Heritage et AL

Queen Street’s St. James Theatre has been in the news recently , with the announcement by its new owner of plans for restoration, in conjunction with the development of an adjacent 39 story residential tower. The Category 1 listed building was opened in July 1928, with a performance of the London Musical Comedy ‘Archie’. The images below are the cover and the centre pages of the programme from  that  evening:  Ref: New Zealand Ephemera -  'Archie' - A Musical Comedy In Two Acts.  Gala opening performance of the St James Theatre, July 5 1928.   Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries.  Ref: New Zealand Ephemera -  'Archie' - A Musical Comedy In Two Acts.  Gala opening performance of the St James Theatre, July 5 1928.   Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries. 

Kia ora, Talofa lava, Kia Orana, Malo e lelei, Fakaalofa lahi atu, Bula vinaka, Namaste, Malo ni, Halo ola keta, Mauri, Fakatalofa atu and warm Pacific greetings. As many previous posts in this blog and our History Pin site have shown Auckland Libraries is very active documenting Pacific history. Ref: Auckland Council. Artwork by Fatu Feu'u at the Pacifica Living Arts Festival 2014. 11 November 2014. West Auckland Research Centre, Auckland Libraries. PAC-PLAF-2014-D-261. A key role in documenting history is contemporary collecting. We have an active and targeted collecting program around Pacific events like the Pacifica Living Arts Festival . If you attended you would have seen our librarians walking around, taking photographs and talking to people. This content then gets added to Local History Online , which is a combined collection of local history indexes to images, community newspapers and oral histories. We are in the process of adding audio visual content as ...

Below are eleven of my favourite digitised maps from Sir George Grey Special Collections . There are over 8000 maps in Sir George Grey Special Collections and about 1600 have been digitised.  Ref: New Zealand lighthouse chart, 1900, Sir George Grey Special Collections,  Auckland Libraries, NZ Map 516 A pictorial map showing where lighthouses are situated around the New Zealand coast. Ref: Campbell's beach estate, 1908, Sir George Grey Special Collections,  Auckland Libraries, NZ Map 6564 This map can be classified as real estate advertising. It shows allotments  for sale in Campbell's Bay on Auckland's North Shore.  Ref: 15 freehold allotments, 1865, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, NZ Map 4475-5 The map above, with careful illustrations of trees and houses, is from the nineteenth century and shows allotments for sale off Queen Street, Auckland. Ref: George Treacy Stevens, Auckland, 1886, Sir George Grey ...

New Zealand History’s website has a wonderful timeline which informs us that on this day, November the thirteenth, in 1896 Mount Tongariro ‘erupted spectacularly’. This initial eruption started a series which continued on for almost a year and it makes fascinating reading browsing the contemporary accounts on Papers Past . Te Ara have a picture of Tongariro erupting that they have dated as likely from this time. Ref: Auckland Weekly News,  Showing Ketetahi sulphur springs on Mount Tongariro , 2 October 1902, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19021002-7-3

Today, November the eleventh, is the anniversary of Armistice Day, which commemorates the signing of the armistice between Germany and the Allies to end fighting on the Western Front of World War One. The Auckland Weekly News Photographic Supplement contains many images relating to Armistice Day beginning with the singing of the armistice in 1918. The selection of photographs below show how Armistice Day was remembered by earlier generations around New Zealand and the Pacific: Ref: Auckland Weekly News, parade of school cadets in Queen St., 17 November 1921, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19211117-34-1

                     “I was astonished by the inventive beauty of the hippie architecture,” film-maker Dan Salmon said, to the New Zealand herald , after researching New Zealand’s back-to-landers for his documentary Dirty bloody hippies .   “Some of the houses, pulled together from hand-milled timber and demolition materials were absolutely mad, others were sensibly warm and cozy, with steep-pitched roofing and attic bedrooms echoing our early pioneer cottages.” Ref: J. T. Diamond.  Old school, Wairere Road, rear view, shows the  water   tank.1960  J.T. Diamond Collection, , West Auckland Research Centre,  Auckland Libraries.   JTD-01A-01591-2 .

The Great Barrier Island Pigeon Post  was the first in the world to use pigeons to deliver mail using postage stamps, although they were “unofficial” stamps. The Great Barrier Island pigeon post service was started after the sinking of the SS Wairarapa in October 1894.  This ship ran aground on the remote north side of Great Barrier Island. Ref:  James Richardson   Showing the Wreck of  SS Wairarapa  at Miners Head, Great Barrier Island, 1894, Sir  George Grey  Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 4-102 About 121 lives were lost. News of the disaster  didn't  reach Auckland until two or three days later. It highlighted the need for better communication with the island. The first message of the pigeongram service was carried by one of Mr Parkin’s pigeons, on May 14th 1897. You can read the full page article in the Auckland Weekly News here . Ref: Auckland Weekly News, A kit of racing pigeons, 15 September 1899, Sir...