Visitor Profile July 2017

Ella Whitehead was with the Grainger Museum for one week in June as part of her work experience, and here shares her favourite parts.

Was this your first time visiting the Grainger Museum?

This is my second time visiting the Grainger Museum, I've visited before with my Dad.

Why did you want to undertake work experience here?

I wanted to do work experience at a museum. I thought that this one would be a good one to do it at as it is a smaller museum. At a bigger museum, such as Melbourne Museum, I was worried that I might not get to experience as many things. But here, I was able to experience many enjoyable aspects of working in a museum, such as working with the rare books, working on archives and working in the museum.

What was most interesting about your time at the Grainger Museum?

I enjoyed learning about Percy’s relationship with his mother, and being able to see the relationship played out in the archives I was working on. I was looking at address books and processing them for the Grainger archives.

Were you surprised by any aspects of undertaking work experience at the Grainger Museum?

I was surprised I was allowed to touch the archives and work closely with them. I was also surprised at how many books are kept in the collections and how vast the space was they filled.

I would recommend people visiting the museum, it is very interesting especially if you are interested in music. Rare books in the library is also interesting and useful – I would totally recommend it!

Percy Grainger's pocket atlas of London, used around 1910, which Ella processed as part of her work on the Grainger Museum archive.

More Information

Grainger Museum

03 8344 5270