Heritage et AL

The South Auckland Research Centre has recently added 1142 photographs to our image database Footprints . To date this database now includes a selection of over 8000 photographs and other images relating to South Auckland, and adjoining areas. A sample of thirty-two photographs from the Beauty Pageant Photographic Collection , donated by beauty pageant organiser Val Lott , has been added covering the years 1990 – 2003. Ref: Val Lott, Beauty pageant, Māngere, 6 May 1990, photograph reproduced courtesy of Val Lott, South Auckland Research Centre, Auckland Libraries, Footprints 07210. Ref: Val Lott, Beauty pageant, Māngere, 6 May 1990, photograph reproduced courtesy of Val Lott, South Auckland Research Centre, Auckland Libraries, Footprints 07209. Ref: Beauty pageant, Pukekohe, 24 May 1992, photograph reproduced courtesy of Val Lott, South Auckland Research Centre, Auckland Libraries, Footprints 07223.

Inspired by a recent post on the New York Public Library's blog the team at the South Auckland Research Centre have chosen a selection of their favourite photographs from the collections there. Their choices span a century, from the 1890s through to the 1990s, and show a variety of places around South Auckland and the Counties Manukau area. Bruce Ringer The Auckland Libraries Footprints d atabase includes a wide range of captivating and illuminating photographs. It’s difficult to make a choice of favourites, but here are three that stand out in my memory. Ref: Racing boy, Pakuranga, c1905, photograph reproduced courtesy of Howick Historical Society, South Auckland Research Centre, Auckland Libraries, Footprints 39. This photograph looks straightforward but has an element of mystery. It’s a rare example from the time of a shot that captures a person in motion. But it leaves a few questions hanging in the air. Who is this boy? Why is he running? The obvious assumption i...

Landscapes are important. You are born into a landscape, you walk through the landscape every day of your life, as a child and as an adult. It belongs to you, and you belong to it. Ref: Ephemera - Arts -  Māngere stories Part 1 and Māngere frequencies, 2015, South Auckland Research Centre, Auckland Libraries.

Auckland Airport recently received a Property Council of New Zealand Merit award (see Hawkins Construction) for adapting the Abbeville estate historic precinct into a boutique tourism venue offering hosting for events and functions . The precinct site includes 11 hectares of land at the end of Nixon Road. The airport created the precinct by moving Mangere settlers’ houses and buildings there after it acquired those properties for future airport expansion. It took 2 years to restore the buildings moved onto the historic precinct and was under taken in conjunction with New Zealand Historic Places Trust . One of the houses was built by William Westney, who arrived in Mangere in 1853 and established a farm on Ihumatao Road. Ref: Footprints 05024, the former Westney homestead in Westney Road, Mangere, ca 1979 South Auckland Research Centre