Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira

Early history

Auckland Museum, established in 1852, was originally housed in a small cottage in Grafton Road, referred to as "Old Government Farm House" or "The Governor's Dairy", near the corner with Symonds Street, an area now part of the University of Auckland.

The public were first admitted on Sunday 24 October 1852, and every Wednesday and Saturday thereafter. Honorary Secretary John Alexander Smith announced that the museum was now open to the public in the newspapers from 29 October that year:

THE object of this Museum is to collect Specimens illustrative of the Natural History of New Zealand—particularly its Geology, Mineralogy, Entomology, and Ornithology.

Also,

Weapons, Clothing, Implements, &c., &c, of New Zealand, and the Islands of the Pacific.

Any Memento of Captain Cook, or his Voyages will be thankfully accepted.

Also, Coins and Medals (Ancient and Modern.)

In connection with the above, there is an Industrial Museum, to exhibit—Specimens of:

As it is desirable that samples of New Zealand Wool should be exhibited—contributors are requested to send samples in duplicate, as soon as convenient, stating—the Sheep, where bred—of what breed—also the age—who contributed by.

Donors are requested to send their contributions directed to the Honorary Secretary, at the Museum, any day in the week, except those open to the public.—Stating—the name of the contributor—where from—who contributed by—date—and any remarks that are considered necessary.

The museum attracted 708 visitors in its first year. Interest in the museum dwindled over the following decade even as its collection grew, and in 1869 the somewhat neglected and forlorn museum was transferred to the care of the Auckland Institute, a learned society formed two years earlier. An Italianate-style building was constructed for the museum in Princes Street, near Government House and across the road from the Northern Club. It was opened on 5 June 1876 by the Governor of New Zealand, George Phipps, 2nd Marquess of Normanby. These new premises included a large gallery top-lit by a metal framed skylight. This room proved problematic as it was impossible to heat during the winter but overheated during the summer. Canvas awnings used to shield the roof from harsh sunlight made the exhibits difficult to view in the resulting gloom. Several exhibition halls were added to the side of the original building.

War Memorial building

In the early years of the 20th century the museum and its collections flourished under visionary curator Thomas Cheeseman, who tried to establish a sense of order and separated the natural history, classical sculpture and anthropological collections which had previously been displayed in a rather unsystematic way. The need for better display conditions and extra space necessitated a move from the Princes Street site, and eventually the project for a purpose-built museum was merged with the idea of creating a memorial to commemorate soldiers lost in the First World War.

After extensive consultation between the Mayor, Sir James Gunson and Thomas Cheeseman, the site chosen was a hill in the Government Domain commanding an impressive view of the Waitematā Harbour. Permission was granted by the Auckland City Council in 1918, with the Council in its liberality being given three seats on the Museum Council. In addition to an initial gift of £10,000 (equivalent to about £390,000 in 2025), the council also agreed to an annual subsidy from rates towards maintenance of the facility, and eventually coaxed several of the other local bodies to the principle of an annual statutory levy of £6,000 to support the museum's upkeep.

A worldwide architectural competition was funded by the Institute of British Architects, with a prize of £1,000 (equivalent to about £40,000 in 2025) sterling drawing more than 70 entries. The Auckland firm of Grierson, Aimer and Draffin won with their neo-classical design reminiscent of Greco-Roman temples. In 1920, the present site was settled on as a home for the museum, and in August 1925, after successful fund-raising led by Auckland Mayor Sir James Gunson, building of the Auckland War Memorial Museum began. Construction was completed in 1929, and the museum's new building was opened by the Governor-General, General Sir Charles Fergusson.

The museum's architects commissioned Kohn's Jewellers of Queen Street to create a finely detailed silver model of the museum. This was presented to Gunson upon completion of the museum, in recognition of his extensive work in leading the project. After the death of Sir James, the model was presented to the museum by his son Wallace Gunson, where it remains on display to this day.

The building is considered to be one of the finest Greco-Roman buildings in the Southern Hemisphere. It has an 'A' classification from the New Zealand Historic Places Trust, designating it as a building whose preservation is of the utmost importance. Of particular interest is the interior plasterwork which incorporates Māori details in an amalgamation of Neo-Greek and art-deco styles. Likewise the exterior bas-reliefs, carved by Richard Gross (1882 – 1964) and depicting 20th-century armed forces and personnel, are in a style which mixes Neo-Grec with Art Deco.

Additions

The 1929 building was designed with a view to future extension. Two additions were made to the original building, the first in the late 1950s to commemorate the Second World War when an administration annexe with a large semi-circular courtyard was added to the southern rear. This extension is of concrete-block construction rendered in cement stucco to harmonise with the Portland stone of the earlier building. This major extension was designed by the architects M. K. and R. F. Draffin—one of the original architects and his son.

In 2006, the inner courtyard was enclosed by a "Grand Atrium" at the southern entrance.

Renovation and extension

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 and atrium constructed within the central courtyard, increasing the building's floor area by 60 per cent (an addition of 9,600 m2 (103,000 sq ft)) at a cost 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. This second stage was finished in 2007.

The copper and glass dome, as well as the viewing platform and 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". 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 also received the ACENZ Innovate NZ Gold Award (Structural Engineering) for the redevelopment.

The new sections underneath the dome, mostly contained within a kauri-wood-panelled sphere approximately 30 m (98 ft) across, add 900 m2 (9,700 sq ft) of additional exhibition space, as well as an event centre under the dome roof with a free span 48 metres (157 ft) wide, plus new areas for tour and school groups, including an auditorium in the sphere-bowl with 200 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 four elevator shafts located around it.

The new sections of the museum have been favourably likened to a Matryoshka doll—buildings nested within a building.

In 2020, the museum opened a new set of exhibitions called Tāmaki Herenga Waka: Stories of Auckland. This includes sections on the land, water, and city, as well as specific areas focused on activism and data visualisation. The data visualisation section, titled Living City: Rarau mai, explores the city's ethnically diverse population with large-scale visual displays focusing on three themes: people, environment and systems. This was created in collaboration with Data Visualisation Design Consultancy firm Oom Creative and draws from a range of databases including iNaturalist, National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), and census data. The exhibition includes a soundscape by Marco Cher-Gibard.

Collections, exhibitions and research

Auckland Museum's collections are organised into three principal areas: documentary heritage (manuscripts, correspondence and other historical documents in archives, along with pictorial art); the major branches of the natural sciences; and human history (broadly, material culture). The museum maintains a high degree of regional cooperation and complementary collecting with other organisations across Auckland (among them Auckland Libraries and Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki), and has done since its inception.

Documentary Heritage

The museum's nationally and internationally significant 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 significant focus are Māori and Pacific cultures, the human and natural history of the Greater Auckland region, New Zealanders' involvement in global conflicts, and exploration and discovery. 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.

The museum has considerable holdings in historic paintings, rare watercolours, photographs and other artworks. The Pictorial collection numbers in the millions, 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, and an ambrotype portrait of the Ngā Puhi chief Tāmati Wāka Nene attributed to John Nicol Crombie.

The latter part of the 20th century is substantially 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; the work of Tudor Washington Collins and John Watt Beattie, and the archive of Sparrow Industrial Pictures. The paintings and drawings collection includes works by Charles Heaphy, Gustavus von Tempsky, George French Angas, and John Webster, as well as portraits of Māori by C. F. Goldie and Gottfried Lindauer, and an impressive set of albums by the 19th-century clergyman and watercolour artist John Kinder. The museum also has a significant bookplate collection, which contains more than 7,000 plates collected by the Australian scholar Percy Neville Barnett.

The Manuscripts and Archives collection is of major regional importance and, at approximately 2,000 linear metres, it is one of the largest non-governmental archives in New Zealand. 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.

Natural sciences

The museum's natural sciences collections are principally a research and reference assemblage that provides 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.

AK is the index herbariorum code for the Auckland War Memorial Museum.

The botanical collections of the Auckland Museum Herbarium (AK) were first established in 1870, 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. 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. Auckland Museum's is one of only three significantly sized herbaria in New Zealand; the others are at Landcare Research Auckland and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, in Wellington.

The herbarium contains a number of collections from significant botanists including Thomas Cheeseman (curator, 1874–1923), and Captain James Cook's botanists, Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander. The Herbarium holds over 333,000 botanical specimens—including 200,000 angiosperms, 5,000 gymnosperms, 30,000 pteridophytes, 21,500 mosses, 12,300 liverworts, 22,000 algae, 27,200 lichens, and 1,000 timber samples. The museum also holds a substantial collection of kauri gum, and a specialist collection of "fern books" (bound collections of ferns made by amateurs and professionals) along with a small "wet" collection (specimens preserved in liquid) of flowers, fruit and algae.

The Entomology collection contains about 250,000 catalogued specimens and, while focused on the northern areas of New Zealand, includes important 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.

Human history

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. The collection numbers nearly 7,000 objects 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. The Applied Arts and Design department receives acquisition funds from the Charles Edgar Disney Art Trust, and has a number of loan collections including the Mackelvie Trust Collection. A collection of 7,000 objects from across Asia is displayed on rotation.

The museum has on loan all of the applied arts objects donated to the city of Auckland by James Tannock Mackelvie, a Glaswegian Scot who lived and worked in Auckland from 1865 to 1871. He made a fortune in land speculation and gold-mining investments before returning to London, and was perhaps Auckland's single biggest arts benefactor. Mackelvie was a prodigious collector and from the beginning intended his acquisitions to one day form a teaching collection in New Zealand.

A collection of more than 480 musical instruments was acquired in 1996 from Zillah and Ronald Castle. The Castle Collection contains "rare violins, an 18th-century harpsichord and an eclectic collection of instruments associated with New Zealand's pioneer days". The items in the collection "range over every imaginable un-powered device capable of producing music", and 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, a large whare rūnanga (carved meeting house) built in 1878 at Thames, and Te Toki-a-Tapiri, a Māori war canoe from 1830 carved by Te Waaka Perohuka and Raharuhi Rukupō. 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. The collection dates from the early decades of the founding of the museum; its focus has been on acquiring first-quality 'masterworks' from all tribal and geographic areas of New Zealand, as well as representative material-culture items. The museum's collection of ethnic musical instruments is the largest in the country, and is one of the most important in the world.

Research

The museum publishes two scholarly serials as part of its statutory role to advance and promote cultural and scientific scholarship and research. Papahou: Records of the Auckland Museum (named for a toi whakairo carved container, previously Records of Auckland Museum), has been regularly published since 1930, and contains results of original research on the museum collections and research by curatorial and other staff, and associates. New issues are published online and earlier issues are being digitised.

Papahou contain more than 450 articles written by over 150 different authors and co-authors dealing mostly with zoology, archaeology, ethnology, and botany. The articles contain important accounts of archaeological excavations and ethnographic objects, and descriptions of nearly 700 new taxa (mostly new animal species and subspecies).

The occasional Bulletin, which appears less often and usually contains results of larger research projects, has been published since 1941.

War Memorial

The museum has an extensive permanent exhibition, "Scars on the Heart", covering wars—including the New Zealand Wars and New Zealand's participation in overseas conflicts such as the First and Second World Wars; the Anglo-Boer War; conflicts such as the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and the country's role in UN Peacekeeping missions. This exhibition is linked to the War Memorial, and shows, for example, models of Māori pā (fortified settlements) and original Spitfire and Mitsubishi Zero aeroplanes. In November 2016, Pou Maumahara (Māori for 'post of remembrance'), a memorial enquiry centre, was established, and in 2017, the museum opened Pou Kanohi: New Zealand at War, a new permanent exhibition designed "to tell young people about the country's experiences of WWI".

Parts of the museum, as well as the Cenotaph and its surrounding consecrated grounds (Court of Honour) in front of the museum, also serve as a war memorial, mainly to those who lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars. There are two "Halls of Memory" within the museum, whose walls, together with a number of additional marble slabs, list the names of all known New Zealand soldiers from the Auckland Region killed in major conflicts during the 20th century.

RSA representatives have noted that the Cenotaph area is in need of renovation, and also would like measures put in place that ensure the area is treated with more respect by people using the park or visiting the museum. Auckland City was considering replacement the old concrete paving with granite and basalt pavers. This was apparently decided against, possibly for cost reasons. The city has however conducted substantial remedial works, to improve the condition of the existing Court of Honour, including repairs to and lighting of the steps, uplighting of the Cenotaph, as well as general cleaning and a new interpretive engraving provided by the Auckland RSA.

In early 2010, Auckland City Council started work in front of the Court of Honour, up to then taken up by a smaller car park. The area was changed to provide a new water feature, and walkways and other infrastructure were also upgraded. Work around the court was completed in mid-2010.

The museum hosts Online Cenotaph, an online biographical database of New Zealand service personnel which as of December 2025 holds searchable 265,000 records. Originally established in 1996 as a closed institutional database, the database was redeveloped in 2015 to incorporate crowdsourcing, allowing researchers and families to submit additional images and stories to records.

Governance

The museum is governed by a trust board, and has an executive management team headed by a director. The board's duties, functions and powers, and its responsibilities to ten statutory objectives are set out in the Auckland War Memorial Museum Act 1996. Paramount amongst its responsibilities is the trusteeship and guardianship of the museum and its extensive collections of treasures and scientific materials.

The Act also tasks the board with the appointment of a Māori Committee of no less than five members, known as the Taumata-ā-Iwi. The Taumata-ā-Iwi is founded upon the principle of mana whenua (customary authority of and over ancestral land), and comprises Ngāti Whātua, Ngāti Pāoa and Tainui. 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," including matters provided for in the Treaty of Waitangi. 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", codified in the committee's governance principles as "the right to advise".

The Auckland Museum Institute has a role in the governance of Auckland Museum by appointing four members to the Museum Trust Board. The institute was established in 1867 and is an independent voluntary run organisation. It is the Auckland branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi and also does public outreach and education. Council members listed for 2022/2023 are: Dr Roger Lins (President), Marilyn Kohlhase (Vice President), Marguerite Durling, Phil Lascelles, Angela Lassig, Rae Nield, Daniel Pouwels, Alison Preston (Treasurer) and Moth Sutherland-Tupp.

Secretaries, curators and directors

1852–1857: John Alexander Smith

1857–1859: George Eliott Eliott

1859–1864: Elwin Brodie Dickson

1864–1865: E. Watkins

1865–1867: Thomas Francis Winstanley

1867–1869: Frederick Wollaston Hutton

1869–1873: Thomas Kirk

1874–1923: Thomas Frederick Cheeseman

1924–1964: Sir Gilbert Archey

1964–1979: Evan Graham Turbott

1979–1993: Graham Stuart Park

1994–2007: Rodney Wilson

2007–2010: Vanda Vitali

2010–2011: Sir Don McKinnon

2011–2016: Roy Clare

2017–2023: David Gaimster

2023–present: David Reeves

Auckland Museum Medals

Since 1999, Auckland War Memorial Museum has regularly awarded the Auckland Museum Medals to recognise research and public service achievements. Recipients have included botanist Lucy Cranwell, historian and academic Ranginui Walker, artist Mary Ama and Ngāti Whātua paramount chief and academic Hugh Kāwharu.

Controversies

Hillary estate

The papers and memorabilia of the late Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to reach the summit of Mount Everest, are held in the museum. In 2009, the museum was involved in legal action with Hillary's children, Peter and Sarah Hillary, over publishing rights to his papers. New Zealand Prime Minister John Key offered to mediate, and his offer was accepted and the matter resolved amicably. In 2013 the Sir Edmund Hillary Archive was registered on the UNESCO New Zealand Memory of the World.

Vitali tenure

The appointment and activities of Vanda Vitali, a Canadian citizen who served as director from 2007 until her resignation in 2010, saw a number of disputed changes in the museum, with multiple staff members 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.

Vitali was roundly criticised for 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, as well as by former finance head of the museum, Jon Cowan, who in a letter to the New Zealand Herald argued after her 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.