Auckland War Memorial Museum

In the last two decades, the museum was renovated and extended in two stages. The first stage saw the existing building restored and the exhibits partly replaced during the 1990s for $NZ 43 million. The second stage of this restoration has seen a great dome – atrium constructed within the central courtyard, increasing the building's floor area by 60% (an addition of 9,600 m²)[8] for a price of $NZ 64.5 million. $NZ 27 million of that was provided by the government, with the ASB Trust ($NZ 12.9 million) and other donors making up the remainder.[9] The second stage finished in 2007.

The copper and glass dome, as well as the viewing platform–event centre underneath it, had been criticised by some as 'resembling a collapsed soufflé', but quickly won the admiration of critics and public, being noted for 'its undulating lines, which echo the volcanic landscape and hills around Auckland'. Standing in the event centre underneath the top of the dome was likened to being underneath the 'cream-coloured belly of a giant stingray', 'with its rippling wings hovering over the distinctive city skyline'.[10] In June 2007, the 'Grand Atrium' project also received the Supreme Award of the New Zealand Property Council, which noted it as being "world-class", and a successful exercise in combining complex design and heritage demands. It has also received the ACENZ Innovate NZ Gold Award (Structural Engineering) for the redevelopment.[8][11]

The new sections underneath the dome, mostly contained within a kauri-wood-panelled sphere approximately 30 m across, will add 900 m² of additional exhibition space, as well as a 700 people event centre under the dome roof with a 48 m wide free span, new areas for tour and school groups including an auditorium in the sphere-bowl with 200 seats, as well as a restaurant with 450 seats. The bowl, which is the internal centre-piece of the expansion, weighs 700 tonnes and is suspended free-hanging from trusses spanning over it from the elevator four shafts located around it. A new 204-space underground parking garage at the rear has also been constructed to help cover the high demand for parking in the Auckland Domain.[10][11][12]

The new sections of the museum have been favourably likened to a Matryoshka doll, buildings nested within a building.[7]

The Museum's Documentary Heritage collections comprise manuscripts, ephemera, maps, charts and plans, newspapers and periodicals, rare and contemporary books and pamphlets, photographs, and works of art in the form of paintings, bookplates, and sketches and drawings. Among the areas of focus are Māori and Pacific cultures,[16] the human and natural history of the Greater Auckland region, New Zealanders' involvement in global conflicts, and exploration and discovery.[17] The Museum holds the only known extant copy of A Korao no New Zealand, the first book written in the Māori language, published at Sydney in 1815 by the missionary Thomas Kendall.[18]

The Museum has holdings in historic paintings, watercolours, photographs and other artworks.[19] The Pictorial collection numbers in the millions,[20] and contains some of the earliest examples of the development of the photographic arts and technology in New Zealand, including calotypes by William Fox Talbot; some of the first known daguerrotypes made in New Zealand,[21] and an ambrotype portrait of the Ngā Puhi chief Tāmati Wāka Nene attributed to John Nicol Crombie.[22]

The latter part of the 20th century is represented by the collection of the documentary photographer Robin Morrison, while among the women photographers of note represented are Una Garlick and Margaret Matilda White. Other collections include the documentary photographs of the Auckland Star and New Zealand Herald newspapers; some work by Arthur Ninnis Breckon and George Bourne, including images made for the Auckland Weekly News;[23] the work of Tudor Washington Collins and John Watt Beattie,[24] and the archive of Sparrow Industrial Pictures. The Museum also has a bookplate collection, which contains more than 7,000 plates collected by Australian scholar Percy Neville Barnett.[25]

The Manuscripts and Archives collection is one of the largest non-governmental archives in New Zealand.[26] The collection covers large organisational and business archives and smaller personal collections which record and illustrate New Zealanders' lives within the country and abroad, especially during military service.[26]

Among the personal papers held at the Museum are 19th-century papers relating to the Williams family[27] and the Reverend Vicesimus Lush; the papers of the politician John Logan Campbell,[28] the mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist Edmund Hillary;[29] and those of the British Resident James Busby. In addition, the Library also holds the papers of:

• Former Museum Director and Curator Thomas Frederick Cheeseman
• Botanist Leonard Cockayne
• Librarian and author Johannes C. Andersen
• Historians Ruth Ross and Jack Lee[lower-roman 1]
• Potter, writer, and conservationist Barry Brickell[30]

The Library is the repository of the Presbyterian Church records for Auckland and Northland.[26]

The Museum's map collection contains large sequences of official New Zealand maps, WWII-era military maps, subdivision plans,[31] and other material, including atlases, which helps record and provide evidence of early New Zealand development.[32] There is also a small collection of maps relating to the discovery and exploration of the Pacific Ocean and islands by Europeans, dating from before 1800.[33]

The Library's collection of books and other publications are focused on New Zealand subject areas and were developed chiefly to support curatorial work and collecting. The collection also features significant holdings of Māori-language materials.

The Museum's natural sciences collections provide information on the distribution and morphology of plant, animal and mineral species in New Zealand and the regional Pacific. The Museum stores and exhibits 1.5 million natural history specimens from the fields of botany, entomology, geology, land vertebrates and marine biology.[34]

The botanical collections of the Auckland Museum Herbarium (code "AK")[35] were first established in 1870,[36][37] and are the means by which the department carries out its function of "collection and preservation of botanical materials; education (through public enquiries, individual and group visits, outreach programmes, and the display of material) and research and publication on various aspects of New Zealand flora".[35] The focus of the herbarium collection is on wild plants (native and naturalised) in all plant groups principally from northern New Zealand and its offshore islands.[38] Auckland Museum's is one of only three major herbaria in New Zealand; the others are at Landcare Research Auckland and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, in Wellington.[38]^:10

The Entomology collection contains about 250,000 catalogued specimens and collections ranging from Three Kings Islands to the sub-Antarctic Islands. It is part of a national and international network and aims to contain a comprehensive reference collection of all insect types as well as other terrestrial and freshwater invertebrates (worms, spiders, millipedes and centipedes, some isopods and amphipods) from the New Zealand region. This includes both native and introduced species. Its importance lies in the ability to support research into the biodiversity of New Zealand's terrestrial invertebrates (particularly beetles, moths and parasitic wasps), and their contribution to complex ecologies. Foreign collections of beetles and butterflies feature also, for comparative and educational value.

In 2009, the Museum acquired a collection of butterflies and books about butterflies bequeathed by the late Ray Shannon, a private collector whose interest in lepidopterology began while he was stationed in the Solomon Islands during the Second World War.[39] The Shannon collection comprises "about 13,000 specimens of just under 3,000 species and subspecies".[39]

The Geology collection was originally focused on material from the Waihi, Thames and Coromandel gold fields, through collecting by the Museum's geologists as well as those donated by private collectors.[38]^:14

The Paleontology collection was established in the early 1900s. The collection contains more than 20,000 specimen lots.[38]^:14

The Land Vertebrates collection comprises more than 12,500 bird specimens, 2,500 amphibians and reptiles, and 1,000 land mammals, primarily collected from Northern New Zealand.

The Marine collection, especially its shell assemblage, was largely established through A. W. B. Powell's association with the Museum (1916 – 1987).

Established in 1966, the Museum's Applied Arts and Design collection includes ceramics, jewellery, furniture, glass, metalwork, costumes, textiles, costume accessories, musical instruments, horological objects and objets d′art from around the world.[40] The collection numbers nearly 7,000 objects[41] and represents key makers, manufacturers, designs, designers and technical developments and styles primarily of Auckland, but also of the Auckland region of New Zealand, and Western and Eastern cultures. A collection of 7,000 objects from across Asia is displayed on rotation.[42]

A collection of more than 480 musical instruments includes "workable examples of every member of the violin family, as well as didgeridoos, a zuffolo, harpsichords, a crwth, harps, tablas, a sáhn, horns, trumpets, clarinets, [and] a hurdy-gurdy".

The museum houses a large collection of Māori and Pacific Island artefacts, including Hotunui,[43] a large whare rūnanga (carved meeting house) built in 1878 at Thames, and Te Toki-a-Tapiri,[44] a Māori war canoe from 1830 carved by Te Waaka Perohuka.[45] Within New Zealand, the Taonga Māori collection is of equal significance to that of the national museum, Te Papa Tongarewa. It is a cultural and research resource of the first order, having the most comprehensive range of types and periods of material and is essential for the whole spectrum of studies in Māori art and material culture.[46] The collection dates from the early decades of the founding of the Museum.

The War History collection was established in 1920,[38]^:16 and includes a significant medal collection, a wide range of swords and firearms as well as material culture related to New Zealanders' military service.[38]^:17

The Act also tasks the Board with the appointment of a 5-person Māori Committee known as the Taumata-ā-Iwi.[53]^{( 16 (1))} The Taumata-ā-Iwi "is founded upon the principle of mana whenua (customary authority of and over ancestral land), and comprises [members or representatives of the] Ngāti Whātua, Ngāti Pāoa and Tainui [iwi]".[51]

The committee is "responsible for the provision of advice and assistance to the Trust Board in a series of matters as set out in the Act,"[51] including matters provided for in the Treaty of Waitangi.[53]^{( 16 (8))} The Act further "empowers the Taumata-ā-Iwi to give advice on all matters of Māori protocol within the Museum and between the Museum and Māori people at large",[55]^{(Principle I)} codified in the committee's governance principles as "the right to advise".[55][56][57]

The memorabilia of the late Sir Edmund Hillary, first man to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, led to legal action between his children, Peter and Sarah Hillary, and the museum over publishing rights to his papers.[61] New Zealand Prime Minister John Key offered to mediate, and his offer was accepted and the matter resolved amicably.[62][63]

The appointment and activities of Dr Vanda Vitali, a Canadian citizen appointed new museum director in the late 2000s (until her resignation in 2010) saw a number of highly disputed changes in the museum, with numerous staff being made redundant, or having to reapply for their positions. The museum also charged a controversial "donation" for entry (while still claiming to provide free entry), despite a museum levy being part of the regional rates.[64]

Vitali was roundly criticised for many of her actions by a number of former staff and public figures, such as editorialist Pat Booth, who accused her of downplaying the "War Memorial" element of the museum name and function,[64] as well as by former finance head of the museum, Jon Cowan, who in a letter to the New Zealand Herald argued after Vitali's resignation that she was responsible for a significant fall in visitor numbers and visitor satisfaction during her tenure. He also claimed that these statistics had ceased to be published in the second year of Vitali's work at the museum, given the clear negative trends of her initial year.[65]