Heritage et AL

Now on in the J.T. Diamond Room, Waitakere Central Library is our  Dalmatians out west   exhibition. The exhibition features images from Auckland’s Dalmatian community and will run until 30 August 2016. This is the third and final blog post based on the themes in the exhibition. Transport, Horticulture and Viticulture A number of Dalmatian families specialised in transport or earthmoving companies. The Lendich family were by far the largest, followed by Vuksich & Borich and then Bogoslav Sokolich.  Marinovich and Sons also owned a fleet of transport trucks which plied the route between Dargaville and Auckland. Ref:  Marinovich & Sons’ truck for the Auckland-Dargaville Service. West Auckland Research Centre, Auckland Libraries. DGHS Collection. Ref:  Tony and Ivan Yukich standing in front of their new truck, c1998, West Auckland Research Centre, Auckland Libraries. DGHS Collection.

There's a bit of a movement around at the moment to #Bringbackthetrams. It's timely, given we've included trams in our latest heritage display on the second floor of the Central Library, 'Auckland's amenities', as trams were indeed the lifeblood of Auckland for decades. They ran from the mid 1880s - originally horse drawn - until 1956 when the last tram took its final ride along the city to Onehunga route. At their peak in the 1940s, it's estimated around 99 million rides were taken on trams - a phenomenal number when Auckland's population was around the 200,000 mark. Ref: Henry Winkelmann, Looking south up Queen Street from the Gladtone Coffee Palace..., April 1903, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1-W1042.  

Looking through the Footprints database I was surprised how many images depicting official openings of bridges there were in South Auckland. In the good old days, and even in the not so early days these ceremonies were major events on the social calendar. Everyone turned up wearing their Sunday best. Ref: David Bryan, Opening ceremony, Clevedon wharf bridge, 1908, photograph reproduced courtesy of Clevedon and District Historical Society, South Auckland Research Centre, Auckland Libraries, Footprints 02585.

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...

The horse has had a long history in NZ and were first introduced to NZ in the 19th century. European settlers relied heavily on horses to transport everything, not quite the kitchen sink but almost! Horses were essential for farming and were the main form of transport in both rural and city areas for European settlers and Māori. The first iwi to have a horse was Ngā Puhi. They were given a mare, which was one of the first horses introduced into NZ. Horses were later traded with other iwi and used in the New Zealand Wars during the 1860s. Whilst not native to NZ, the horse has adapted well to the environment. By the 1870s, there were feral herds in the central plateau in the North Island, which came to be referred to as the Kaimanawa horses.These 'wild' horses are associated with the Ngāti Tūwharetoa people, particularly the Ngāti Tama Whiti hapū. Horses have remained popular and many people take still take part in horse riding and attend racing activities. Keen to find ...

In 1869, Mr Cousins of the carriage-makers Cousins and Atkin Ltd, rode the first bicycle in Auckland down Grey Street. Reportedly Mr Cousins wobbled down the road on a rattly sounding number with wooden wheels and iron tyres. No surprise then that the earliest bikes or 'velocipedes' were called 'boneshakers', and were perhaps not so easy to ride. "Messrs. Cousins and Atkin have offered a very handsome premium to any of their employees who could first bring it [the bicycle] safely along Queen-street without a 'spill'' (Daily Southern Cross, 26 Aug 1869, via Papers Past). Ref: 7-A4032, William Malcolm Services, a cycle shop on Karangahape Road, c. 1890, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries Bikes may have been tricky to ride, but the craze had begun. Velos morphed into high-wheeled penny farthings - popular for a few years among wealthy young men. Then came the 'safety bicycle' – much easier for everyone to r...