The Powerhouse Museum has partnered with the Westmead Institute for Medical Research (WIMR) to build a collection in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the nation.
In a statement, the Museum said the partnership would assist it to collect medical and scientific material related to the development of a COVID-19 vaccine, contact tracing research and technology, as well as stories from lead researchers and the patients they worked with.
“The Powerhouse has continued to acquire materials relating to the COVID-19 pandemic to document the global crisis for the nation,” the Museum said.
“The Coronavirus (COVID-19) Collection aims to record the scientific, economic, cultural and social impact the outbreak has had on Australia,” it said.
“The Coronavirus (COVID-19) Collection will capture the urgency of the time; the collaborative nature of the responses; the medical treatment and research; systems of communication and technological innovation; and cultural and artistic expression including data interpretation, and expressions of the care, fear and resilience demonstrated by people and communities.”
The Museum said the collection would reflect the immediacy of the initial wave of the pandemic in Australia through to the era of learning to live with the virus.
Chief Executive of the Powerhouse Museum, Lisa Havilah said the COVID-19 Collection continued the collecting work the Powerhouse had undertaken over the past 140 years.
“The Museum’s health and medicine collection documents the influence of different diseases on Australian communities and medical innovations developed to track, test and treat these outbreaks, from samples of penicillin mould grown by Sir Howard Florey through to early vaccination tools for the prevention of small pox,” Ms Havilah said.
