.