Heritage et AL

While checking some of our earlier magazines in our basement I came across a London magazine called 'The Builder; an illustrated weekly magazine for the architect, engineer, archaeologist, constructor & artist '.  Ref: The builder, Title page, 1856, Central Auckland Research Centre, Auckland Libraries, 690.5 B93. Ref: The builder, page 515, 1856, Central Auckland Research Centre, Auckland Libraries, 690.5 B93.

We are used to seeing newspapers with compelling news stories, and photographs, on the front covers. However, this is a fairly recent change for Auckland's daily newspapers. The now-ceased 'Auckland Star' newspaper only started featuring actual news, rather than public notices and the like, on the front page from 22 July 1946. Ref: excerpt from the Auckland Star, Volume LXXVII, No. 171, 22 July 1946, page 1.

In 2008 the New Zealand National Maritime Museum featured a 62 page document entitled 'Naval war plan for the attack of Auckland, New Zealand'. This had been produced as an intelligence exercise by visiting United States Naval officers a century before in 1908. They had come to Auckland as part of a visit by the 'Great White Fleet' of 16 United States battleships, and had spent six days in Auckland. Ref: Auckland Weekly News, A portion of the Great White Fleet at anchor on the waters of the Waitemat ā Harbour, 13 August 1908, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19080813-15-2.

Earlier this week the National Library announced that the latest batch of newspapers has just gone live on Papers Past . Auckland Libraries have contributed two newspapers from our collections to the project: the Pukekohe and Waikuku Times from 1921-1924 and the New Zealander from 1853-1866. The Pukekohe & Waiuku Times (later known as the Franklin Times), one of South Auckland’s longest-lasting local newspapers, was published in Pukekohe from 1912 to 1971. On 8 March 1912 Pukekohe businessmen Richard Eames and William Cargill brought out the first issue of the Pukekohe & Waiuku Times. The new tabloid was just four pages long and came out once a week. As demand grew it increased in size and frequency, becoming bi-weekly from 1 October 1912 and tri-weekly from 5 July 1915. Ref: excerpt from The Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 1, Issue 1, 8 March 1912, page 1. For a more in-depth look at the Pukekohe & Waiuku Times have a look at our blog post on Franklin ...

In 1950s Auckland, a group of concerned citizens decided a periodical to keep tabs on the city leadership was needed. Thus was born Comment , published by Hobson Publications. The editorial board included managing editor Charles Fisher but besides Comment  itself, the only other publication from the company appears to be a Hamilton yearbook published in 1955. Ref: Auckland City Council, Looking from the roof of a building in..., 1956-57, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 580-2272.

May is New Zealand Music Month (NZMM) and to help celebrate the Heritage & Research teams at the Central Library have compiled a playlist featuring some of our favourite New Zealand songs. The only proviso for selection was that we had to hold it in our Heritage collections. Format wasn’t specified as you can see from the images below; we have LPs, CDs, film soundtracks and a couple of songbooks. Ref: Items from Sir George Grey Special Collections, clockwise from top left: The amazing ukulele songbook, Bressa Creeting Cake (self-titled) CD, Able Tasmans 'A cuppa tea and a lie down' CD, Split Enz 'Frenzy' LP.

The staff of Sir George Grey Special Collections and the Central Auckland Research Centre at the Central Library were deeply saddened to hear of the death of Ann Baxter on Tuesday 28   April.  Ann had been a volunteer for over 15 years, at first in the Research Centre and more recently in Special Collections.  For the last 18 months she had been working on sorting and foldering unsorted material from the Auckland Provincial Council records . This was done with enthusiasm and attention to detail. Her comments on items she came across were always interesting and frequently made with characteristic Yorkshire humour .  Ref: Ann Baxter working in the Special Collections reading room, 5 February 2013,  The Wire, Auckland Council, 38-244556. We are indebted to Ann, not only for this work but for her wider appreciation of the collections and for her advocacy for them. She gave some of her  personal papers  from her  writing, directing and act...

Ref: NZ Truth, 13 June 1929, Page 7. There have always been cross-dressing women in New Zealand, many of whom have worked in traditional male jobs, and lived in lesbian relationships. Occasionally in the past, they came to the community’s attention after being charged for criminal offences such as acting under false pretences. Hokitika-born Bertha Victor was taken into custody for vagrancy in Sydney , in 1906. Known as Bert Rotciv (Victor spelt backwards), she continued to cross-dress upon her return to New Zealand the following year and was charged several times for being a rogue and a vagabond, and for drunkenness while “masquerading in male attire”. Ref: NZ Truth, Issue 81, 5 January 1907, Page 5, "Bert Rotciv".

The exhibition  ‘Aotearoa Houses: settlers to hippies’ is currently running in the atrium outside the Central Auckland Research Centre on the  second  floor of the  Auckland  Central Library. On this blog we've previously featured posts on Hippie A rchitecture  and  State  Houses .  Ref: Pegler for Auckland Weekly News, Showing a settler's house at Poro-o-Tarao, with people posed outside, 19 May 1899, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-18990519-6-1.

Central Auckland Research Centre is currently displaying work by award-winning picture book writer and illustrator Robyn Kahukiwa. Ref: Robyn Kahukiwa display in the Central Auckland Research Centre, February 2014 Kahukiwa illustrated her first children’s book in 1981 - 'The Kuia and the Spider: Te Kuia Me Te Pungawerewere', a collaborative project with writer Patricia Grace, which won the Children’s Picture Book of the Year. She also worked with Joy Cowley on 'Grandma’s stick' and 'Hatupatu and the birdwoman' before writing her own picture books, often drawing on Māori myths and legends which she also includes in contemporary settings. Ref: Robyn Kahukiwa display in the Central Auckland Research Centre, February 2014

Meola Creek is called Waititiko by local Maori, meaning 'water of the periwinkles'. It was subsequently named Meola Creek by settler Allan Taylor, possibly after Meola Glacier (or Athasi-Balati Glacier) near where he was born in Seringapatam, India, in 1832. Ref: 580-A5338, aerial view ooking north east over Western Springs towards Point Chevalier showing Western Springs Road (left to centre foreground) with Meola Rd (left to right distance) Meola Creek (left of centre distance) and Motions Creek (centre distance), 1965, Sir George Grey Special Collections Allan Taylor (1832-1890) arrived in New Zealand aged 16 and soon after began buying land that would become the Alberton estate. In the 1890s he became known as Allan Kerr Taylor . Ref: 856-9319, two people taking out a dinghy possibly at Meola Creek, c. 1890s, Sir George Grey Special Collections

The 13 September was Roald Dahl Day. Each year, the focus of this day is on celebrating the life and work of Roald Dahl , one of the world's most popular and beloved writers for children. Ref: AWNS-19140122-52-4, picking friend at an orchard in Henderson, Auckland, 1914, Sir George Grey Special Collections Dahl's picture books, novels, short stories, poetry and memoirs are all classics and popular not only with children but adults too. His timeless works such as 'James and the Giant Peach' (1961), 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' (1964), 'Revolting Rhymes' (1982), 'Tales of the unexpected' (1980) and 'The Witches' (1983) are of enduring interest and relevance to all readers. Ref: 7-C1813, advertising poster for 'Somerdale Cube Block Milk Chocolate', made by Fry, c.1920-1949, Sir George Grey Special Collections Roald Dahl Day is a great opportunity to discover re-read a favourite or discover something you haven't...

I became curious about the poll tax when a customer requested a book by Nigel Murphy called ' The Poll Tax in New Zealand ' (1994). The research and writing of this book was commissioned by the New Zealand Chinese Association . The book highlights the NZ government's involvement in discrimination against Chinese settlers and the hardships they suffered as a result of the steep poll tax they had to pay when moving to NZ (see post on 19 March 2013).. The NZ government introduced the poll tax in 1881. Under the Chinese Immigrants Act only Chinese immigrants had to pay the poll tax. The tax was a response to anti-Chinese attitudes in European settler society after an economic slump and increasing competition for jobs. Ref: 31-60218, Mr Going, 1910, Sir George Grey Special Collections

If you ever fancy a nice weekend drive in Auckland the perfect place to go would be the Awhitu Peninsula, north of Waiuku. You can pack a picnic, take a dip in the sea, go camping at the Awhitu Regional Park , or just enjoy a drive. Ref: AWNS-19020925-5-4, Mokohinau lighthouse, Sir George Grey Special Collections Any trip to Awhitu, however, just has to include a visit to the restored lighthouse on top of the Manukau Heads over looking the entrance to the harbour.  It is there that one can walk out on to the balcony and look across to the Waitakere Ranges on the northern side, and imagine what it must have been like on a particular day 150 years ago  for an 18-year old signalman by the name of Edward Wing as he guided in the British warship HMS Orpheus, only to see it crash on to the infamous sandbar. Of the 259 assumed to be on board that day, 189 seamen perished, some as young as 14 years old, many of them not able to swim. This is still New Zealand's worst maritime d...

Lily Lee and Ruth Lam, the authors of the book ' Sons of the Soil ' have done a good job of pulling together what little 'original' documentation there was available about early Chinese market gardeners - such as newspaper articles, account books, photographs. The families described in the book sometimes set up gardens in different parts of the country and moved around and frequently inter-married. So staff at the Central Auckland Research Centre decided that it would be very useful to index families mentioned in the book and add this information to Auckland Libraries heritage online database: Index Auckland . The goal was to help people track down the families mentioned in the book and set up useful connections. Index Auckland is a rich resource of history, art, theatre, film and music references sourced from Auckland area newspapers and journal articles. Whilst the index predominantly covers Auckland, other regions are also covered, which means that the index a...

Here at the Central Auckland Research Centre, every so often I am able to add one or two more names to the records we have of those buried in Symonds Street Cemetery, in Grafton. However, it is very rare to be able to add a new name to those buried in the St Stephens Cemetery, in Parnell. Ref: 4-8857, Sir George Grey Special Collections The last survey, a photographic one of all the remaining headstones, was carried out in May 1995 and  so I was most surprised to hear about a 1977 burial.

A library just isn’t a library without displays and with our collections, we are spoilt for choice in the display material available to us. We decided to put together a display for the Central Auckland Research Centre on the women’s magazines in the collection because they are just such a fascinating part of our 20th century heritage – the 1970’s especially.  It was tough deciding which magazines to select and also which individual issues to highlight. With all those unique seventies designs, the adverts and the products, the fashion, the makeup, the grittiness of topics and issues…. there was so much to choose from. Ref: Central Auckland Research Centre In the end, we went with 'Broadsheet' and 'Eve', two different magazines from the period. The research centre has bound collections of both these, and other magazines, on the open shelves. 'Broadsheet' (1972 to 1997) was run by a collective of the Auckland Women’s Liberation movement and...

One of the delightful aspects of the research centres is the absolute diversity of material we have here. Some might question just why we collect the material we do but there are times when one feels particularly pleased with the powers-that-be who have, over the years, built up the collections.   In this case, I am talking about the work of the renowned Kiwi romance writer, Essie Summers .  She was a Mills and Boon phenomenon, a pastor’s wife who began writing for the publisher in the 1950s, and became one of their best selling and most loved authors. She died in 1998, but her popularity is such that at times M&B still reprint her novels as part of their Bestseller programme.  Essie Summers books at the Central Auckland Research Centre A few months back, a customer came in to the Central Auckland Research Centre looking for the fiction. She was a huge Essie fan and, as all fan-girls do, she was going through a re-reading stage. However, she was missing a few tit...

Working at  Research Central , one does tend to fancy oneself as a bit of a Nancy Drew at times. As we locate missing relatives and solve mysteries, we hope don’t start too many world wars in unsuspecting families. Whilst scrolling through microfilms on a job for a customer, I came across an interesting photo in a 1948 copy of the Auckland Star. The caption reads: “Juliet Hulme and William Brown make a colourful picture in their bright tartan slacks when they arrived at Whenuapai this morning.” The issue was dated Tuesday 23 March 1948.  Could it be .... I wondered. Was this the murderess Juliet Hulme, aka Anne Perry, aka Kate Winslet in ‘Heavenly Creatures’? And why was Juliet and the boy, who appeared not to be related, wearing matching tartan slacks? Juliet did have a younger brother called Jonathan but it seems he arrived in New Zealand much later in the year with their parents. Naturally, I went ahead and sleuthed.  Ref: Auckland Star, cutting from 23 ...

Read all about it, The Central Auckland Research Centre at the Central City Library has the final instalment of the microfilm version of the New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review ! Coverage includes: 2 August 1890 - 25 July 1901, 7 August 1902 - 31 July 1913, 7 January 1914 - 12 November 1914, 7 January 1915 - 15 Aprril 1942.  Ref: Image courtesy of Yale University Library David Verran of the research centre notes: "As the title suggests the magazine focussed on sport, particularly horse racing, boxing, cricket and rugby, as well as on reports of stage performances and later also the motion picture industry. It was aimed more at men and generally those with a reasonable income, but included social pages for those who could afford to run a car. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century it was also an industry magazine for the liquor trade, and more likely available in hotel bars for patrons to read. Those issues include profiles of publicans,...