Documentary Heritage

The Manuscripts and Archives collection is of major regional importance and—at approximately 1500 linear metres—is one of the largest non-government archives in New Zealand.

The collection covers large organisational and business archives and smaller personal collections which record and illustrate New Zealanders’ lives here and abroad, especially during military service. Auckland Museum maintains a high degree of regional cooperation and complementary collecting with other organisations across Auckland. The Museum’s own archives covering its governance, curation, exhibitions, education, publishing, building development and maintenance and internal management is also an important and well-used resource within the collection. 

Oral history and the collecting of born-digital material will be areas of increasing focus in coming years.

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The Pictorial collection comprise photographs, paintings, drawings, prints, posters and plans. This is a major resource documenting the development of New Zealand society with a particular focus on the wider Auckland region. The breadth and richness of the photograph collection has benefited from the acquisition of collections from noted newspapers, industrial and professional photographers and by donations of family or amateur photographers. Notable assemblages include images from the Auckland Star, Sparrow Industrial Pictures, Robin Morrison and Tudor Collins. The collection also includes some of the earliest examples of photography in New Zealand. The vast task of identifying and describing the pictorial collections continues and it is estimated that it contains almost 2 million images. Paintings, drawings and prints are collected for their documentary value, especially where they describe people, times and places not covered by photography. 

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The Museum’s Library Collection of books and other publications is particularly strong in New Zealand subject areas covered by other museum collections and in Māori language material. The collection has been built on key donations from private collectors starting in the 19th century and has more recently focused on becoming a major documentary heritage resource for the Auckland region.

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The Museum holds the country’s most significant collection of Auckland newspapers, based on a 1967 donation by Wilson & Horton of their historical Auckland newspapers dating from the early 1840s and supplemented by individual donations. While some of these titles have been microfilmed or digitised, many have not and the original paper copies remain a key research resource for local social, economic or political history.

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