Alexander Turnbull Library

Turnbull Library Record, Volume XVII, Issue 2, 1 October 1984, Page 115

Alexander Turnbull Library

J. E. TRAUE

Report by the Chief Librarian for the year 1983184

The Alexander Turnbull Library is a national research library, dedicated to the collection and preservation of the records of human knowledge and endeavour and to the enrichment of those records through the fostering of research and publication. The Library is responsible for the long-term preservation of the national collection of library materials relating to New Zealand. Other special fields include the Pacific, early printed books, John Milton and his times, and the arts of the book.

ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS Despite continuing financial and staffing restraints the Library has pressed ahead with a number of programmes to improve the availability of the collections to the public. The endowments, supported by substantial grants from outside bodies, have played a vital role in all these programmes. In a move to improve the financial strength of the endowments the Board has employed a Development Secretary to encourage bequests, donations and grants. Indosuez New Zealand Limited has agreed to underwrite the five-volume series of accounts by the French explorers of Maori life, 1769-1840, and the Lottery Board is meeting most of the costs of publishing the proceedings of the history of science conference organised by the Library in 1983. The Archive of New Zealand Music has received further grants from the New Zealand Composers’ Foundation and a grant 0f57,000 from the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council. (This grant was originally a fellowship award to Douglas Lilburn which, on his request, was transferred to the Archive.) The administration of a new charitable trust, the Lilburn Trust, was accepted by the Endowment Trust Board for ‘the preservation of musical archives and in support of the Alexander Turnbull Library’ and the general support of music in New Zealand.

The Friends of the Turnbull Library have increased their level of activity in support of the Library. A Newsletter was established during the year and a social function held to mark John Milton’s birthday and to launch an appeal for funds. The Friends’ Centennial Fund has a target of SIOO,OOO to be raised by the end of 1985 to make several major purchases for the Library’s research collections.

Seven exhibitions were mounted in the Library to display to the public some of the Library’s rich resources for research. Major exhibitions were ‘Early Panoramic Views of New Zealand’; a display of Bibles from the Bible Society collection; portraits of New Zealanders prominent in

cultural activities; views of Antarctica; and ‘New Zealand under the Lens’, a display of early photographic prints. Two minor displays featured materials drawn from several divisions illustrating the work of Dame Ngaio Marsh and Rosina Buckman. In addition a number of items were made available to other institutions for public display.

THE PROMOTION OF RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION For a research library the most effective and appropriate means of making its resources available to the widest possible audience is by encouraging research and publication based on its collections. Two publications based on original manuscripts in the collections were published by Auckland University Press during the year (with assistance from the Endowment Trust): George Pritchard’s Aggressions of the French at Tahiti, edited by Paul de Deckker; and Dear Lady Ginger: an Exchange of Letters between Lady Ottoline Morrell and D’Arcy Cresswell, edited by Helen Shaw. The Anthropology Department of the University of Canterbury published Two Maori Stories Recorded by Tuiti Makitanara, and the Scottish Academic Press published James Hogg’s Anecdotes of Sir W. Scott, both original manuscripts held by the Library. The Endowment Trust agreed to provide a subsidy to the Auckland University Press for the publication of the letters between Sir Apirana Ngata and Sir Peter Buck, the majority of which are held by the Library.

Two sets of prints were issued by the Endowment Trust: a set of four coloured reproductions of original paintings and a set of six black and white photographs ofearly Wellington by S. C. Smith. The first fascicle of John Abbot’s Insects of Georgia, a major venture to publish the Library’s unique collection of 103 natural history paintings of Georgia, was issued during the year. A calendar featuring reproductions of original paintings was issued by the Endowment Trust in association with INL Print, and the Friends of the Library (in association with the Victoria University Press) published the 1983 Turnbull Winter Lectures under the title Ways to Change. A fifth instalment of the National Register of Archives and Manuscripts was issued early in the year. The Research Endowment Fund made grants to nine scholars (six from overseas) during the year. The visits to New Zealand of Mr Keith Thomas and Mr Peter Burke, who delivered papers at the ‘Society and Culture in Early Modern Europe’ symposium of the Early Modern Studies Association, were underwritten by the Fund. Professor Jacob Gruber from Temple University, Philadelphia, visited New Zealand as the third Fulbright-Hays research scholar at the Turnbull. The Research Fund was supported by grants from the Todd Foundation, the Ilott Trust, Mobil Oil New Zealand Limited and the Trustees of the National Library, as well as income from three sets of prints.

BUILDING THE RESEARCH COLLECTIONS Donations during the year fell from 442 to 409, but the value of purchases rose substantially, aided by the Endowment Trust. The Library continues

to receive, under the compulsory deposit provisions of the Copyright Act administered by the General Assembly Library, a comprehensive range of materials being published in New Zealand to add to the national collection of last resort.

The collection of left-wing pamphlets was considerably strengthened by donations during the year, and a major item, A Supplement to Dr Du Moulin, Treating of the Likliest Means to Remove Hirelings out of the Church of England (1680) was purchased for the Milton collection with the aid of endowment funds. The Music Archive received by donation the Lilburn papers, Larry Pruden’s collection of scores and papers, and materials relating to another 22 musicians, and purchased a good collection of New Zealand sheet music. Among manuscripts acquired during the year were the Newman-Buttle family papers, the Caroline Abraham letters, the papers of the trade union leader Toby Hill, the Sir David Smith papers, Rear Admiral John Ross’s papers, and the journal of Lieutenant P. D. Vigors of the Havannah in 1850, purchased in London by the Endowment Trust. The photograph collections were strengthened by the acquisition of Professor J. T. Salmon’s botanical and zoological negatives, the collection of Mr Robert E. Wells, and the mountaineering photographs of Edgar R. Williams. A self-portrait by J. A. Gilfillan, the pioneer artist, was purchased in Australia, and a portrait of Te Rauparaha by R. A. Oliver at auction in Auckland. Other portraits purchased included those of Rita Angus, Leo Bensemann, and E. H. McCormick. A number of important drawings, paintings and prints were donated to the collections, including two watercolours by William Mein Smith and a portrait of Dame Whina Cooper.

CONSERVING THE RESEARCH COLLECTIONS The Library’s special national role as the keeper of major New Zealand heritage collections of printed materials, paintings, drawings and prints, photographs, manuscripts and archives, maps, music and recorded sound, is not fully appreciated. The accommodation provided for these collections and the staff who work on them is below standard. The resources being made available for the long-term preservation of the records of New Zealand’s past, both for repair and facsimile copying, are still inadequate. The Library is devoting what resources it has to the stabilisation of the collections through climate control, good storage practices, and the education of staff and users in the proper handling of materials. These policies are appropriate only for the short term and are quite inadequate to the long-term preservation needs of the collections.

Publications, Lectures, etc. by the Staff, 1983184 BARTON, P. L. Archives & Manuscripts: Maps and Architectural Drawings, by Ralph E. Ehrenberg (review), Archifacts, 1983/3 (September 1983), 34.

‘Aspects of New Zealand National Cartobibliography 1933-82’, New Zealand Mapkeepers Circle Newsletter, 15 (November 1983), 3-9. ‘Eighth New Zealand Map Keepers’ Circle Seminar, University of Waikato, Hamilton, 16-18 February 1983’, New Zealand Mapkeepers Circle Newsletter, 14 (May 1983), 8. ‘Obituary: Rear Admiral John O’Connell Ross, C. 8., 0.8.E.’, New Zealand Mapkeepers Circle Newsletter, 14 (May 1983), 13-14. ‘Significant Map Acquisitions by the Alexander Turnbull Library’, New Zealand Mapkeepers Circle Newsletter, 14 (May 1983), 14.

Maps for direction finding and navigation with emphasis on those held in the map collection of the Alexander Turnbull Library: paper delivered at the 9th New Zealand Map Keepers’ Circle Seminar, Dunedin, 31 January-2 February 1984. New Zealand maps for genealogists: talk given to the Wellington group, New Zealand Society of Genealogists, 19 March 1984. COLLINSON, F. M. Illustrations for Tug Brothers, by Elizabeth Smither (Auckland, 1983), 31p.

Dell, S. E. ‘Gideon Algernon Mantell’s Unpublished Journal, June-November 1852’, Turnbull Library Record, 16 (October 1983), 77-94. Hoare, M. E. Three chapters on the Boys’ Brigade overseas, in Sure and Steadfast: A History of the Boys’ Brigade 1883 to 1983, by John Springhall, Brian Fraser and Michael Hoare (Glasgow, 1983). Die Hamburger Sudsee-Expedition: Über Ethnographie und Kolonialismus, by Hans Fischer (review), fournal of the Polynesian Society, 93 (1983), 271-2.

A journalist with Captain Cook: the journal of J. R. Forster: address to Plimmerton Rotary Club, 2 June 1983. National registers and finding aids; A biographical index for New Zealand?: two seminar papers delivered at the Third Australasian Genealogy and Heraldry Conference, Hamilton, 13 and 15 May 1983. Researching and curating in the repositories of Australasia; problems and conflicts: plenary lecture to the Third Australasian Genealogy and Heraldry Conference, Hamilton, 13 May 1983. The strange occult force of personal influence; explorers, scholars and people in Hawkes Bay history: address to the 6th Annual Conference of the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand, Taradale, 23 August 1983.

LONG, M. ‘Original Portraits of Writers, Musicians and Artists in the Turnbull Collections’, Turnbull Library Record, 16 (May 1983), 39-44. ‘Martha King, Botanical Artist’, in The Summer Book (Wellington, 1983), 56-65. Text sheet for the Turnbull Library Anniversary Prints, 1983.

PALMER, J. M. ‘The Alexander Turnbull Library’s Archive of New Zealand Music’, Canzona, 5 (February 1984), 38-43. PARKINSON, P. G. Introduction, in John Abbot’s Insects of Georgia, fascicle I (Wellington, 1983), Bp. ‘Jack Goodwin 1916-1983—a Journalist’s Life’, Pink Triangle, 46 (March/ April 1984), 7.

‘Lesbian and Gay Archives in New Zealand —Preserving our Past’, Pink Triangle, 45 (Summer 1983/84), 7. ‘The Typification and Status of the Name Chaetangium (Algae)’, Taxon, 32 (1983), 605-10. Swainson and Abbot; relics in the Antipodes: address to the Friends of the Turnbull Library, 20 April 1983. RALSTON, B. ‘Sources and Methods for Scottish Family History Research’, in Congress Papers, Third Australasian Congress on Genealogy and Heraldry (Wellington, 1983), 211-218. RETTER, D. C. Introduction to reference work; general finding aids: lecture at Archives Training Seminar, Centre for Continuing Education, Victoria University of Wellington, 23 November 1983.

SANDERSON, K. M. ‘ldentifying the Functions of Government Agencies’, Archifacts, 1983/3 (September 1983), 3-15. ‘Maori Christianity on the East Coast, 1840-1870’, New Zealand Journal of History, 17 (October 1983), 166-184. SARGISON, P. The Alexander Turnbull Library and its collections: lecture to W.E.A. local history class, July 1983. STARKE, J. I. John Boultbee in Murihiku, 1826-1828: paper presented at Archives and Records Association of New Zealand conference Taradale, August 1983.

SULLIVAN, J. ‘Sydney Charles Smith, 1888-1972’, (biographical note) in Smith (Wellington, 1983. Imagers of a New Land, Series 2). TRAUE, J. E. Bibliographic resources for New Zealand studies: paper presented at the Colloquium on Australian and New Zealand Studies, London, 7-9 February 1984. Alexander Turnbull’s Library: address to Tawa Country Women’s Institute, 2 June 1983.

WILD, J. Instruction Manual, National Register of Archives and Manuscripts in New Zealand, 2nd revised ed. (Wellington, 1983), 30p. Manuscripts in New Zealand: lecture at Archives Training Seminar, Centre for Continuing Education, Victoria University of Wellington, 23 November 1983.

In addition members of the staff lectured to students at the Department of Librarianship, Victoria University; the School of Library Studies, Wellington Teachers’ College; the School of Journalism at Wellington Polytechnic; and the Department of History, Victoria University; and spoke on the Access Radio programme organised by the Friends of the Turnbull Library.