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What do you think of when you think of the preservation of animals? Perhaps you imagine taxidermied animals, or the bleached white bones of an animal. Something that is often forgotten are the diaphonised specimens. Here Grace Yee shares more about the diaphonised shore skinks (Oligosoma smithi), at Tāmaki Paenga Hira.

Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira houses and cares for a collection of approximately 50,000 Sparrow Industrial Pictures negatives. Donated to the Museum in 1982 by Commercial Photographers Ltd, these negatives depict images taken, predominantly in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, from 1945 to 1966.

The Reverend Dr Arthur Purchas was among the group of twenty-three forward-thinking Aucklanders who formed the Auckland Institute and set themselves the task of "promoting science and literature by means of a museum and library".

As part of the larger Improved Documentation and Enhanced Access (IDEA) project, I spent five-months enriching the records of these newsletters and had the opportunity to peer into a narrow window of the Museum’s history. Over the course of 27 years, and more than 11 design changes, I traced two museum directors as their individual legacies helped the Museum find its own identity.

In 2020, we were granted funding from Internet NZ to support the translation into te reo Māori of the user interfaces of our two flagship digital platforms, Online Cenotaph and Collections Online. The project’s goal was to broaden the accessibility of the Museum's online collections.

DISASTROUS FORMS archive is a nomadic month-long exhibition accompanied by essays, street posters, and a live screen public viewing in Aotea Square, March 24, 8 to 10pm, 2021, providing audiences with a multitude of contemporary art offerings online and IRL.

On 15 September 1945 the Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero landed at Piva airfield in Bougainville. This aircraft is now on display on Level 2. Learn about how two men of different nationalities who were each instrumental in the Zero’s acquisition.

Auckland Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira seeks to be a kaiāwhina (advocate) in the revitalisation and retention of te reo Māori. As a step toward this, we have recently translated our Collections Online and Online Cenotaph user interfaces into te reo Māori.

The fern enthusiast and nature printer Herbert Dobbie pioneered the cyanotype photographic process, wherein dried ferns are placed on glass with sensitised paper beneath and exposed to light.

Photographing a diverse range of studio glass objects posed many challenges, not least how to capture the layers of molten glass fabric, blown and hot-styled into a myriad of highly reflective and often colourful forms.

The Museum is fortunate to hold two botanical titles featuring nature printing, an unusual process popularized in England in the mid-nineteenth century by a young printer by the name of Henry Bradbury.

Takapuna boy Lieutenant-Commander William Sanders is New Zealand's only naval recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest British award bestowed for valour. On the centenary of his death, Associate History Curator Gail Romano reflects upon the local Auckland recognition of his actions.