Muriel Mary Sutherland Binney

Muriel Mary Sutherland Binney born Muriel Hasler (December 26, 1873 – May 11, 1949) was an Australian painter and inventor. She won a silver award for a 19 metre long painting at an international exhibition in 1908 and a silver medal for her inventions in 1929 at the International Exhibition of Inventions.

Life

Muriel Binney was born in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda in 1873. Both her parents, Emily (born O'Shannessy) and George Henry Massey Hasler were born in Ireland and involved with photography.

Among the 16,000 exhibits by women from around Australia in the vast 1907 Australian Exhibition of Women's Work in Melbourne organised by the Governor General's wife, Lady Northcote, work by Binney was included, beside paintings by Portia Geach, Eirene Mort, Dora Serle, Ida Rentoul Outhwaite and Agnes Goodsir.

On the 16 October 1907 she registered for copyright the design of "Sydney Harbour Foreshores at Sunset". She had originally made the watercolour for her own home but then realised that the image might be licensed as a basis for a wallpaper design. where it won the silver prize in 1908. Another entry was a wooden dining set carved by sixty people including members of The Society of Arts and Crafts of NSW and designed by Susanne Gether.

Inventor Binney was awarded several patents for inventions including a folding cot (1908), a leg prosthesis, and a shoe-stand. Her husband had not supported her interest in inventions. He died in 1927. In 1929 she was in Britain where she presented her ideas to the British Society of Inventors. Some were included in the International Exhibition of Inventions and she was awarded a silver medal. She entered again in 1930 and it was reported that some of her ideas were to be manufactured. Repairs had to be made to sections of the frieze to replace parts cut out around door frames when it was displayed in Binney's home. In 2002 it was included in the Sydney by Ferry exhibition at the Museum of Sydney.