Heritage et AL

The Manukau Harbour is the second largest in Aotearoa. Loved and enjoyed by many, Te Manukanuka o Houturoa has always been a source for food gathering and has long provided the means for navigating the expansive coastline. Photographs from the Auckland Libraries heritage collections form the basis of this exhibition which is on now at Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery in Titirangi, Auckland. Ref: John Thomas Diamond, The shoreline on the Cornwallis Peninsula with John Diamond rod fishing, 1957. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, JTD-08E-00513-2 This exhibition will travel around the edges of the Manukau Harbour as if spread by Te Hau a Uru, the wind that blows from the west, from Titirangi to Waiuku. 7-28 September 2017: Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery, Titirangi. 30 September-14 October 2017: Nathan Homestead, Manurewa. 17 October-4 November 2017: Waiuku Library, Waiuku. Ref: James Richardson, Stereograph of the Nihotupu Creek, 14 April 1923. Auckland L...

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.

Whites Aviation produced hand coloured photographs of New Zealand for around fifty years. When they began in 1945 colour photography wasn’t accessible as it was only in its infancy so the hand coloured photographs they sold were very popular. These now iconic images can be found in cafés like Replete i n Taup ō  o r Vudu in Queenstown. This very large photograph that was recently donated to the library is 1100 x 2520 millimetres and formerly hung in the Auckland Star building. Ref: Whites Aviation, Auckland, c1965, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1411-1.

Auckland Weekly News photographs for the period August 1914 to December 1915 have now been more fully described so that they can be searched by description and subject. These photos were published in the Auckland Weekly News Supplement . There are 1,117 photos covering the period August to December 1914 and a further 7,684 photos for the period January to December 1915. Ref: Auckland Weekly News, A Christmas greeting from New Zealand to the absent one, 16 December 1915, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19151216-35-1.

On the weekend of 25 and 26 July the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior III will be moored at Princes Wharf, Auckland. Its visit commemorates the thirtieth anniversary of the sinking of its predecessor at Marsden wharf on 10 July 1985 by agents of the French security intelligence service. Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira drowned on the sinking ship. The day after the act of sabotage Alton Francis snapped a shot of the half-submerged Rainbow Warrior .  Ref: Alton Francis, Rainbow Warrior, July 1985, South Auckland Research Centre, Auckland Libraries, Footprints 02431.

The recent cold blast has me dreaming of a winter holiday, and what better place than picturesque Queenstown.  Ref: F.G. Radcliffe, The Gardens in winter, 1915?, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 35-R2014.

This photograph from the Auckland Weekly News Supplement (AWNS) depicts first aid being applied to an ANZAC soldier on the sloping terrain of Gaba Tepe on the Gallipoli Peninsula on 25 April , 1915. Published on 24 June 1 915, one hundred years ago today, it is considered the first newspaper image of the Gallipoli campaign and is attributed to Private Robert Blackwood Steele  of the Auckland Infantry Battalion . Ref: R.B. Steele for the Auckland Weekly News, New Zealanders in action, 24 June 1915, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19150624-35-1. 

We’re very pleased to announce that we've recently had a new collection of photographs from Sir George Grey Special Collections added to Heritage Images . The intriguingly named ‘Riverhead Dump’ collection has a very interesting story behind it.  Ref: Unidentified harbour, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1055-60.

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...

Sir George Grey Special Collections has a large collection of glass plate negatives of scenic views of New Zealand taken by Frederick George Radcliffe . Ref: F G Radcliffe, Lake Kaniere, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 35-R644 Radcliffe came to New Zealand from England in the early 1890s. Soon afterwards his wife, Kate, and their two daughters, Harriette and Olive, joined him at his farm 'Utopia' near Paparoa, on an inlet of the Kaipara Harbour. Radcliffe's interest in photography grew and he quickly acquired a reputation as an exceptional scenic photographer. For twenty years he traveled the country taking photographs of small rural towns, large cities, rivers, gardens, buildings, beaches, wharves, forests, lakes and streets. From 1909, with the help of Kate and Olive, he operated a successful postcard business from his home in Whangarei. Radcliffe played the oboe, conducted local orchestras and was an active member of various music-relat...

Did you know that many early photographic processes involved the use of common types of food such as egg, potatoes and other household products including salt, alcohol and lavender oil, that we all have in our cupboards? Ref: Green and Hahn for Auckland Weekly News, a duck with eggs, 1930, Papaui, Christchurch, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19301022-46-5 Ref: Green and Hahn for Auckland Weekly News, gathering lavender in a Christchurch garden, 1932, Christchurch, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19320106-46-3 Ref: J.A. Slack for Auckland Weekly News, testing spirits at H.M. Customs, Auckland, 1899, Christchurch, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-18990707-2-1 Ref: F.A. Hargreaves for Auckland Weekly News, A crop of potatoes being harvested in the Waiapu County, Auckland, 1911, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19110518-7-3

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...

This blog post looks at the Abercrombie family’s outings during the 1930s and 1940s. The memories of this West Auckland family were documented by Ken Abercrombie through 4 photo albums of exquisite hand-coloured family snaps. These albums are held at the West Auckland Research Centre and you can view the first album online . A significant and attractive feature of the albums is that the majority of the prints have been hand-coloured and captioned by the photographer. Ref: KRA-PA-02-049-00, Ken Abercrombie, Album 2, West Auckland Research Centre Ken Abercrombie (b.1916) was a keen photographer, first becoming interested as a 16 year old boy when his parents gave him a camera – a ‘Balovo’, a German make. Ref: Ken Abercrombie's camera, early 1930s, West Auckland Research Centre At this time the Abercrombie family were living in Blockhouse Bay where Ken’s father, Roy had started a carrying business. The photo below shows his International truck. Ref: KRA-PA-02-031-04, ...

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.