ALEXANDER TURNBULL LIBRARY ANNUAL REPORT 1975/76

Turnbull Library Record, Volume 9, Issue 2, 1 October 1976, Page 53

ALEXANDER TURNBULL LIBRARY ANNUAL REPORT 1975/76

The Alexander Turnbull Library collects, maintains and makes available within the Library a range of research materials on New Zealand, the Pacific, English literature, John Milton, early printed books and the development of the art of printing. It is responsible for the national collection of library materials relating to New Zealand and for the production of the New Zealand National Bibliography.

Building the Collections The past year has seen the manuscripts collections, the personal papers of individuals and the archives of institutions, businesses and associations, developed in depth and scope. Particular emphasis has been placed by the Library in recent years on collecting papers and records relating to New Zealand’s immediate past which, it is considered, are in greater danger of damage or destruction than materials of the early colonial period. The two special subject collections developed last year, the Archive of New Zealand Music and the War History Documentation Centre, have been strengthened and two new ones inaugurated, the Women’s History Research Collection and the archival repository scheme for the political papers of Members of Parliament.

In the last few years research workers have shown an increasing interest in the contribution made by women to the development of New Zealand society and the Library has responded by undertaking to develop its existing collections on women into a national research collection. Emphasis has been placed on the personal papers of outstanding individuals and the archives of national women’s organisations and during the year major deposits were received from the National Council of Women and the Maori Women’s Welfare League. The Library’s collection of the papers of Members of Parliament has long been the strongest in New Zealand containing as it does papers of 13 Prime Ministers, 41 members of the House of Representatives and 11 members of the Legislative Council, but it has been proving increasingly inadequate to meet the demands of research workers. In order to ensure the permanent preservation of some complete sets of the papers of Members of Parliament the Library has approached a small group of Members of Parliament selected to provide a representative coverage by geographical area, political party and type of electorate and invited them to use the Library as an archival repository during their Parliamentary careers. The scheme at present covers six Members and it is proposed to increase the numbers to 10 or 12. During the year the political papers of the Rt. Hon. Sir John Marshall were donated to the

Library and agreement reached on the transfer of the Rt. Hon. Sir Keith Holyoake’s papers from the General Assembly Library. Additions to the manuscript collections continue to be announced to research workers through the Turnbull Library Record and Archifacts.

The collection of seventeenth century Milton related books has been significantly strengthened during the year. Mr V. G. Elliott a rare book specialist on leave from the Library in England has been employed by the Alexander Turnbull Library Endowment Trust to identify and purchase a wide range of minor seventeenth century titles. Purchases in other fields include a number of eighteenth century Swedish language titles for the Pacific collections, the first and second series of William Swainson’s Zoological Illustrations (1820-1832), two rare New Zealand pamphlets Notes on a Short Tour Into the Interior of the Northern Colony of New Zealand . . . (1852) and Bishop Selwyn’s Are Cathedral Institutions Useless? (1838), and two examples of the work of Edgar Mansfield the noted New Zealand binder. Seven rare Pacific maps given by the Prime Minister of Australia to the Rt. Hon. W. E. Rowling, M.P., were deposited in the Library. Major additions to the photograph collections included the Shotter albums and negatives and copies of the W. H. Davies and George Moore negatives.

The rate of growth of the collections of original art materials declined during the year. Donations have fallen and the effects of inflation and rising prices for paintings and drawings have considerably reduced the Library’s ability to purchase original works. The major purchase during the year, made by the Endowment Trust, was of five watercolour Maori studies by J. J. Merrett. The Library’s programme of photographic copying of important works held outside New Zealand was advanced considerably by the visits of one of the art specialists to the Australian National Library, the Mitchell Library, National Maritime Museum at Greenwich and the British Museum.

The Library is once again indebted to those who have contributed by donation to the growth of the collections and acknowledges their generosity. A full list of donors is published in the Turnbull Library Record. The role of the Alexander Turnbull Library Endowment Trust in purchasing highly priced books, manuscripts and pictures for the Library and in making funds available for related activities is noted elsewhere in this report. Donations rose from 519 last year to 639, a new record.

Conserving the Collections The Conservation Laboratory with a full-time staff of one technician and a photographer can do no more than make a token contribution towards maintaining the national collections. The Laboratory represents

a substantial capital investment the potential of which cannot be realised with such a small staff. The conservation of the nation’s newspaper collections is being continued by the programme of microfilming in Wellington, Dunedin and Hamilton. In Wellington the library staff prepare work for three cameras stationed on library premises and operated by the Government Printing Office. Outside Wellington the staff of the Dunedin and Hamilton Public Libraries prepare work for the Government Printing Office but production has been disappointing and the overall results support the conclusions of the Management Services of the State Services Commission, namely that the most effective and efficient method for preserving newspapers is to set up a greatly expanded central microfilming unit under the control of the National Library. Further delays in the recommended expanded microfilming programme for rare and brittle New Zealand newspapers will result in a small proportion deteriorating beyond recall and an increasingly larger proportion requiring time-consuming and expensive treatment before they can be microfilmed.

The Early Printed Book Collections The 55,000 volumes of printed books bequeathed to the nation by Alexander Turnbull in 1918 included several thousands of early printed books. Over 1,500 were sixteenth and seventeenth century English books and the collection was strong in works by and relating to John Milton and in English prose, poetry and drama. The Library’s early printed books (titles printed before 1801) now total in excess of 9,000 volumes and provide the most significant research collection of its kind in New Zealand. In recent years the growth of the collection has accelerated to such an extent that it now accounts for over sixty per cent of all known early printed books held in libraries in New Zealand. Regular expenditure has been supported since 1971 by an annual grant

of SI,OOO from the funds of the Alexander Turnbull Library Endowment Trust. The purchase of some 600 early printed books relating to John Milton in 1975 and the bequest of 60 sixteenth century Bibles and prayer books from the estate of Sir Alexander Howard in 1973 has been supplemented by substantial purchases of minor seventeenth century Milton related items in the United Kingdom this year. The Library has accepted national responsibility for the bibliographic control of early printed books in the country since 1967 when it began the Union Catalogue of Pre-1801 Imprints in New Zealand Libraries, a card catalogue showing the location of such books. Earlier, in the 1950 s with the assistance of a $9,000 grant from the Ford Foundation, Turnbull accepted a national role in the acquisition of early English books by subscribing to the series of microfilms for items listed

in Pollard and Redgrave’s Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland and Ireland . . . 1475-1640 and Donald Wing’s Short-Title Catalogue . . . 1641-1700. When completed these will provide New Zealand with copies of some 120,000 early English printed books. To date the Library has received 1,856 reels of microfilm in these two series and lends 50-60 reels a year to scholars in universities throughout New Zealand.

With the development at the National Library of Australia in Canberra of a research collection in eighteenth century studies around the David Nichol Smith collection the Turnbull has concentrated its resources on building a research collection around the already strong core of books relating to John Milton and the mid-seventeenth century. During the year the Library purchased a microfilm edition of the Unpublished State Papers of the English Civil War and Interregnum supplementing the volumes of the published Calendars of State Papers of the period held by the General Assembly Library. The National Library’s research resources in mid-seventeenth century English literature, politics, government and religious controversy should now be able to support a high level of scholarly research in New Zealand.

Relations with the Library’s Public An expanded programme of exhibitions within the Library allowed the general public to see more of the wide range of the Library’s resources for research. A special display of legal documents together with political cartoons by George Cruikshank was mounted for the Law Society Conference, another exhibition was prepared for International Women’s Year and to launch the Women’s History Research Collection, a display ‘Electioneering New Zealand Style’ was mounted prior to the Parliamentary elections to launch the archival repository scheme for the papers of Members of Parliament and was followed by ‘New Zealand at Play’ a display of materials on recreation and sport. Two Wellington exhibitions were held, one of photographs of Wellington 100 years ago and a special exhibition ‘Wellington 50 and 100 Years Ago’ for the Festival of Wellington. The Library supplied pictorial materials for the South Pacific Festival in Rotorua, to exhibitions at the Auckland, Dunedin and Wanganui art galleries, and for the Diirer and Nairn exhibitions at the National Art Gallery.

All sections of the Library providing services to the public report substantial increases in demand. Overall demand on the photographic collections has increased by some 50 percent and substantial increases are recorded for other pictorial materials, for manuscripts and for genealogical inquiries. The Library cannot with its present level of staffing meet increases in demand of this order and consideration is

being given to appropriate measures to restrain certain categories of demand. In September the Library acted as co-sponsor with the National Archives for a week-long Seminar on Archives Administration and in November organised a one-day seminar for map keepers from throughout New Zealand to follow a Victoria University Extension seminar ‘The Changing Shape of Cartography in New Zealand’. Publications included two issues of the Turnbull Library Record published by the Friends of the Turnbull Library, the 1975 print series of three views of colonial Wellington published by the Endowment Trust, the regular monthly issues of the New Zealand National Bibliography and its 1974 annual cumulation. Planning is under way for the publication of a revised edition of the Union Catalogue of New Zealand and Pacific Manuscripts. Detailed accounts of the Library’s acquisitions and of other activities are recorded regularly in the Turnbull Library Record.