Collections

There has been interest in Lord Howe Island from philatelists for over a century. Housed at the Museum is the world’s largest collection of stamps

The backbone of the photo archives is the Dick Morris Collection. Dick Morris was resident photographer from 1931, producing a unique record of island events

Former Museum secretary Sue Nichols obtained the service records of all the men and women who enlisted from the island in the various wars, from the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
The Museum collection also contains medals and photographs from various island servicemen.

The earliest recordings were collected by our historian Chris Murray in the 1970s, including interviews with Phil Dignam and Lil Wilson. More recently James and Leonie Furber sponsored a series of video interviews with residents carried out by Chris Murray with our associate videographer Dick Collingridge.
Current Curator Ian Hutton has also compiled a number of video interviews with researchers and residents – Peter Fullagar, John Disney, Glenn Fraser & Pete McLelland.
These recordings are securely archived on the museum digital platform.

There have been many scientific studies on Lord Howe Island dating back to the 1850s.
The Museum holds an extensive collection of science papers on various research topics related to the island. These include the flora, invertebrates, seabirds, landbirds, marine life, geology and conservation of the island, and of Middleton and Elizabeth Reefs.
More recent articles are digital PDFs. Many older ones are original documents, which we plan to scan and add as searchable PDFs to the collection that will be available on computers at the museum.