Heritage et AL

On now on the 2nd floor of the Central Library is our latest exhibition, Behind the camera , featuring a selection from photographers and photography studios whose work is now held in Sir George Grey Special Collections. New Zealand Herald Ref: New Zealand Herald / Auckland Weekly News, Seaman Kehoe and cat from the S S Wiltshire, June 1922,  Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1370-0568-05.

The recent arrival of the new elephant Anjalee at Auckland Zoo provides an excuse to take a nostalgic look back at one of the Zoo’s previous much-loved elephants: Jamuna. Ref: Ron Clark, Elephant ride, February 1956, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1207-783. Many locals have fond memories of having had a ride on Jamuna as a child. During her lifetime, Jamuna is estimated to have given rides to three-quarters of a million people. 

Our digital team at Auckland Libraries have created an online exhibition to complement the current Sir George Grey Special Collections exhibition, the Big O.E. The exhibition is running until 14 June 2015 on the second floor of the Central Library and the online exhibition is located here. Ref: Ron Clark, Oriana, 1960s, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1207-1448.

To celebrate the Lunar New Year and the beginning of the Year of the Ram Auckland Libraries are running a series of events across the region. If you are in the central library do pop into the Newspaper Reading Room on the second floor and have a look at the beautiful display Heritage & Research staff created featuring a traditional tea set. If you can't make it into the library have a look online at Auckland Libraries newly launched Chinese Facebook page .      To celebrate the Year of the Snake, two years ago, we wrote about our Historypin collection documenting Chinese communities in Auckland and also more broadly about Chinese resources available at Auckland Libraries . The image below shows Rewi Alley ’s son Allen Alley at the opening of a specialist Chinese collection, named ‘The Rewi Alley Collection’ at the Manurewa library in 1989. This was an appropriately named collection as Rewi’s brother Geoffrey was New Zealand’s first National Librarian....

Whiria te kaha tuatinitini Whiria te kaha tuamanomano Friday this week is the 6th of February, Waitangi Day, which, this year, marks the 175th anniversary of the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi / the Treaty of Waitangi. Ref: Ron Clark, Flagstaff, Waitangi, 1960s, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1207-1373. Ref: F. Douglas Mill, Treaty House at Waitangi from the air, February 1934, West Auckland Research Centre, Auckland Libraries, FDM-0337-G.

It is becoming a bit of a tradition at this time of the year on Heritage et AL for us to highlight some of the Christmassy items and images we have in our heritage collections at Auckland Libraries. Ref: W. Reid for the Auckland Weekly News, A merry Christmas, 15 December 1904, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19041215-1-1.

Sir George Grey Special Collections recently acquired a wonderful collection of colour slides taken by Ron Clark mostly in the nineteen-fifties, sixties and seventies. They are accessible via the  Heritage Images  database. Ref: Ron Clark, Oakura Bay,  1950s, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1207-1227 Ref: Ron Clark,  Muriel Clark at the wheel of a Humber Hawk ,  about 1956, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1207-12 Photographs from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are a strong part of the Sir George Grey Special Collections image collection. The Ron Clark slides span the mid-twentieth century, filling a time period gap in Auckland Libraries' photograph collections. Life in New Zealand is captured in wide-ranging ways. There are scenes showing urban and rural activities, family gatherings and outings, interior shots of homes, churches and hospital wards, beach visits, overseas holi...