Heritage et AL

Applications for the Auckland Library Heritage Trust Researcher in Residence scholarship are now open! Ref: John Rykenberg, Auckland dance band, 1959, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1269-A997-1. Now in its fifth year, this scholarship is offered by the Auckland Library Heritage Trust to assist with scholarly research and the promotion of the material held in Sir George Grey Special Collections at the Central City Library.

The photography material in  Sir George Grey Special Collections  is made up of 500,000 images from the 1840s to the present day. Items in the collection include glass plate and film negatives, cartes de visite ,  daguerreotypes , postcards, watercolour paintings, drawings and original prints. The 250 individual photograph albums the library holds are a lovely but sometimes trickier-to-stumble-upon part of the collection. The photograph albums date from 1859 to the present day. Predictably, the subjects covered in the albums vary widely and include: tourist snaps, war time scenes, images of family, friends, animals, buildings, cities, landscapes, vehicles, forests, beaches, vessels, tangi/funerals, celebrations, parades, expeditions, council activities and royal visits. Some of the photograph albums have an entry on the Heritage Images database and only a selection of the images in the albums have been digitised. Ref: The inside cover and first page, with a dr...

The National Parks Act was introduced in 1950 and the Department of Conservation Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park was established 60 years ago - this region is a significant area of skill testing for accomplished climbers, including Sir Edmund Hillary who made the historical first ascent of Everest the same year the park was formalized. The park's alpine environment includes 19 peaks, its namesake as well as Mount Tasman which are two of the highest mountains in New Zealand.  Ref: 35-R2239, View from Lake Pukaki towards Mount Cook, Sir George Grey Special Collections Ref: AWNS-19371215-47-1, A view of Mount Tasman, 1937, Sir George Grey Special  Collections

In late 2012 the Mangere-Ōtāhuhu Local Board provided funding for a project to digitise the archival holdings of two local historical society collections. This included the Otahuhu Historical Society and the Mangere Historical Society which hold varied and interesting collections containing a wealth of local history interest. Both societies hold original archival manuscripts, letters, photographs, historical objects and scarce books, pamphlets and ephemera. I have undertaken this digitisation project as part of the staff of the South Auckland Research Centre team. It has been a great way to spend time working in the community and to gain an insight into the history of Auckland. eHive is a web based cataloguing system system on the Internet which gives small to medium sized cultural heritage organisations the opportunity to raise the profile of their holdings and share their collections with others. This enables researchers, specialist and general interest groups and in...