Heritage et AL

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.

Recently, an advertisement from a page in a journal, displayed in the current  Sir George Grey Special Collections  exhibition:  World War 1914 -1918 , made me look closer. The product is soap and the accompanying illustration is not unusual or incredibly striking. It was the text which made me pause, as it reminded me of scenes in Pat Barker's novel  Regeneration . In particular, the lives of a group of munitionettes, who provide an insight into an element of home front life during the First World War. Ref:  The sphere. Vol. 76, no. 995. London: Illustrated Newspapers, 1918. Munitionettes were British women employed in munitions factories during the First World War. These women worked with hazardous chemicals on a daily basis with minimal protection. Receiving an injury or getting killed by an explosion were always possibilities. Many munitionettes worked with TNT, which after prolonged exposure, would turn their skin a yellow colour -- leadi...

Ephemera is the term for printed material originally intended to have a limited life-span, such as pamphlets, posters, tickets and flyers. Libraries collect ephemera because it enhances information found in longer-lasting documents, giving us a more complete picture of life at a given point in time. Some of this 'throwaway' material has considerable visual appeal because it often combines text with images. The performing arts is a major subject area of the  ephemera collection  in the Heritage Collections at Auckland Libraries. Material in this collection dates from the 1850s to the present, with active collection by librarians beginning in the 1970s. The ephemera collection has a wide geographic scope which is nationwide. Usage of the collection for research purposes is broad and varied; with researchers ranging from social historians and popular non-fiction authors, to graphic design students and academics. Ephemera reflects both changing attitudes in society...

During the mid twentieth century, there was no NZ photographer more versatile, imaginative and accomplished than Reginald Clifton Firth (1904-1980). Yet he fell into photography by fluke. Ref: 34-M7B3 woman modelling a hat for Milne and Choyce department store, c. 1940-50s, Sir George Grey Special Collections When he was young, he he trained as a graphic designer at the Elam School of Art in Auckland. In the late 1920s and early 1930s he made a living as a commercial artist. By chance, a client asked for photographs of company products rather than drawings. Firth bought a camera for £4 from an Auckland shop in anticipation of the job. However, knowing little about photography and feeling concerned that he wouldn't do a good job and lose hard earned cash, he asked the shopkeeper for a money-back guarantee. He needn't have worried since the client  was delighted by the results. This changed Firth's career path forever.

 Ref: NZ 1965, Chelsea Archives, Birkenhead Library Once upon a time, sugar was good for you .... and Chelsea Archives at Birkenhead Library has the marketing-advertising-promo material to prove it!  Ref: NZ Sugar 1968, Chelsea Archives, Birkenhead Library It’s embedded in the many small publications contained in the archives - such as company newsletters, industry-related periodicals, series, centenary celebrations and that sort of thing. Today they might be considered corporate zines.  Ref: NZ Sugar 1969, Chelsea Archives, Birkenhead Library Examples include: 'Chelsea News', 'Sugar for New Zealand', 'New Zealand Sugar', 'CSR Newsletter', 'Australian Sugar', 'Sugar: Nature’s Bounty', 'Notes on Sugar in New Zealand' and the 'World'.  Ref: NZ Sugar 1970, Chelsea Archives, Birkenhead Library These publications contain splendours galore. Such as the many attempts to explain the triumph...