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Hope Black (nee Macpherson), born 1919, was the first female curator at the National Museum of Victoria

Career
Appointed in 1946, Hope Black at the time was Australia's first curator at the National Museum of Victoria. This tenure was brought to a close prematurely, when in 1965 she married and became Hope Machpherson, requiring her retirement from the Victorian public service as a result of the Marriage bar. Subsequently Hope worked for 13 years as a science teacher.

Work in marine biology
Hope Black was initially employed at Museum Victoria by the support of the Carnegie Corporation developing and preparing new display cases for the McCoy Hall dioramas. In 1947 Hope collaborated to survey the Snowy River Gorge on horseback, prior construction of the Snowy Mountain Hydroelectric Scheme. Between 1957-1963 Hope performed biological surveys of Port Phillip Bay, which are still currently used as a baseline data from which to measure environmental change in the area. Later on, Hope investigated the Teredo, a marine bivalve mollusc, and surveyed edible molluscs in Victoria. Ultimately, this lead to a book, Molluscs of Victoria, published in 1962. Noteably, Hope was also member to a gropup of four women who were the first to research in the sub-Antactic in 1959.