Sleeping porches were a fashionable feature of homes designed at the turn of the 20th century. See an example in a Titirangi ‘summer cottage’ in the final Special Collections Twenty at 20 series story. Read more…
Special Collections Twenty at 20: Throughlines
Intriguing item no. 19 is a 1965 exhibition catalogue that contextualises an Auckland artist’s work, provides a snapshot of the gallery scene and wonderfully evokes the era. Read more. Read more…
Special Collections Twenty at 20: Naval gazing
Paul Beadle is probably best known as an influential sculptor, artist and first Dean of the Elam School of Fine Art. What is less well known is that he served with the Royal Navy as a submariner and navy artist. Dive deeper in the latest Twenty at 20 story. Read more…
Special Collections Twenty at 20: Prescription for the future
Special Collections holds medical records requiring researchers to be patient. To learn why, read story number 17 in the Twenty at 20 series. Read more…
Special Collections Twenty at 20: A tasty treat
This correspondence register was made in Sydney, used in Port Vila, stored in Suva and shipped around the world twice before coming to Special Collections with the Western Pacific Archives in 2002. Somewhere on its travels it was eaten by beetle larvae. Discover more about its journey in the latest Special Collections Twenty at 20 story. Read more…
Special Collections Twenty at 20: Sweeping rooflines
To mark this year’s 20th anniversary of Special Collections, the curators have selected some intriguing items for the Twenty at 20 series. No 15 examines an idyllic watercolour of a large country house at Turakina.Read more…
Special Collections Twenty at 20: Unexpected photographs
A Special Collections copy of the report on the 1939 Young Māori Conference held at Auckland University College differs from the standard version. Story number 14 in the Twenty at 20 series explains why.Read more…
Special Collections Twenty at 20: Letter from the Tongan Royal Household
To mark this year’s 20th anniversary of Special Collections, the curators have selected some intriguing items for the Twenty at 20 series. Here is number 13. Written in lea faka-Tonga This 1912 letter announcing the baptism of Princess Elisiva FusipalaRead more…
Special Collections Twenty at 20: Favourite ephemera
To mark this year’s 20th anniversary of Special Collections, the curators share item number twelve, our favourite piece of ephemera: a 1948 Ashes football test match souvenir programme. Read more…
Special Collections Twenty at 20: ‘Little all alone’
What links kittens, Crunchies, and a Victorian portrait album? Read the latest Special Collections Twenty at 20 story to find out.Read more…
Special Collections Twenty at 20: Revolving diagrams
What was this ingenious 17th century revolving book diagram used for? Read the latest Special Collections Twenty at 20 story to find out.Read more…
Special Collections Twenty at 20: An iconic Swanndri
To mark this year’s 20th anniversary of Special Collections, the curators share item number nine, geographer Kenneth Cumberland’s Swanndri jacket which he wore on the 1980s television series Landmarks.Read more…
Special Collections Twenty at 20: Well-travelled letter book returns
Notable Auckland architect Daniel B. Patterson’s letter book provides insights into his clients, contractors and collaborators. Read more in the eighth story in the Twenty at 20 series. Read more…
Special Collections Twenty at 20: A quirky scrapbook
Many of the archival collections in the care of Special Collections have been part of Te Tumu Herenga | Libraries and Learning Services for much longer than two decades. Among these is the William Steadman Aldis papers, gifted to the Library in 1940 by his youngest daughter Amy Letitia Aldis.Read more…
Special Collections Twenty at 20: The sweetest item
The sixth story in the Twenty at 20 series is an election sweetener. A Labour-red lollipop was handed out to students in the Quad in 2002 and is the only confectionary item in Special Collections. Read more…
Special Collections Twenty at 20: Archive within an archive
Tapa notebook poetry project: ‘Issa gift(s) that keeps on giving’. The fifth story in the Twenty at 20 series explores spoken word poet, Zechariah Soakai’s ‘tapa notebook’. The notebook is inspired by other poets’ work held in Special Collections.Read more…
Special Collections Twenty at 20: McCahon’s glorious glass
Colin McCahon drawings identified in the James Hackshaw architectural papers helped to authenticate windows at a Rotorua school. Learn more in the fourth Twenty at 20 series article.Read more…
Special Collections Twenty at 20: Our wordiest title page
Title pages were once very crowded with lengthy descriptive text. The third story in the Twenty at 20 series examines the book in the Special Collections stacks with the wordiest title page. Read more…
Special Collections Twenty at 20: Lectures 1883-style
Students managing their complicated timetables this semester will be surprised by the simplicity of the first lecture timetable after the University’s opening in May 1883, our second 20th anniversary of Special Collections Twenty at 20 item.Read more…
Special Collections Twenty at 20: Illuminated manuscript fragments
Special Collections is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year with a programme of exhibitions, stories, talks and events. This collection of illuminated manuscript fragments was gifted to the University by Emeritus Professor Frank R. Horlbeck, Department of Art History, University of Wisconsin – Madison.Read more…
Special Collections: 2021 Christmas hamper
The Special Collections staff share their five favourite items from 2021.Read more…
Special Collections: 2020 Christmas hamper
The stacks in Special Collections contain countless items that deserve close inspection by researchers. Here are a few that caught the eye of Special Collections staff during 2020.Read more…
Special Collections: delivering tailored services
The Special Collections team in the General Library is all set to help clients make good use of the fine arts, architecture, planning and music collections that have recently come under the repository’s care. Already home to the University’s largestRead more…
Special Collections artists’ books display
View the artists’ books display at Special Collections in the General Library until Friday 6 March.Read more…
Picturing Cultural Collections
A series of photographs are hanging in the Special Collections Reading Room in the General Library. Read their backstories and discover more about Cultural Collections.Read more…
Cultural Collections: Tape slicing – the reel story
Replacing tape splices on reel-to-reel magnetic tapes is a fiddly but critical task to ensure rare recordings can be preserved and digitised.Read more…
Cultural Collections: The art of cleaning
This summer, we’re taking you behind the scenes to see the work that goes into caring for our Cultural Collections and giving you access to them. This is the second of four stories. A crane, a cherry picker, small brushesRead more…
Cultural Collections: Delivering digitised archives
This summer, we’re taking you behind the scenes to see the work that goes into caring for our Cultural Collections and giving you access to them. This is the first of four stories. Thomas Gulliver was an early 20th-century AucklandRead more…
From the collections: History serials pass 50-year mark
University of Auckland staff and students have edited and produced academic and student journals since at least 1898 when the short-lived student magazine The Collegian first appeared.1 Numerous other publications have followed over the decades, including two which arose outRead more…
Books for every season
At this time of year, many people are scouring bookshops for the perfect present for family and friends. In Special Collections, we scoured the shelves to see what books had been given for Christmases and New Years’ past. Here’s a selection.Read more…
Good things come in threes
Special Collections is thrilled to have Colin McCahon’s 1959 painting Landscape through a Victorian window on display in the Reading Room.Read more…
University of Auckland 140 years: Shelf life
This imagined day in the life of the library, written for the University’s 140th anniversary this year, is based on sources mainly in Special Collections.Read more…
Collection connections: In the Lee of a Looted Island
The University of Auckland art collection is a significant part of Cultural Collections, and we are extremely excited to have a painting from the collection recently installed in the Special Collections Reading Room, Ground Floor, General Library.
The painting, ‘In the Lee of a Looted Island’ (1966), is by Don Binney and has recently been returned from having some routine conservation. Read more…
University of Auckland 140 years: In the classroom
To mark the 140th anniversary of the opening of Auckland University College (AUC), Special Collections goes back into the classroom to look at university teaching before PowerPoint, Zoom and Canvas.Read more…
University of Auckland 140 years: First four professors
To mark the 140th anniversary of the opening of Auckland University College (AUC), Special Collections has taken a closer look at the appointment and careers of the first four professors.Read more…
University of Auckland 140th Anniversary: Orientation
To coincide with Orientation Week, Special Collections has put together a display celebrating this important and fun part of the university year.Read more…
James Joyce exhibition and talk
Special Collections has mounted an exhibition, James Joyce: in his wake, that highlights several works by the Irish modernist writer, including Ulysses, some early poetry and his final novel, Finnegans Wake. The exhibition also features writing, music, fine printing and art inspired by Joyce’s unique voice.Read more…
Kia Tupuolaola e Moui he Tagata Niue – May the Tagata Niue thrive
To mark Niue Language week, Special Collections are pleased to provide online access to a petition sent by Patu-iki Togia-Pule-toaki to the British High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, in October 1899.Read more…
Communist Party centenary: The Party and the hangover
A Special Collections display marks the centenary of the 1921 formation of the Communist Party of New Zealand by looking at two aspects of its history: its members’ social events and its response to the global communist movement during the tumultuous era of the Cold War.Read more…
James Hector: a note from the past
James Hector (1834-1907) was a leading scientist and administrator in Aotearoa. For Hector Day, Special Collections highlights a handwritten note by Hector left in a zoological journal.Read more…
Robin Hyde’s papers receive UNESCO recognition
The papers of Robin Hyde, held by Special Collections, and the Alexander Turnbull Library, have been inscribed on UNESCO’s New Zealand Memory of the World Register. Special Collections is marking this occasion with the exhibition ‘torrents of amber’.Read more…
Celebrating Beethoven’s 250th birthday
Celebrate Beethoven’s 250th birthday. View rare manuscripts of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony by visiting our Special Collections display.Read more…
Building Bridges: Looking back to the future
Revisit how Auckland Harbour Bridge was built and the Special Collections the library holds about its history and engineering.Read more…
Preserving our roots: protecting our forest taonga
Supporting the International Year of Plant Heath; discover Special Collections resources about our native trees and plants, mātauranga and forestry.Read more…
Choose: having your say
A new Special Collections display in the General Library dips into an extensive election ephemera archive to look at two significant, historic referenda issues.Read more…
Should I be wearing gloves?
Readers using rare materials in the Special Collections Reading Room have been asking this question long before wearing protective gloves became a Covid-19-related concern.Read more…
Display celebrates 50 years of the Archive of Māori and Pacific Sound
View the display Celebrating 50 years of the Archive of Māori and Pacific Sound, 1970 – 2020, at Special Collections in the General Library until Friday 3 April.Read more…
We, the undersigned
Special Collections is marking 125 years of women’s suffrage in Aotearoa New Zealand with a display looking at the power of petitions.Read more…
Farewell Sylvia Ashton-Warner Library at Epsom
The Sylvia Ashton-Warner Library, at Epsom, is closing its doors for the last time on Monday 13 November 2023. Services and collections are transferring to the General Library at the City Campus.Read more…
Remember and reflect: The Declaration of Independence and the National Day of Commemoration for the New Zealand Wars
28 October 2022 marks the anniversary of the signing of He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tirene: the Declaration of Independence of the United Tribes of New Zealand in 1835. Te Pūtake o te Riri, He Rā Maumahara, or the National Day of Commemoration for the New Zealand Wars, is commemorated on the same date. Read more…
Vaiaso o te ‘Gana Tuvalu -Tuvalu Language Week 2023
Fakatalofa atu – welcome to Vaiaso o te ‘Gana Tuvalu -Tuvalu Language Week, which includes Tuvalu Independence Day on 1 October. This year’s theme is fakatumau kae fakaakoi tau ‘gana ke mautu a iloga o ‘ta tuā – preserve and embrace your language to safeguard our heritage identities. Read more…
Drawing lessons from Rewi Thompson
The work of Rewi Thompson (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Raukawa) and his legacy as a teacher and indigenous architect of international renown is explored in the new book ‘Rewi: Āta haere, kia tere’. Read more…
Epetoma o te reo Māori Kūki ‘Āirani – Cook Islands Language Week
‘Epetoma o te reo Māori Kūki ‘Āirani – Cook Islands Language week kicks off from Sunday 30 July to Saturday 5 August 2023. In the latest 2018 Census, 80,532 people of Cook Islands descent live in Aotearoa and 46,668 people of Cook Islands live in Tamaki Makaurau.Read more…
International Archives Week: Archives United
This week is International Archives Week, marking the foundation of the International Council of Archives (ICA), under the auspices of UNESC0, on 9 June 1948. This year the event also celebrates 75 years of the ICA’s work to promote the importance of records and archives and the work of those who care for them.Read more…
Alice Minchin: Leading the way for women in libraries
Alice Minchin was the first professionally qualified woman librarian in New Zealand becoming the Librarian at Auckland University College from 1918 to 1945.Read more…
A step back in time: student life in the 1920s
Have you ever sat in a classroom in one of the University’s older buildings and wondered about the staff and students who came before you? We take a step back in time to reflect on student life in the 1920s.Read more…
![Architectural drawing of Auckland University College Arts Building [University of Auckland ClockTower] (sheet 8), Lippincott Collection (LP2).](https://www.news.library.auckland.ac.nz/files/2021/09/clocktower-lippincott-wordpress-feature-image-option01.jpg)
ClockTower design: celebrating 100 years
2021 marks 100 years since Roy Lippincott and Edward Billson won the competition to design the University’s first significant purpose-built building, now known as the ClockTower.Read more…
BSANZ 2021 Conference: Communities, books and the power of words
Interested in studies about books, authors, publishing, readers and related topics? Registrations are open for the Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand 2021 virtual conference, 22-23 November. Read more…
Winter of discontent: 1981 Springbok tour
The Library is marking the 40th anniversary of the controversial 1981 Springbok tour with a display that captures the passions the tour provoked.Read more…
Kiribati Language Week 2021
The 32 atolls and coral islands that form the Republic of Kiribati are most often associated with the immediate impacts of global climate change and rising sea levels. However, Kiribati also has a unique oral tradition, art and culture.Read more…
New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre: 20 years online
The New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre went live 20 years ago on 20 July 2001, making it one of the country’s longest-running poetry hubs.Read more…
A mystery building, a pirate ship and other architectural treasures
A pirate ship cabaret and tearooms is one of the treasures housed in a collection of architectural drawings by architect S S Alleman (1901-1978).Read more…
Philcox architecture archive: Builder of handsome edifices
The architectural drawings collection of W. Philcox and Sons provides a unique insight into an Auckland building firm from the turn of the 20th century. Search the new collection listing.Read more…
Books tell a prize-winning story
A personal library is more than the sum of the books a person owned. The books we keep can provide unique insights into our life story.Read more…
Te Vaiaho o te Gagana Tokelau 2020
Celebrate Tokelau Language Week. Consult the Tokelau Dictionary online and explore other Tokelau related resources held by Te Tumu Herenga.Read more…
45 years of the Waitangi Tribunal
45 years after the establishment of the Waitangi Tribunal, we reflect on its position in Aotearoa New Zealand society.Read more…
Macawa Ni Vosa Vakaviti – Fijian Language Week 2020
Celebrate the nuances of Fijian language with our wide variety of language publications and other resources.Read more…
Epetoma o te reo Māori Kūki ‘Āirani Cook Islands Language Week
Welcome to Cook Islands Language Week. Celebrate Cook Island culture by exploring the maps, letters, old records and research we have curated.Read more…
Kiribati Language Week 2020
Watch the playlist and explore selected resources as you celebrate Kiribati Language Week.Read more…
Whakanuia ā Matariki: Celebrating Matariki at Te Tumu Herenga
When Matariki rises, that is the sign of the new year. Join us in the Matariki festivities by enjoying the resources we have curated. Happy Matariki.Read more…
Contribute to a University of Auckland Covid-19 archive
Help future researchers by contributing your pandemic experiences and activities to our Covid-19 archive.Read more…
Help for Creative Arts and Industries students using library resources
The Fine Arts and Architecture and Planning collections are in their new home in the Library. Visit the General Library and view the new locations.Read more…
Honouring Professor Jonathan Mane-Wheoki
On 31 January Te Tumu Herenga welcomed the books of late Professor Jonathan Ngarimu Mane-Wheoki CNZM to their new home in the General Library. Professor Mane-Wheoki (Ngāpuhi, Te Aupōuri, Ngāti Kuri) was a renowned scholar, art historian and museum curatorRead more…
Holiday treasures unearthed
Classic New Zealand tourism brochures from the inter-war years are on display outside Special Collections after being unearthed recently. Largely hidden from view for several decades, these historic tourism treasures were in the extensive ‘vertical file’ ephemera collection that underwentRead more…
Critical Encounters Tuia 250
The Critical Encounters Tuia 250 programme of exhibitions, playlists and curator talks mark the 250th anniversary of meetings between Māori and James Cook’s Endeavour crew in 1769-70. Developed by Cultural Collections, the programme draws on our rich collections to reflectRead more…
The Fine Arts Library closed at the end of Semester Two 2019
The Fine Arts Library closed on Monday 18th November 2019. From 2020 the Fine Arts books, journals and supporting services will be available from the General Library.Read more…
Te Wiki o te Reo Māori
He mihi tēnei ki a koutou katoa i runga i te wiki o te reo Māori. Haere mai ki Te Tumu Herenga ki te whakanui i tō tātou reo rangatira. Nō reira, kia kaha te reo Māori. Nau mai, haereRead more…
Reo Māori Kūki’Āirani – Cook Islands Language Week
Kia orana tātou kātoatoa, welcome to Reo Māori Kūki’Āirani – Cook Islands Language Week 4-10 August, at Te Tumu Herenga – Libraries and Learning Services. This year’s theme is Taku rama, taau toi: ora te Reo – My Torch, Your Adze:Read more…
The Architecture and Planning Library is now closed
The Architecture and Planning Library closed at the end of Semester One. From Semester Two the Architecture and Planning books, journals and supporting services will be available from the General Library. Read more…
Play it loud
Cultural Collections has assembled a mix-tape of events and content for New Zealand Music Month to entertain, inform, and inspire. Reflecting this year’s Discover Live theme, you can head along to live and recorded performances and visit a display thatRead more…
General Library turns 50
During the summer of 1968-69, around 300,000 books were moved from the old library in the ClockTower to the new General Library building. The 14,000 cartons of books were packed, moved, unpacked and shelved in 10 days.1 The Library, whichRead more…
Opening the Archives
Finding the letters of a local poet, files about fluoridation or information about an obscure official employed by the Western Pacific High Commission is now much easier thanks to the new Manuscripts and Archives catalogue. Manuscripts and Archives is aRead more…
On your bike: ‘Biketivism’ on campus
To mark the February 2019 Auckland Bike Challenge, we look back at the first stirrings of ‘biketivism’ on the University’s campus in the 1970s and early 1980s. Although Auckland is not synonymous with cycling in the same way as ChristchurchRead more…
Summer road trip
The iconography captured in these photographs from 1968 – packing up the car with the tent, outdoor furniture, provisions and heading to the pōhutukawa-lined coast – still resonate half a century later. This is how we should be enjoying theRead more…
End of First World War centenary project
The Special Collections First World War centenary website, which was launched on the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the conflict, was completed on the 100th anniversary of the Armistice. The centenary website, which remains online, centres on a digitisedRead more…
First World War armistice: Clear the line
The First World War ended with the signing of an armistice between Germany and the Allied Powers in Compiegne, France at 5.30am on 11 November 1918. The message ordering hostilities to cease at 11am Paris-time was transmitted within minutes toRead more…
Women’s suffrage: Enrolling the new electors
New Zealand women had the opportunity to exercise their political power in a general election just ten weeks after winning the right to vote on 19 September 1893. The short timeframe caused some consternation in Parliament, despite enrolment forms beingRead more…
Māori Land Court Minute Books Index now open access
E ngā mana, e ngā reo o Te Tumu Herenga e kore e mimiti ngā kōrero i tā koutou mahi rangatira nei. Since the July launch of the redesigned, open access Māori Land Court Minute Books Index website, accessing theRead more…
Paid for in blood: Medical rare books display
In April 1831, medical student Samuel Hayward Ford went to watch an operation in the great anatomical theatre at Guy’s Hospital, London. What Samuel Ford couldn’t know as he set out that day was that he would end up beingRead more…
50th anniversary of the Wahine disaster
Check out the 50th anniversary of the Wahine disaster playlist for a range of documentaries about the 1968 sinking of the Wahine held in the TV and Radio collection. On 10 April 1968, tragedy struck at the entrance of Wellington Harbour when theRead more…
You never know who you’ll meet at university
This year marks the 65th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary’s May 1953 ascent of Mt Everest with Tenzing Norgay and 60 years since he led a New Zealand team to the South Pole in January 1958. Those achievements, and theRead more…
Journeys of an historic handpress
The old printing press now in retirement in the General Library started its working life in the colonial Government’s bustling printing office in Auckland. Built in London in 1863 by V & J Figgins, Hopkinson & Cope No. 4224 isRead more…
Broadsheet magazine 1972-1997
Broadsheet: New Zealand’s feminist magazine has been digitised by the University of Auckland’s Libraries and Learning Services and is now publicly available online. Broadsheet was a leading voice of the local women’s movement and was produced by the Auckland-based BroadsheetRead more…
More than just a container: the Fine Arts Library Artist Books collection
Defining an artist book can be a challenge as these works are not simply books made by artists. Ulises Carrión (1980) captures the essence of this form when he describes them as “an expressive unity […] where the message isRead more…
Ngā Kura Māori: The Native Schools System 1867-1969
Today Kaikohe West School is a rural state primary school but between 1882 and 1969 it was known as Kaikohe Native School and was one of more than 160 Native or Māori Schools in the country. This photograph of pupilsRead more…
Bookmarks XV 2017-2018
For the past 14 years The Centre for Fine Print Research at UWE Bristol has conducted a free artwork distribution project. It aims to encourage appreciation and awareness of artists working in the book format. Each year since 2004, aRead more…
Launch of Chinese rare books catalogue
A catalogue of the Chinese rare books held in Special Collections at the University of Auckland has been launched locally following its release earlier this year at an international conference in Toronto. 新西蘭奥克蘭大學中文古籍目錄, Chinese rare and pre-modern books at theRead more…
Towards the Nineties: The Visual Arts Education Symposium recordings, 1985
It isn’t every day that teachers, artists and administrators from across the fine arts sector come together for rigorous and constructive debate over the state of fine arts education in the nation. The 1985 Visual Arts Education Symposium, the firstRead more…
“The First Girl Graduates”: The legacy of Kate Edger
The achievements of Kate Milligan Edger, the first woman in the British Empire to earn a BA and the first woman in New Zealand to earn a degree, are well-known and memorialised. A facsimile of her degree is displayed permanentlyRead more…
Miss Butterfield’s busy year
In 1917, just 503 students were enrolled at Auckland University College (AUC), its lowest enrolment during the years of the First World War. Of those 503 students, 275 were men and 228 women.1 While the number of women was inRead more…