The Royal Agricultural Society of NSW

Challenge

The Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales is an organisation steeped in history, from its beginnings at the start of colonisation through multiple periods of war, drought and pandemics. It’s become an institution and a tradition loved by millions every year.

Over the decades, the organisation has grown in popularity, moved locations three times, and accumulated trophies, memorabilia, documents, and photographs. For over two centuries, The Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales has carefully gathered and preserved these items to record its history.

As a not-for-profit organisation without a physical museum, how do we continue to preserve, store, organise, and display this history?

Solution

Many people mistakenly scan and upload files without considering the ongoing management and maintenance needed in six months or six years.

Cataloguing 200 years of history can seem daunting. However, Sudo Roux took an unconventional approach and used technology specifically designed to display the necessary information.

We asked a simple question: What do a museum and a retail business have in common? The answer: A large catalogue.

Whether physical or virtual, managing a large collection requires a catalogue. For a virtual collection, an ecommerce solution displays a large volume of ‘products’ and their ‘variants,’ making the operation easy to manage and maintain.

This enormous task suddenly became manageable for a small team.

Activation

Starting with a traditional concept of what a physical museum displays, we uncovered the stories of the Royal Agricultual Society in 1822 and Australias First Land Carers through the subsequent decades of growth to its current home in Sydney’s Olympic Park. The Virtual Museum displays this history in detailed and visually appealing imagery.

On ‘display’ throughout the Virtual Museum is:

Entire competition listings of forebearers and champions
The history of every competition, including who, what, when, and where
Video footage archives
Oral histories, audio stories from as far back as 1939
Stories throughout the decades of The RAS Times printed magazine
Medals, Posters, Showbags, and other Memorabilia throughout the decades
Competition Catalogues from 1940 onwards
Photographs covering eight sections, such as Woodchopping, Cattle, and the Grand Parade
And of course, an entire archive of Trophy Winners for every trophy since inception.

Audio story in virtual museum of Royal Agricultural Society of NSW

This sounds like a lot, but it’s key to easily manage content, whether updating or adding.

The small team at The RAS holds over 200 years worth of items, and as more and more winners are announced each year, the collection continues to grow.

These are presented in an impressive and original way that provides a model for other organisations who want to highlight their archives and their history in general.

Australian Society of Archivests

Result

You know you’ve done a good job when the Australian Society of Archivists recognizes your effort with the Mander Jones Award the same year as the launch.

The Mander Jones Award has eight categories recognizing the greatest contributions to the archives profession in Australia, awarded to institutions such as the National Library of Australia, NSW Department of Lands, and National Archives of Australia.

With engagement time more than double the average, the Virtual Museum has the highest engagement across The RAS domain, and users view more pages than average, showing their engagement.

Furthermore, we implemented the Optimizely commerce solution, which fit seamlessly into the existing Optimizely stack. Since content authors were already familiar with the product, they quickly adapted after onboarding with the core team.

Consequently, The RAS now efficiently references this database of information as part of their daily operations. Many family members, especially those of trophy winners, inquire about their families’ history with The RAS. This solution not only allows the public to self-serve but also enables The RAS to continually and efficiently build upon their history.