Talk:Auckland War Memorial Museum

Erroneous Information
This article contains two major errors. 1. First Paragraph: AWMM is a provincial museum, not a national one. 2. "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 killed in major conflicts during the 20th Century.[9]" No actually, as a provincial museum it only lists the names of those from the auckland province, or who served with an auckland battalion during WW1 and 2. All of NZ would take up significantly more wall-space. 222.155.186.151 (talk) 03:34, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070202094506/http://www.aucklandmuseum.com:80/?t=193 to http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/?t=193
 * Added tag to http://subs.nzherald.co.nz/search/story.cfm?storyid=00049DB0-E586-13B8-83E883027AF1010F
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20081015234224/http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/council/projects/museum/achieve.asp to http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/council/projects/museum/achieve.asp
 * Added tag to http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/news/council/201002/14/a09.asp
 * Added tag to http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/opinion/3455991/Don-t-mess-with-an-historic-name

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Merger proposal
I'd like to propose that Auckland Institute and Museum be merged into this article. I work for Auckland Museum so (as I understand it), I can't edit either page. — Hugh 23:07, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

Resources for expansion
Kia ora. I work at Auckland Museum and thus cannot edit the Museum's article, but would like to point out a number of pages on our website that might be useful to anyone wanting to flesh out the article, particularly with information about the collections:


 * Information on the governance of the Museum, including a brief biography of the current director, Dr. David Gaimster.


 * General information on our collections, plus information on the:
 * Documentary Heritage collections, with sub-pages on the Manuscripts and Pictorial collections.
 * Human History collections, with sub-pages on the Applied Arts and Design, Archaeology, and Ethnology collections.
 * Natural Science collections, with sub-pages on the Botany and Land Vertebrates collections.


 * A brief history of the Museum, with supplementary articles linked under "Further reading". (This page is already referenced in the article.)


 * Information on ongoing and past research undertaken by staff, as well as information on the various publications the Museum produces.


 * Information on the Pacific Collection Access Project, a three-year project enlisting Pacific communities to enhance our understanding of items in the collection.

I realise it's not ideal to persistently cite the Museum's own website in an article about it, but there is a wealth of reporting involving the Museum in a multitude of newspapers and other media outlets that could also be referenced.

It would be good if a table of Directors of the museum could be incorporated into the article; I will work on this in a sandbox and will link to it as a reply here.

This expansion request is in addition to the above merge request, which still stands. Thank you. — Hugh (talk) 01:55, 19 January 2018 (UTC)


 * Thank you for your proposal. While your wish to expand the Museum's article is an admirable one, you'll understand that for reasons of self sufficiency, it's best that proposals to alter the article be made according to the precepts of the COI edit request system. That system is intended for, and works best when, specific and actionable edit requests are put forward for other editors to act upon. Despite the restrictions in place against COI editors such as yourself from making changes to the article, there are no restrictions against you devising specific edit requests on your own for submission here on the talk page. For assistance with the COI edit request system, there needs to be a certain level of participation on your part for these changes to be carried out. This is how the system works best, and I appreciate your understanding. Please feel free to submit your next edit request at your earliest convenience. Regards,  Spintendo  ᔦᔭ   10:31, 19 January 2018 (UTC)

New edit request
Hello. In light of the declined request above, I wish to submit a new request.

I have drafted in my userspace a version of the article containing significant improvements to and expansions of, among other areas: This had been worked on in another sandbox and has been put into mine so that one can easily see the difference between the current revision of the article and my suggested changes.
 * The infobox (the 'building' box is now nested/embedded within the 'museum' box);
 * Expansion of the Early history section, and a breaking out of most of this section into a new section on the 1929 War Memorial building itself
 * Significant expansion of the section on collections, with references;
 * A new section on the Museum's governance structure, and a list of Directors

I hope these changes are neutral enough in tone and sufficient enough for some work to be done on expanding and improving the article. Please use my Talk page if you have any questions.

Thank you. — Hugh (talk) 03:53, 26 January 2018 (UTC)

Reply 28-JAN-2018
Portions of text from your proposal are insufficiently paraphrased from the source material. The areas of text where this was evident include that found under the Governance, Botany, and Renovation and extension sub-sections. WP:CLOP states in part:"Close paraphrasing without in-text attribution may constitute plagiarism, and when extensive (with or without in-text attribution) may also violate Wikipedia's copyright policy, which forbids Wikipedia contributors from copying material directly from other sources. Public domain material must likewise be attributed to avoid plagiarism."The COI editor is invited to revise their edit request proposal so that it follows these guidelines. They may resubmit their request, either in whole or in part, at their earliest convenience. Regards,  Spintendo  ᔦᔭ   21:28, 28 January 2018 (UTC)

Follow-up edit request
Hello. Thank you for your reply. I have modified the draft at User:Hl/sandbox/AM so that it meets what I understand the close paraphrasing requirements to be, and would like to resumbit it for your consideration. Thank you. — Hugh (talk) 03:02, 30 January 2018 (UTC)

Version Ⓑ
Under the Extended content section below you will find my edit to your proposed draft, which I'm calling version Ⓑ (your draft was version Ⓐ). Information removed from Ⓐ fell for these two reasons: The next step that needs to be taken is for you to look over Ⓑ for any edit-related erratums which need to be fixed. Then, you need to decide which materials already present in the standing article need to be incorporated into Ⓑ below (that is any, if at all). This will then become Ⓒ, which will undergo a final check for errors, grammar, and to ensure compliance with WP:MOS. Then Ⓒ will be placed in the article space. Be sure to reopen a new template once you're ready to proceed. Regards,  Spintendo  ᔦᔭ   13:49, 31 January 2018 (UTC)
 * 1) Much of the prose was overly stylistic and flowery in nature, much more suited to a coffee table book on the museum than in an encyclopedia article. This text was removed.
 * 2) Other elements which merely expounded upon items already present were also removed.


 * Hello. Thank you for your work in creating your version Ⓑ. Do you not consider the information about the history of the museum and its new building (plus the renovations) relevant? You appear to be the only person working on edit requests, which I find odd. I would like an impartial third-party opinion, and will ask for support to this effect on the WP:WPNZ page. Furthermore, in lopping off paragraphs (and references) mid-way through, you have created several nonsensical sentences, among them "[...]but also feature significant holdings of Māori-language material,", and "[...]with more than 20,000 specimen lots.". — Hugh (talk) 19:47, 31 January 2018 (UTC)


 * I believe that an article on the valuable and important guarantor of New Zealand's priceless cultural history is of extreme importance, and the edits that I made to this draft were along those lines, ensuring that relevant and exigent information be placed there. Most of the information presented in your draft I had no issues with. Despite that, there were concerns over the article's prose that I mentioned to you. Additionally, my job as reviewer is to ensure that the Wikipedia page does not become an extension of the Museum's own website, because that is ultimately not its purpose. Nevertheless, I think the New Zealand Project is an excellent avenue for you to take, they have good people working with that group.
 * As far as the two typos you mentioned, these errors were corrected to read as: "The Paleontology collection was established in the early 1900s. The collection contains more than 20,000 specimen lots." and "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."
 * Because Wikipedia has no deadline, there was — and continues to be — plenty of time to develop your draft version with another editor. I wish you the best of luck with it. Regards,  Spintendo  ᔦᔭ   09:39, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

The Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira (or simply Auckland Museum) is one of New Zealand's most important museums and war memorials. Its collections concentrate on New Zealand history (and especially Māori culture and the history of the Auckland Region); natural history, and the military history of New Zealand.

The present museum building, which is considered one of the most iconic in Auckland, was constructed in the 1920s in the neo-classicist style, and sits on a grassed plinth (the remains of a dormant volcano) in the Auckland Domain, a large public park close to the Auckland CBD.

Early history Auckland Museum traces its lineage back to 1852, when it was established in a farm-worker's cottage on Princes Street in central Auckland, where the University of Auckland is now located. 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. The site was a hill in the Government Domain overlooking the Waitematā Harbour. The foundation stone was laid by Prime Minister Gordon Coates on August 25, 1925. Construction was completed by 1929, and the Museum's new building was opened on November 28 by the Governor-General, General Sir Charles Fergusson. Of particular interest is the interior plasterwork which incorporates Māori details in an amalgamation of Neo-Grec and art deco styles. Likewise the exterior bas-reliefs, carved by Richard Gross (1882 – 1964), depicting 20th-century armed forces and personnel, are in a style which mixes Neo-Grec with art deco. The architectural historian Peter Shaw has said that "despite its almost pedantic Classicism, the museum is a fervently nationalistic building". The bulk of the building's walls are "faced" with English Portland stone, with detailing in a tonalite from the Coromandel Peninsula. The quotation over the front porch—which begins ""—is attributed to the Greek statesman Pericles; its appearance is in keeping with the Museum's status as a war memorial.

Railway Access Parnell railway station, which features the historic station building of the Newmarket station, was opened on 12 March 2017 in the suburb of Parnell, directly to the east of the Museum. It was thought that the station would see high demand from museum visitors, especially students and school children.

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. The Museum maintains regional cooperation and complementary collecting with other organisations across Auckland (among them Auckland Libraries and Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki).

Documentary Heritage 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, 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.

Pictorial The Museum has holdings in historic paintings, 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 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 Museum also has a bookplate collection, which contains more than 7,000 plates collected by Australian scholar Percy Neville Barnett.

Manuscripts and archives The Manuscripts and Archives collection 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.

Among the personal papers held at the Museum are 19th-century papers relating to the Williams family and the Reverend Vicesimus Lush; the papers of the politician John Logan Campbell, the mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist Edmund Hillary; 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
 * Potter, writer, and conservationist Barry Brickell

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

Maps and plans The Museum's map collection contains large sequences of official New Zealand maps, WWII-era military maps, subdivision plans, and other material, including atlases, which helps record and provide evidence of early New Zealand development. 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.

Museum Library Te Pātaka Mātāpuna 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.

Natural sciences 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.

Botany The botanical collections of the Auckland Museum Herbarium (code "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 major herbaria in New Zealand; the others are at Landcare Research Auckland and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, in Wellington.

Human History

Applied Arts 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. A collection of 7,000 objects from across Asia is displayed on rotation.

Castle Collection of musical instruments 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".

Taonga Māori (Ethnology) 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. 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.

Social and War History The War History collection was established in 1920, and includes a significant medal collection, a wide range of swords and firearms as well as material culture related to New Zealanders' military service.

War Memorial function 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, 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.

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".

Taumata-ā-Iwi The Act also tasks the the Board with the appointment of a 5-person Māori Committee 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 [members or representatives of the] Ngāti Whātua, Ngāti Pāoa and Tainui [ iwi]".

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".

Directors The following is a list of Directors, the first three of whom used the title "Curator":

Controversies

Hillary estate The papers and memorabilia of the late Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, are held in the Museum. In 2009, legal action over publishing rights to his papers between his children, Peter and Sarah Hillary, and the museum. Prime Minister John Key offered to mediate, and his offer was accepted and the matter resolved amicably.

Vitali tenure The appointment and activities of Dr. Vanda Vitali, a Canadian citizen who served as Director from 2009 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.

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, 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.

Notes

References

External links




 * I've merged the additional content from User:Noideawhatiamdoing/sandbox/Auckland War Memorial Museum into this article, as per User:Fayenatic london's suggestion of the draft (except for the Infobox building content - it was displaying two maps). I'm currently employed at the museum as their Wikimedian in Residence, so will not continue to edit the content - I've just incorporated the pre-vetted material to be available on the main Wiki space. Feel free to alter any material if there are WP:NPOV or WP:COI concerns (if there are, I'll submit the changes as a draft). --Prosperosity (talk) 03:05, 12 January 2021 (UTC)

Edit request
Kia ora! At the moment, the article states that the museum's chairperson is William Randall, but currently the position is held by Richard Bedford. Would someone be able to update the article on my behalf? --Prosperosity (talk) 22:11, 21 September 2022 (UTC)
 * ✅ Ptrnext (talk) 06:40, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

Edit request

 * Specific text to be added or removed: '2017–2023: David Gaimster' in "Secretaries, curators and directors" and changing the director to 'David Reeves (acting)' in the infobox.
 * Reason for the change: David Gaimster left the museum in June 2023.
 * References supporting change: --Prosperosity (talk) 02:58, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

Reply 5-JUL-2023
Spintendo 03:07, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

Resources to add
Here a few potential sources of info that editors could add to the article in the future:


 * Nichola Te Kiri collaborates with Auckland Museum on Māori inspired uniforms (2020)
 * How Auckland museum is unpacking centuries of colonial legacy and indigenising itself (2020)
 * Winners announced at the 2021 Interior Awards (2021)
 * New Zealand Building Industry Awards: Congratulations to all our winners! (2021) --Prosperosity (talk) 23:27, 9 July 2023 (UTC)