Help the Auckland Library Heritage Trust to support Auckland Libraries and Auckland Council to preserve, care for, add to, and promote the Sir George Grey Special Collections for the benefit of the people of Auckland.
This charitable trust is independent of Auckland Council. The Trust receives donations to help strengthen the library’s heritage collections.
These renowned collections provide us with a sense of Auckland’s identity and intellectual heritage.
The collections include heritage manuscripts, photographs, maps, books, letters and other documents, many of which are of particular rarity and value.
Trustees
- Colin Davis (Chairman)
- Judith Bassett
- Linda Bryder
- Max Cryer
- Dinah Holman
- Ali Ikram
- Mac Jackson.
Trustees’ expertise includes governance, law, rare books, history, medieval manuscripts, works of Shakespeare, heritage music, historic places, art, media, communications and social history.
Development of the collections
The Trust has attracted several donations and bequests, including rare manuscripts and books.
The Trust has also funded a number of significant projects. These include:
- digitising and preserving 4500 First World War photographs of soldiers, many posing with their families
- microfilming the first 3400 issues of The New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, from 1932 to the 1960s
- obtaining funds for cataloguing the Reed-Dumas collection through a joint venture between the Government of France, the former Auckland City Council and the Trust. This is the most extensive collection of material relating to Dumas outside France.
Auckland Library Heritage Trust scholarship
The scholarship is funded by the Trust and is awarded annually to research scholars who have a particular interest in items in the Sir George Grey Special Collections. The scholarship seeks to:
- raise the profile of the Sir George Grey Special Collections
- encourage scholarly research based on material held in the collections.
The scholarship is open to overseas applicants as well as New Zealand citizens.
2019/2020 scholarship winners
The Auckland Library Heritage Trust has awarded two scholarships for 2019/2020. They both focus on documenting the changing landscape and demographics of Auckland.
Finn McCahon-Jones’ proposal examines the built city, down to the details of the rocks and the streetscape, drawing on Auckland photographs in the collection. This may result in guided walks as well as an exhibition.
Megan Hutching will be re-examining some of the 1990s oral histories held in the collection about the Glen Innes/Panmure area. Revisiting the interviews 30 years later brings the opportunity for further research and has a wide appeal for podcasts and interaction.
Further details will be released when the scholars start their research.
2018 scholarship winners
Chris Turnbull
Chris Turnbull is commencing PhD research on New Zealand’s relationship with the Pacific Islands, and used Auckland Libraries’ heritage material to provide context on the appointment of Frederick Moss as the first British Resident of the Cook Islands in 1890.
Gareth Shute
Gareth Shute is an award-winning author and freelance music journalist who is working on a digital map of historic musical venues in Auckland. Gareth used Auckland Libraries’ photograph, ephemera and research collections to discover more venues and illustrate them on his digital maps.
Jake Bransgrove – Cook/Banks scholarship
University of Auckland postgraduate History student Jake Bransgrove transcribed the papers and correspondence of Sir Joseph Banks, the botanist who sailed with Captain James Cook in his first Pacific voyage on the HMS Endeavour in 1768-17.
To support the work of the Trust
Contact the Trust to discuss:
Registered charity number: CC22369 Auckland Library Heritage Trust