The Tooth and Company Collections held by the Noel Butlin Archives Centre at The Australian National University and the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney are an outstanding representation of the major Australian industry of brewing and hotels. They provide a comprehensive view of this industry throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, fully documenting business operations; hotel architecture; design, marketing and advertising; and the key role public hotels have played in local communities and Australian social, cultural and working life. They are the most complete documentation of this industry available for public research.

The collections document changing attitudes to alcohol consumption, the rise of the temperance movement, the impact of the First and Second World Wars on Australian society, economic booms and busts, and the changing role of women in business.

The advertising paintings on glass commissioned by Tooth and Company from the 1920s to the 1960s are a unique combination of medium, content and use and are extremely rare. Their status as individually commissioned works is unusual in commercial art, while their most appealing feature is the absence of the advertised product from all but a few pub paintings.

These collections are used by a range of researchers including academics, local historians, heritage consultants, artists, designers, students, hoteliers and first-time family history researchers. They have supported publications, exhibitions and public programs.

The collection was featured in Brewing and pubs, a 1988 foundation exhibition at the Powerhouse, Refreshing! art off the pub wall (1991), 1001 Remarkable Objects (2023-24), Holiday, an exhibition at the Museum’s Discovery Centre (2023-2024), and continuing online exhibitions Tooth and Company Hotels and Art in Archives.