Heritage et AL

Dorothy Quentin - the novelist you have never heard of who set her romances in New Zealand and on the high seas. We now have a guide to Auckland Libraries' formed collection of Rowan Gibbs’ Dorothy Quentin novels. The “bibliographical romance” described by Rowan Gibbs in his 1998 work (published by Cultural and Political Booklets of Te Aro, Aotearoa, sets out the considerable publication history of Madeleine Batten whose primary pen name was Dorothy Quentin. This guide is now available in the Reading Room in Special Collections, at Tāmaki Pātaka Kōrero | Central City Library, to assist readers navigating the Quentin oeuvre. The redoubtable Rowan Gibbs has made a career collecting New Zealand fiction. This amounts to over 200,000 titles collected since 1977. Image:  Cover of 'The Singing Hills' by Dorothy Quentin. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections.  New Zealand libraries and book collections are richer for Rowan Gibb’s assiduous collection, particularly in fiction, ...

It’s amazing the difference a few decades can make! These aerial photographs of Manukau City from the Auckland Council Archives show the previously open rural landscape to the more built-up area we know today. All showing the same exact location, it is fascinating to realise the growth of Manukau over 25 years, nearly 30 years ago. Image: Photo taken by our Digital Archives Imaging Specialist Paul Chapman showing scale of these aerial photographs and other examples from the accession.  The first image taken in 1972 and still in black and white lacks most of the recognisable landmarks, whereas the other two, taken in 1981 and 1994 are more recognisable with the inclusion of the Manukau Westfield mall and eventually Rainbows End. All of these images were printed on photographic paper pasted in chipboard and the scale here is 2 chains =1” meaning 40 meters = 1 inch approximately. Image: Black-and-white aerial photograph of Manukau City Centre, 14 April 1972, AUC 2023 025 Item 7, Auckl...

One of the inspirations for our current heritage exhibition Miraculous: medieval manuscripts was being able to view our entire medieval manuscripts collection on Kura Heritage Collections Online . Over half of these remarkable books are fully digitised and can be browsed and enjoyed from any device or location.  Explore more from the books that feature in the Miraculous exhibition below, or dive into the full collection of medieval manuscripts here . Rossdhu Book of Hours Medieval manuscripts are often described as “illuminated”, meaning embellished with gold, silver and luminous colours. These illuminations are found in the initial letters of words, and in borders and pictures. As well as being decorative and a pleasure to look at, initials and borders help the reader to find the way through a book of tightly written text with no page numbers or punctuation. They play the role of headings and punctuation by marking the start of a new section and indicating paragraphs, verses...

Miraculous: medieval manuscripts is a rare opportunity to see a diverse range of books from Auckland Libraries’ exceptional collection of medieval manuscripts. The exhibition runs from 16 August until 11 November 2023 at Tāmaki Pātaka Kōrero, the Central City Library.  This audio playlist compliments the exhibition. Hear more from the curators, Jane Wild and Renee Orr, and learn more about the books on display with two tracks from rare book specialist Georgia Prince's Meet a Rare Book  talk series. Listen below to hear Georgia talk about what makes these books special, why and how they were made, and how they found their way into our public library. Miraculous medieval manuscripts - Curators talk In this track we hear exhibition curators Jane Wild and Renee Orr share impressions, selections and insights into medieval manuscripts currently on display in the Gallery - Level 2 Tāmaki Pātaka Kōrero | Central City Library. Boethius and Fragments In this session we get up close w...

Enjoy a visit to the Franklin Arts Centre and Pukekohe Library to see and hear the exhibition 'I ō Tātou Hapori – The Voices and the People of Franklin: Our Neighbourhood.' The exhibition shares a sample of images and voices from the Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections and Franklin Local History Collection and is on view 9-30 August 2023.  Listen to the voices of the exhibition on a range of themes below. Memories of school Listen to a range of voices related to school and schooling. Ngā Pātaka Kōrero - Auckland Libraries · Memories of School Voices on this track include: Violet Keith, Patrick Gallagher, Gwen Francis, Mere Thompson, Dorothy Postles, Pritam Singh, Tony Waters.  Farming and Agriculture Pukekohe and the wider district are best known for their rich soils and agriculture. In these clips, we hear from experienced voices on the business of farming and market gardening. Ngā Pātaka Kōrero - Auckland Libraries · Farming and Agriculture Voices on this track include...

Partington’s Windmill was one of Tāmaki Makaurau's early lost landmarks, demolished in April 1950. One hundred years before, in 1850, the miller, engineer and entrepreneur Charles Frederick Partington commissioned millwright Henry White to build him a six-storeyed brick windmill on the high ridge above the town, near the intersection of the walking tracks along the Karangahape Road and Symonds Street ridges. Partington started grinding flour and grain there in late 1851. Image: John Coomer. Partington’s Mill, Mill Lane, Auckland Central, 1890s. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, 1729-156. The windmill soon became a well-known navigational landmark for seafarers and a favoured feature for local artists. You can see it on the top-left on the distant ridge beyond Queen Street in Patrick Joseph Hogan’s 1852 lithograph shown below. Image: Patrick Joseph Hogan. Auckland in 1852, Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, NZG-18920521-0518-01. Partington’s Windmill was also a good va...

Currently on show, till Saturday 15 July, in the Special Collections gallery space at Tāmaki Pātaka Kōrero | Central City Library is the exhibition 'Tara McLeod: About type' . This exhibition shows a selection of beautiful hand-printed books, broadsheets, posters, and ephemera from Tara McLeod’s exceptional career as one of Australasia’s master letterpress printers. Image: Tara McLeod. Hot acrobats perform cheese fog polka. Auckland: Pear Tree Press, 1994. Image: A view of items in an exhibition case, including the 'N' page and the wood type letter 'N' from: 16 inch grotesque: a specimen alphabet of wood type. Auckland: Pear Tree Press, 1998. Librarians Jane Wild and Zoë Colling co-curated the exhibition. Zoë sent Tara some questions, about his life in print, which he has kindly answered below. Zoë Colling: You became an apprentice compositor in the 1960s, working with an Auckland printing company. Tell us about your time working there. Tara McLeod: The suburb...