An examination and assessment of the Dame Mabel Brookes Family Records of Napoleon

Theis thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Art CuratorshipDeposited with permission of the author. © 2004 Astrid Britt KrautschneiderThe Dame Mable Brookes Family Records of Napoleon, perhaps Australia’s most significant collection of Napoleonic memorabilia and containing over 380 items, has been partially inventoried twice but not properly catalogued and never properly researched. Although a selection of its contents is currently on display at Dame Mabel’s ancestral family home on the Mornington Peninsula, The Briars, its positioning within the complex of public collections in Victoria has remained tendentious ever since Dame Mabel Brookes gifted the collection to the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) at her death in 1975. The present thesis - which is divided into two volumes - aims to assist the current custodians in dealing with Dame Mabel’s remarkable Napoleonic collection and the peculiar issues concerning display and interpretation that it presents. Volume one opens with an historical account of Dame Mabel’s family and their relationship with Napoleon in order to uncover the special character of the collection and its formation. I then examine the particular nature of her collecting practice, applying narrative theory as a tool by which to make sense of the collection in its entirety: the stories that it tells about Dame Mabel’s family history, her ancestors’ relationships with the fallen emperor, and her motives as a collector. Finally, the narrative dimension provides a framework for analysis in subsequent chapters of the thesis, where I discuss the fate of the collection after it was bequeathed to the people of Victoria, and propose some recommendations for its future display. Volume two comprises an illustrated catalogue of the Dame Mabel Brookes Family Records of Napoleon. This catalogue details the bulk of the collection, from books and publications to documents and manuscripts, art works, decorative arts objects, furniture, musical instruments and relics. This catalogue provides a significantly more comprehensive listing of material than has been compiled previously. Through this dissertation, I intend to make a case for the collection’s significance and suggest future possibilities for it. The hope is that this study will highlight the important place this collection has as a part of Australia’s cultural heritage; and furthermore it will suggest prospects for realising The Briars’ potential as a dedicated museum space for housing Dame Mabel’s collection