Auckland Museum Institute 150 Years - 1869

The Institute members were often out exploring Auckland’s unique natural sites. A field trip in 1869 took them to a lava cave formed 28,000 years ago by the lava flow from Three Kings volcano.

A description and map of the cave was published by engineer and surveyor James Stewart in September 1869. Stewart’s map was used when the Institute went on another field trip to the caves in 2012. On the trip was James Stewart’s great-grandson David Cook – a life member of the Institute.
 

Frederick Whitaker, the Institute’s president, donated this piece of arsenic from Kapanga Mine on the Coromandel Peninsula. You can see his donation listed among 80 others in the Institute’s first annual report.

In the late 1800s arsenic was used in all kinds of products including wallpaper, beer, coal, candles, and taxidermy – many of the Museum’s older natural science specimens contain arsenic.

Not all members of the Institute were happy about the company they were keeping. Dr James Bell wrote to the Institute requesting that his name be erased from the roll because of ‘certain notorious quacks’ being admitted as members. He held the view that members should be of high standing.

Dr Bell was known as medical man who served his district well. He was one of the founders of Albertland, a non-conformist society north of Auckland on the Kaipara Harbour.

Not all members of the Institute were happy about the company they were keeping. Dr James Bell wrote to the Institute requesting that his name be erased from the roll because of ‘certain notorious quacks’ being admitted as members. He held the view that members should be of high standing.

Dr Bell was known as medical man who served his district well. He was one of the founders of Albertland, a non-conformist society north of Auckland on the Kaipara Harbour.

Thomas Kirk, botanist and the first curator of the Auckland Museum, discovered a new species of Isoetes (I. alpina) on a tour to the Waikato with his friend, and Institute member, Captain Hutton.

Kirk presented his findings at the Institute’s general monthly meeting on 18 October 1869.

He found other new species of quillwort in 1876 in ‘our central and alpine lakes’. You can see one of those specimens here.

Thomas Kirk, botanist and the first curator of the Auckland Museum, discovered a new species of Isoetes (I. alpina) on a tour to the Waikato with his friend, and Institute member, Captain Hutton.

Kirk presented his findings at the Institute’s general monthly meeting on 18 October 1869.

He found other new species of quillwort in 1876 in ‘our central and alpine lakes’. You can see one of those specimens here.

In October 1869 the necessary arrangements had been made for Museum and Institute to officially become one organisation. A promise was made to preserve the collection and keep admission free. The Institute then governed the Museum for 127 years until 1996.

In 1996 the Institute became an independent body but retained important roles such as appointing four members to the Museum’s Trust Board. As a learned society it continues to feed the curious minds of its members and Aucklanders with lectures by leading thinkers, field trips, and Museum tours. And as a membership body it also supports curatorial research such as the Kermadec Islands and Southwest Pacific marine expeditions.