Foreword
Advancing Research at Auckland War Memorial Museum
In my Foreword last year I wrote about the impact of digital technology as research advances in Auckland War Memorial Museum. The pace of change has since increased and throughout the past year we have continued to nourish the collections and develop the audiences for them. The collections of this great institution are genuinely reaching out across the globe, presenting with many exciting new possibilities, as foreseen by Future Museum (published in 2012).
![Cover image: Holotype of Hemideina gigantea Colenso, AMNZ21862. Photo: Peter Quin.]()
Cover image: Holotype of Hemideina gigantea Colenso, AMNZ21862. Photo: Peter Quin.
Auckland War Memorial Museum - Tāmaki Paenga Hira.
Academic libraries pioneered new approaches to collection building and retention. Museum collections are more diverse, but they need to follow suit and adopt new models to better serve their audiences cost-efficiently.
The Museum’s Trust Board is committed to strategies that explore these avenues, while renewing galleries and displays, activating ‘beyond our walls’ and investing in innovative ways to engage people of all ages and backgrounds. Scholarship remains vital, alongside all levels of research, enquiry and participation.
He Korahi Māori and to its Pacific companion Teu Le Vā are woven tightly through the developments and bring indigenous perspectives to the forefront. As the Te Awe and Pacific Collections Access programmes progress, the Museum is strengthening its ties with communities and peoples. We are becoming more respectful kaitiaki and our documentation is being enhanced as we engage and learn.
Amid much that has changed there is continuity of purpose. At the core of all that we do, and all that we aspire to be, are the internationally-significant collections and the skills and capacities of those who care for them. Our curators and professional staff members are of course a crucial and enduring resource, but no museum in the world could achieve its ambitions without the talented and committed support of researchers and specialist volunteers.
In Auckland Museum we are fortunate to have the services of a significant number of subject experts who seek no financial reward. The late Margaret Morley is an outstanding example who has made a substantial contribution to developing and enhancing our marine invertebrates collection. Margaret received a Museum Award in 2015 and we were very sad to learn of her passing earlier this year. Her painstaking work forms the basis of two papers in this volume. Unfortunately Margaret did not live to see the publication of her research, but her legacy will be with us forever.
Roy Clare CBE
- Director,
Auckland War Memorial Museum
Downloads
- Foreword by Roy Clare
- Academic libraries pioneered new approaches to collection building and retention. Museum collections are more diverse, but they need to follow suit and adopt new models to better serve their audiences cost-efficiently.
- Last updated on: 1 Oct 2019 | File Size: 2 MB
- "Fossil and Recent molluscan types in the Auckland War Memorial Museum. Part 1: Bivalvia" by Wilma M. Blom
- The Marine Department of Auckland War Memorial Museum has nearly 1800 primary types and a further 1770 paratypes and paralectotypes types in its collections. The majority are molluscan and this frst part of a catalogue of these collections reviews the types for 316 bivalve species. It deals with 222 primary types and 242 secondary types, which are almost evenly split between Recent taxa (159) and fossil taxa (157). Type material is fgured for the frst time for the following taxa: Nucula certisinus Finlay, 1930; Nucula gallinacea Finlay, 1930; Nucula rossiana Finlay, 1930; Poroleda pertubata Iredale, 1924; Notovola marwicki Finlay, 1930; Spissatella acculta Finlay, 1926; Spissatella clifdenensis Finlay, 1926; Maorimactra acuminella Finlay, 1930; Scalpomactra continua Finlay, 1930; Amphidesma forsteriana Finlay, 1927; Angulus(Peronidia) tumens Laws, 1933; Gari oamarutica Finlay, 1930.
- Last updated on: 30 Sep 2019 | File Size: 4.9 MB
- "Provenance of the type specimen of William Colenso’s giant weta Hemideina gigantea" by John W. Early
- A specimen of a giant weta in Auckland Museum’s collections (AMNZ21862) is confrmed to be the holotype of Hemideina gigantea Colenso, 1882 and its provenance is established. Its current name is Deinacrida heteracantha White, 1842 (Orthoptera: Anostostomatidae). It was collected in 1839 and is the oldest specimen of a New Zealand insect (or perhaps of any NZ land animal) in any New Zealand collection.
- Last updated on: 17 Jul 2019 | File Size: 2.7 MB
Table of Contents
The Marine Department of Auckland War Memorial Museum has nearly 1800 primary types and a further 1770 paratypes and paralectotypes types in its collections. The majority are molluscan and this first part of a catalogue of these collections reviews the types for 316 bivalve species.
Read moreA specimen of a giant weta in Auckland Museum’s collections (AMNZ21862) is confirmed to be the holotype of Hemideina gigantea Colenso, 1882 and its provenance is established.
Read moreThree hundred and sixty-seven species (91% endemic to New Zealand) of micromollusc (greatest dimension of adult shell <10 mm) are recorded from the intertidal zone of northern New Zealand.
Read moreOne hundred and twelve species of marine ostracod are recorded from 0-29m depth around the Cavalli Islands, northeast Northland — the most diverse ostracod fauna from a relatively small area (10 km2) documented so far from New Zealand.
Read more