Objects of Time

We live surrounded by material things. Some are mundane and utilitarian, others exotic objects of desire, but all our belongings have something to say about who we are and how we live. Objects reflect both culture and history. Individually and collectively, they shape our lives, link us to others and connect us to the past. Yet objects are often strangely absent from accounts of past lives. This seminar series aims to unpack some of the stories that objects can tell about the present and about the past.  We also hope to provide a forum for discussion for those of us interested in material histories. We aim to cast the net widely, with no limitations on either time or space.

First speaker:
Turning Over Material Histories of the Sandglass
with Matthew Champion
In the early fourteenth century, the sandglass made its debut as the most precise technology of time measurement in Europe to date. Almost immediately its impact was felt: cooks and courtiers, rabbis and scientists, accountants and artisans, began to use sandglasses to time their activities, their lives, and to make their livings. Yet for an instrument of such importance, the sandglass’s origins and its histories remain startlingly unclear. This paper sets out some first thoughts towards a material history of the sandglass and its importance to the history of temporalities. What can we learn from surviving objects and evidence of their use in multiple spaces, genres, and media?

Matthew Champion is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Melbourne. He has published widely in the history of premodern temporalities and materiality, including his 2017 Chicago monograph The Fullness of Time: Temporalities of the Fifteenth-Century Low Countries, winner of the 2018 Gladstone Prize from the Royal Historical Society. His articles have appeared in Past & Present, Speculum, Sixteenth Century Journal and Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. He is a co-curator of the current exhibition Albrecht Dürer's Material Renaissance (Arts West Gallery, University of Melbourne).

Second speaker:
Punctuality and Progress: Reflections on Clocks, Time and History
with Graeme Davison

Probably no invention has played a more significant part in the making of the modern world than the mechanical clock. I have long loved clocks and watches. I marvel at their intricate workmanship, their delicate self-regulation and their humanoid qualities. From The Unforgiving Minute: How Australia Learned to tell the Time (1994) to My Grandfather’s Clock (2023) clocks and changing conceptions of measured time have shaped my vision of history as much as any human character. In this talk, I will reflect on the histories of some clocks I have known either as museum objects, such as the Powerhouse Museum’s Strasburg Clock, or personal possessions, such as my great-grandfather’s long case-clock. What can we learn from the clocks as material objects as distinct from the knowledge of their origins and provenance? Where does the mystique of the antiquarian end and the wisdom of the historian begin?  

Graeme Davison is Emeritus Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor of History at Monash University. He has written widely on Australian history, heritage and public history where his publications include The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne, The Use and Abuse of Australian History, Car Wars: How the Car Won Our Hearts and Changed our Cities, City Dreamers: The Urban Imagination in Australia and Lost Relations: Fortunes of My Family in Australia’s Golden Age. He is a former chair of the Heritage Council of Victoria, an advisor to the National Museum of Australia and co-editor of a history of the Powerhouse Museum.

Material Histories is presented by Old Treasury Building in partnership with Deakin University and Australian Catholic University.