Sir John Monash Museum
Found on the Shelf
Books, magazines and other objects from the Museum Free Book Swap open into stories worth keeping.
Featured discovery
Learning to look a shark in the eye
Ron and Valerie Taylor began as champion spearfishers and became pioneering underwater filmmakers, researchers and defenders of sharks. Their courage changed as their understanding grew.
Read the story →From the collection
Previous discoveries
Found on the ShelfA Cable Car in a Thousand Pieces
One red piece jumps out, pulling your attention through the scattered fragments towards the picture hidden within them.
Found on the ShelfRoboCop and a Future Found in Steel
Found in the Museum’s Free Book Swap, a worn trilogy box opens the story of a steel silhouette that made an immediate impact in 1987 and kept returning across film, television and games. Inside the armour lives a question about memory, identity and the power to remain the author of our own actions.
Found on the ShelfDerek Bell and the Discipline of Endurance
Five victories at Le Mans were built on a rare discipline: carrying immense speed while protecting the car, the co-driver and the work of the team.
Found on the ShelfHow Do You Teach a Dinosaur to Walk?
The landscape was empty when the cameras left. Months later, a dinosaur walked into it.
Found on the ShelfWhat happens after catastrophe
The World Trade Center buildings collapsed in one morning. Understanding why—and carrying the lessons into buildings not yet designed—would take years.
Found on the Shelf