Heritage et AL

Sir George Grey Special Collections holds a number of road, street and tramping track maps produced by the Automobile Association (AA). Ref: Automobile Association 'road surface' motor touring map..., 1930s, NZ map 372, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries.  The following information is from John McCrystal's book 'One hundred years of motoring in New Zealand'  which provides a great introduction to the history of the organisation. The AA was founded in 1903 and began as an automobile club for motoring enthusiasts. One of the earliest functions of the associations was signposting. In 1915, members of the Auckland branch of the AA began voluntarily marking routes. In 1925, Roy Champtaloup drew the first official AA road map by hand. Soon afterwards map making became more sophisticated, and for a time, both the Auckland and Wellington associations had their own cartographic departments. The oldest AA map in Sir George Grey Special Collect...

Continuing on in a similar vein as our previous summer holiday themed posts, we thought we would focus on another common experience from the New Zealand summer holidays: traffic jams. Hopefully you've managed to avoid them over the past few weeks, but if not this selection of images will help add some levity to your memory if you did encounter one. As these photographs show, traffic jams over the summer holidays are not just a recently occurring phenomenon. Ref: Traffic jam on Upper Symonds Street, 1920s, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 589-58.

Do you love cars? The sleek lines, revving engine and the smell of an oily rag? Well have we got a blog post for you! Drawn from the collections at the North and West Auckland Research Centres, we have vintage cars galore plus images of car rallies all set in the landscapes of the North Shore and West Auckland. The introduction of cars 100 years ago revolutionised the way people lived, worked and spent their leisure time. Suddenly getting from A to B was much quicker and more efficient, opening up opportunities for people to take outings and trips. Like all  places around the world, the introduction of the car also brought a radical change in the landscape and the way towns were laid out and operated and some not so pleasant side effects, such as pollution. Keen to find out more? Check out this great visual history of the car in NZ  and browse through the heritage resources at Auckland Libraries. Pre-1920s cars: Ref: Frank Morris, international buggy, location u...