Human History

Auckland Museum protects and cares for nearly 200,000 human history objects, in collections that have been developed and cared for over 150 years.

The focus of the four main collections  is pedominantly Auckland-based, however they also contain significant materials from the rest of New Zealand and around the world. These collections are used by academics and the public, for reference, research, publication and display.

APPLIED & DECORATIVE ARTS

Auckland Museum holds a valuable and significant series of collections in this area - and offers to the public an insightful look at past and present decorative arts. The Museum is a treasure house of contemporary and historic ceramics, glass, metalwork, furniture, textiles and jewellery from our own collections and from around the world.

ARCHAEOLOGY

The Archaeology team looks after New Zealand Maori and European material, collections from other places in the Pacific, and small amounts of material from ancient civilisations and peoples elsewhere in the world. Items in the collection have been recovered as chance finds, or, increasingly, in the course of archaeological excavations.

ETHNOLOGY

The artefact collections of Ethnology are concentrated on New Zealand Maori and the Pacific Islands. There are also strong representative ranges of material from South-East Asia, Australia and Africa.

NEW ZEALAND HISTORY

The Museum currently has a series of exhibitions / galleries devoted to New Zealand's Social History.

WAR MEMORIAL

Auckland War Memorial Museum is both a museum and a site of commemoration for New Zealanders lost at war. The Museum houses two halls of memory within which the names of all those killed in major conflicts of the 20th Century are recorded and remembered.

HUMAN HISTORY DATABASES

Enjoy quick and easy access to a selection of behind-the-scenes online Collection databases. These links will allow you to search a small portion of data about the Museum collections, representing less than 1% of the total collection items. Other parts of the collection will be made available in the future.

Contact Us

If you want to know more about our collections, what we do, or how we can help you, please email our staff.