Kellyana

Other key historical items to be presented in Kelly Culture include a number of letters by Ned Kelly, his boot, firearms and a death mask. Kelly's boot and Colt Navy revolver were awarded to Jesse Dowsett, a railway guard at Glenrowan, whose brave actions played a central part in the capture of Kelly. A Snider-Enfield 0.577 calibre long rifle, bearing Kelly's insignia 'NK' on the butt was once in the possession of the artist Albert Tucker and was recently donated to the Library. The death mask of Kelly was presented by Monash University and is one of several, another being at the Old Melbourne Gaol. It is possibly the excellent work of the model maker Maximillian Ludwig Kreitmayer who had an established business in Melbourne making masks for the many followers of phrenology, the pseudo-scientific analysis of character based on the size and form of the human head.