James Hume worked in the building trade from his arrival in Sydney from Scotland in 1835 to the year before his death in 1868. As an architect, he designed many residences, commercial and religious buildings, of which perhaps the most unusual edifice was the York Street Synagogue in Sydney, built in the rare Egyptian style. Hume was responsible for designing the Synagogue's architecture and fittings, including the Ark of red cedar. While reinstating Hume's under-appreciated career and legacy, Yvonne Barber looks at the evidence for who might have been the cabinet-maker responsible for making the Ark.