UNESCO honours for magnificent seven heritage collections
Seven significant heritage collections of New Zealand documents have been inscribed onto the UNESCO Memory of the World
New Zealand documentary heritage register.
The Memory of the World New Zealand Trust announced the inscription of the John A Lee Papers, and J. T. Diamond West
Auckland History Collection (Auckland Libraries), New Zealand Official Photographs, World War 1914-1918 (Alexander
Turnbull Library), Kaleidoscope – a weekly television arts documentary programme 1976-1989 (Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision), the Ng New Zealand Chinese Heritage Collection (Presbyterian Research Centre), Salmond Anderson Architects
Records (University of Otago’s Hocken Collections, Uare Taoka o Hākena) and the Tyree Studio Collection (Nelson
Provincial Museum and Alexander Turnbull Library) today.
There are now 27 documentary heritage collections on the New Zealand register. Each is a valuable source of research for
historians, researchers, educators and many others in New Zealand and the world.
UNESCO recognition draws attention to the significance of documentary heritage and the importance of ensuring it is
preserved and made accessible.
The Memory of the World New Zealand Trust Chair Dianne Macaskill said, “the Memory of the World Trust is delighted to
have these seven new inscriptions on the register. Inscription on the UNESCO register makes our history, our culture and
our values more visible to New Zealanders and to the world The inscriptions include collections that cover the Great
War, 20th century politics, the arts and literature, Chinese culture and experiences in New Zealand, architectural
design and social and industrial developments.
“All greatly contribute to the story of our nation’s history and heritage and are significant to the identity of New
Zealanders today. The Memory of the World Trust congratulates the successful institutions and the people who have cared
for these taonga.
“You should all be proud of the work you have achieved to safeguard these valuable collections and make them accessible
so that we understand our past and its significance for our future.”
Councillor Cathy Casey, Chair of the Community Development and Safety Committee for Auckland Council, is delighted to
see Auckland Libraries’ John A. Lee and J.T Diamond collections recognised as being of national significance and
inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World New Zealand register.
John Alexander Lee was a dynamic and outspoken member of the first New Zealand Labour government and advocate for social
justice. The Auckland Libraries John A. Lee Collection of his personal papers covers every aspect of his eventful life
as a war hero, politician, champion of the working class, novelist, correspondent and friend to other writers.
“This collection occupies a significant place in New Zealand’s history as very few personal political archives survive
from the first half of the 20th century. It is rich with political papers from the inter-war years, capturing both
social and political insights and a crucial period in the development of social welfare programmes,” Councillor Casey
says.
The J.T Diamond Collection comprise John (Jack) Thomas Diamond’s meticulous research and documentation of West
Auckland’s history that he compiled over 60 years from the 1930’s. The collection documents many local industries and
locations that have since disappeared or altered significantly and includes detailed and unique archival records of the
first two generations of colonial settlement in New Zealand. The collection is made up of manuscript material, extensive
photographs, plans and site records including Diamond’s notebooks which describe the exact location and details of his
photographic record of the West.
These photographs continue to be used in publications and are widely referenced by local and regional government
authorities, historians and national heritage organisations.
Displays from the John A. Lee and J.T Diamond collections can be seen at the Auckland Central City Library and Henderson
Library. Digitised items can be accessed here.
Chris Szekely, Chief Librarian, Alexander Turnbull Library, says: ‘’this collection of New Zealand’s official First
World War photographs, held at the Turnbull Library, is the most extensive visual record of New Zealanders at the
Western Front during WWI. These 1838 black and white glass plate negatives, four photograph albums, and two loose
photographic prints are deeply evocative of New Zealand’s experience of the War. They capture the efforts of our
soldiers at the Somme, Passchendaele and Le Quesnoy, and they record daily life at the camps and in hospital. They are a
powerful and significant record that has continued to engage and inform a wide audience since their first publication,
100 years ago.’’
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision’s Chief Executive, Rebecca Elvy says “Ngā Taonga is delighted to see the television series, Kaleidoscope inscribed onto the prestigious Memory of the World register. This award-winning documentary series showcased New Zealand artists and their work at an important time in
the country’s cultural history. Broadcast from 1976 to 1989, it provided a forum for exploring our ideas of nationhood
and reflected the country’s increasingly Pacific-centric identity. The series contains hundreds of unique, longer-form
interviews with New Zealand artists and has become an invaluable resource which continues to be heavily used in many
arts programmes. The series was originally produced and broadcast by Television New Zealand (TVNZ) and is part of the
TVNZ collection cared for by Ngā Taonga and owned by Manatū Taonga – the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
Heather Baggott, Group Manager Delivery Ministry for Culture and Heritage Manatū Taonga said, “We are thrilled to see
the television taonga Kaleidoscope added to the Memory of the World New Zealand register as the series has a unique place in our nation’s documentary
history.”
“Kaleidoscope is a precious visual record of our arts and culture at a time when our nation’s distinctive cultural identity was
rapidly changing and evolving.
“Broadcast from 1976 to 1989, it was the first television series dedicated to New Zealand’s arts and culture showcasing
both established and emerging artists, from painters and poets to dancers and stained-glass artists.
“Capturing stories of the past that might otherwise be lost forever, Kaleidoscope’s rich content has been widely used to illustrate resources and documentaries on our artistic and cultural history,
including by the Ministry’s own Te Ara online encyclopedia.”
Jane Thomsen, Director of the Presbyterian Research Centre of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand, says she
is extremely pleased that the Ng collection has been recognised by UNESCO for its importance to New Zealand.
She says the Ng New Zealand Chinese Heritage Collection has been gathered since 1959 by Presbyterian Church members Dr
James Ng and his wife Eva Ng. It documents the history and experiences of Chinese New Zealanders from the first arrival
of Chinese miners in the 19th century to the eventual reunification of Chinese families in the late 1940s to early 1950s
after the second World War.
Jane Thomsen emphasises that the collection is “unique in the voice it gives to Chinese on their experiences of life in
New Zealand, through their own words, as recorded by missionaries and in later oral histories, or as documented in
letters they wrote”.
She says it is hard to single out one item from the vast collection but a ‘Roll of Chinese’ which belonged to Reverend
Alexander Don, a Presbyterian minister/missionary, is a significant item in the collection. “No other document like it
exists anywhere else in the world. It dates from 1883 to 1929 and contains the names and details of more than 3,500 New
Zealand Chinese, including personal, work, travel and financial details, and it shows the changing nature of the New
Zealand Chinese community.”
Nelson Museum’s Darryl Gallagher says the Tyree Studio Collection, dating from the 1860s until the 1940s is a nationally
significant pictorial record documenting the development of the Nelson Tasman district from soon after settlement.
“The 123,000 plus negatives are remarkable in having survived intact and today provide an invaluable insight into the
development of regional New Zealand. Industry, social interaction and portraits of the people are presented in a
resource that is utilized regionally, nationally and internationally. This access has been enabled with a major
digitzation project that was initiated in 2010 and completed in 2017.”
Today most of these images are viewable on Nelson Provincial Museum’s Collection Online: https://collection.nelsonmuseum.co.nz/explore
Co-nominator of the Tyree Collection, Chris Szekely, the Chief Librarian at Alexander Turnbull Library says, ‘’The Tyree
Studio Collection of photographs, held in part by the Turnbull Library, is a unique chronicle of early life in Nelson, a
rich social and cultural resource of national significance.’’
Hocken Library’s Chief Curator Archives, Anna Blackman says, “The Salmond Anderson Architects Records document nearly
150 years (1862-2008) of architectural development in southern New Zealand.
“The extensive collection charts the broad development of architectural style and the technology of design and
draughting representative of architectural history in New Zealand.
“Architects represented include R.A. Lawson, James Louis Salmond, Robert Vanes, Arthur Louis Salmond (son of the
founder), Henry Burt, Arthur John Salmond (grandson of the founder), Donald Anderson, and Timothy Heath.
“The plans include Category 1 historic places such as First Church of Otago, Knox Presbyterian Church, Larnach Castle,
Bank of New South Wales (Oamaru), Otago Boys’ High School, Dunedin Municipal Chambers, and what was known at the time as
the Seacliff Lunatic Asylum (demolished).
“Numerous Category 2 places are represented as well as smaller ordinary domestic buildings. Many of the finely drawn
architectural drawings are of outstanding aesthetic value.
“For the Hocken, Memory of the World registration is a wonderful and lasting way we can recognise the significance of
these records to the history of architecture and the built environment in NZ.”
Ends