Heritage et AL

Today we are highlighting a couple of interesting items from our New Zealand Manuscripts collection: carbon paper manifold copying books. These two copying books show two of the most common uses for the technology.  The first of these is a letter book of a practising lawyer and contains business records as well as personal correspondence, while the second is a letter book as well as a diary. Ref: James Pirie's diary, Front endpaper detail, 1870s, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries,  NZMS 427.

A new exhibition at Turnbull Library Gallery called 'Logs to Blogs' opened on  29 July and runs until 28 September in Wellington. Focusing on diaries and the many different forms that this takes, a wide range of diaries and their authors are included in this exhibition. Find out more about the exhibition and the planned series of related talks. Ref: 4-7046, woman writing, Sir George Grey Special Collections Auckland Libraries holds a number of fascinating diaries in its heritage collections. For example, Sir George Grey Special collections holds Mrs. Felton Mathew's original journal (or diary) of her voyage to New Zealand, March 2nd 1840 - February 21st 1844. Ref: NZMS 7, Sir George Grey Special Collections. The record can be viewed on Manuscripts Online - simply enter the search term felton mathew, which will bring up the diary and other material by Sarah, such as her sketch books and letters from her cousin and future husband. Ref: 2-V1108, man writing, Sir G...

Ref: 7-A16555,  NZ POWs alongside camp huts, 1944, Sir George Grey Special Collections Margaret Pollock found the tattered blue diary of her late father Laurence after his death in 1989 in amongst newspaper clippings and prisoner of war artifacts. The diary details Laurence's time in German, Polish and Italian POW camps during the second World War. Laurence  was serving in the 20th Battalion, 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Forces in North Africa when he was captured by German forces. He risked his life to record the horrific and harrowing conditions inside the camps.