Heritage et AL

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 ...

Recently I walked the Milford Track . Today it takes just three days of walking a well formed path. I am a tramper and I found it a challenge, so what was it like for the early pioneers? The first settler at Milford Sound was Donald Sutherland (1843/44-1919) who in 1880 discovered the Sutherland Falls. Ref: James Richardson/Burton Brothers, Milford Sound with the 'City of Milford', 1878-1880, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 4-930 Sutherland started building a track to allow visitors access to the falls but the rugged Fiordland coast made finding an overland route from Lake Te Anau essential. Ref: CW Sundstrum, Sutherland Falls, Milford Sounds, 1907, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19070228-15-3

One hundred and fifty years ago, New Zealand enjoyed its first professional opera performance at Dunedin’s Royal Princess Theatre – the country’s first purpose-built theatre. Dunedin had become home to the newly rich who were in need of some 'refined' culture, a sentiment echoed by those tired of the “limited sources of entertainment” offered by grog-shops and other equally seedy places on the Otago goldfields.  Ref: Poster for Princess Theatre, 31-62787, Sir George Grey Special Collections