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
- 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.
The Trust acknowledges the passing of two former trustees: Max Cryer and Christopher Parr.
Former trustee
Max Cryer, who died on 25 August 2021, was a generous contributor to all matters cultural, especially music and words. He relished the study of language and how it changed, and the history and stories of the arts in Aotearoa.
Max served as a trustee on the Auckland Library Heritage Trust for 12 years until 2020. Max supported the Trust’s Scholarship programme, various funding applications for buying and caring for the collection, and was an expert witness for Auckland Libraries’ successful application to inscribe the lyrics and score of ‘God Defend New Zealand’ on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. Max gave many talks at the Central City Library and was a champion of the Library’s Heritage Concerts series. Max also donated several boxes of his own papers and photographs, covering his media career from the 1950s through to the present, to Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections.
Trustees of the Auckland Library Heritage Trust were saddened to hear of his passing and remembered him as warm, cheerful and scholarly. Chair Colin Davis paid tribute to his valuable and knowledgeable contribution, and Ali Ikram notes “He made Auckland a more interesting place.”
Christopher Parr died on 27 September 2021. Chris was a founding member of the Trust, and Chair for 17 years until 2008, bringing his expertise as a trust lawyer, his strong interest in early New Zealand literature and documentary heritage and his networking skills to great value for the Trust until his retirement in 2017. He is remembered by trustees and library staff as a gentleman and a scholar.
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.
2020/2021 scholarship winner
Mary Kisler
Mary's research will culminate in a biography of James Tannock Mackelvie (1824 - 1885), whose archive rests in the Sir George Grey Special Collections. The archive comprises all the documentation sent to Auckland after Mackelvie's death and includes both business and personal files.
This material allows a focus on his own life, both in England, Europe and New Zealand, his relationship with the burgeoning city of Auckland, and the collections he gifted and bequeathed to the people of Auckland.
Read more about Mary's research on the
Heritage et AL blog.
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.
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