Miss ME Wharmby Collection

Brief description

The collection includes Inuit, Japanese, European and Australian Indigenous artworks in the form of prints, books, paintings and drawings.

Full description

Between 1971 and 1991 Miss ME Wharmby made several, significant donations from her personal collection to Flinders University Art Museum, totaling some 600 works of art. Her gifts include Inuit, Japanese, European and Australian Indigenous artworks in the form of prints, books, paintings and drawings. Wharmby gifted her collection to the University for preservation and use when the University was in its infancy – a crucial time in the development of a young University and as a result her collection has played a continued role in informing the direction of the Museum’s collecting and teaching programs. Miss ME Wharmby was born in Hobart, Tasmania, to an English father and Scottish mother. She had a passion for learning and after graduating from the University of Tasmania in 1919, traveled to England in 1924 and subsequently made regular trips to England between 1953 and 1963. It was in England in the early 60’s that Wharmby was introduced to the art world by London friend and artist Edith Ray and was inspired to begin collecting works of art.