Getting a better IDEA of our collection

Our collections are going digital

Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira holds over 4.5 million specimens, objects and archival documents that have either been collected by us over the past 160 years or donated by the public. However, only around three percent of these items are on display at the Museum.

Since the 1980s, we have created over 900,000 digital records for these items, increasing this number annually by extracting information from catalogue cards, registers, staff knowledge and from observations made about the objects themselves. We now make that information available for access and re-use through Collections Online, enabling people locally and around the world to search through and view much more of our collection that just what we put on display.

Natural Sciences highlights

Some highlights included within our Natural Sciences collections are marine fossils; New Zealand skinks, geckoes and other native lizards; New Zealand insects including spiders, stick insects, centipedes and worms; foreign monocots (grasses) as well as New Zealand and foreign marine life such as gastropods, a class of mollusc which includes slugs and snails.

Documentary Heritage highlights

Among the Documentary Heritage collections that will be included are the books of nineteenth-century collector James T. Mackelvie and heritage publications reflecting the history of voyaging and discovery in the Pacific. A comprehensive record of the UNESCO Memory of the World-registered Edmund Hillary manuscripts collection will be created, along with that of the photographic collections from the photographer and photojournalist Robin Morrison. We will also highlight select collections from amateur photographer soldiers of both world wars. The Museum’s own institutional archive will also feature providing a light onto its own history.

We will provide regular updates, revealing some of the amazing information we discover along the way. Look out for blogs, videos and social media posts for news and discoveries as the project unfolds.