How do you create a museum?
The Institute's Minute Book from 150 years ago reveals the people and events that shaped the Auckland Museum and its vast collections.
A group of forward-thinking Aucklanders formed the Institute and set themselves the goal of "promoting science and literature by means of a museum and library".
Look through a selection of the original meeting notes to learn about the Institute’s earliest members and their vision, which resulted in the Museum we enjoy today.
1870
The building you’re standing in today was not the first home of the Museum. The collection had travelled from a labourer’s cottage on Grafton Road to a room in a government building on Princes St.
One more move saw the Museum housed in the ‘mean and uninviting’ old post office building on Princes St – pictured here. The Institute finally shared premises with the Museum almost a year after they had become one organisation.