We have a continuous programme of exhibitions - usually four each year - which gives visitors the opportunity to view a selection of our heritage materials. Click on the links below for brief descriptions of past exhibitions.
Please contact Library Exhibitions for further information. Plus check out our virtual exhibitions.
Select from drop down box or browse below
- select exhibition - Is it real gold?, 2 February to 30 April 2005Clifton Firth, 27 Oct 2004 to 15 Jan, 2005Perils of the Sea, 7 Jul to 11 Oct, 2004 A Barbarous Measure, 11 Feb to 30 Apr, 2004 A Certain Style, 2 Oct 2003 - 31 Jan 2004 Telling My Story, 29 May to 28 Sep, 2003 Persephone in Winter: Robin Hyde, 31 Mar to 27 May, 2003 Recent additions to Spec. Coll, 13 Feb to 23 Mar, 2003 Compliments of the Seasons, 29 oct to 31 Jan, 2003 Celebrating Dumas, 8 July to 12 Oct, 2002 The Art of Advertising, 9 May to 28 June, 2002 Auckland: the beginnings of a city, 26 Jan to 27 Apr, 2002 Art & Ownership, 6 Nov 2001 to 22 Jan 2002 Bookbindings 2001, 1 Oct to 31 Oct, 2001 West Meets East, 3 July - 22 Sept 2001An Embarrassment of Riches, 3 Apr to 23 Jun 2001 Captured in Print, 23 Dec 2000 to 17 Mar 2001 A Dance of the Music of Time, 21 Oct to 16 Dec 2000 A most desirable place, 22 Jul to 14 Oct 2000
1 May - 30 June 2007
An exhibition of photographs printed from our extensive collection of F.G. Radcliffe negatives showing New Zealand as it was almost 100 years ago.
See virtual exhibition
10 February - 22 April 2007
Nobby Clark is known for his many drawings of Auckland, capturing the places, characters, humour and atmosphere of Auckland in the 1980s. The exhibition features a wide range of his work, on loan from the artist and curated by his son Simon Clark.
View exhibition list (pdf)
More information
11 October 2006 - 31 January 2007
24 June - 1 October 2006
Treasures on show are from Auckland City Libraries' extensive performing arts archives, held in Special Collections on the Heritage floor.
Mercury, Auckland's longest running professional theatre is featured with fabulous images of productions as well as examples of working papers. Also highlighted are Central Theatre, Theatre Corporate, Watershed Theatre, Perkel Opera Company, Limbs Dance Company, Douglas Wright and Benny Levin.
Volcanoes: the fire beneath our feet
6 March - 10 June 2006
Much of New Zealand has been built up by volcanic forces at work beneath the surface of the earth. Auckland itself is on top of a volcanic field, much of which has disappeared beneath roads and suburbs. This exhibition uses material from Special Collections to show those forces at work both in New Zealand, with events such as the eruption of Mount Tarawera, and overseas in places like Italy and Indonesia. It also shows how volcanoes shape the way we live today.
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21 November 2005 - 26 February 2006
15 August - 13 November 2005
October 2005 marks the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar between Britain and France. Special Collections at Auckland City Libraries celebrates Lord Nelson’s great sea victory with an exhibition showing letters written by Lord Nelson, his watch, and the seal given to him by his great love, Emma Hamilton.
The exhibition looks at the Napoleonic Wars in the context of what was happening in the rest of the world. Exploration and discovery, trade and settlement continued, often overshadowed by politics in Europe.
11 May - 31 July 2005
John Stacpoole is an architect, architectural historian and author. Although he was born in Auckland and has lived here all his life, his Stacpoole family came from Ireland in the nineteenth century. This explains John's love for Ireland, expressed in his collecting of Irish books over more than sixty years.
For this exhibition John has selected and described books from his collection which explore Ireland’s literature, landscape, art and people. These include many first editions and a number of books from the 17th and 18th centuries.
The exhibition marks the occasion of John Stacpoole’s generous gift of his Irish collection to Auckland City Libraries. More information
2 February - 30 April 2005
View virtual exhibition
Medieval manuscripts and early printed books are among the best loved treasures of Special Collections at Auckland City Libraries.
Step back in time to the glamour of Auckland's yesteryear with our exhibition of classic portraits by Auckland's style photographer Clifton Firth. From the 30s to the 70s, Firth captured the faces and fashions of Auckland and NZ, from politicians and celebrities to models and musicians.
7 July to 11 October 2004
For most of our history the sea has been the great highway, carrying people and trade between countries around the world. it has been a means of communication as well as a means of livelihood. People have therefore had no choice but to brave its dangers.
This exhibition highlighted those dangers, using books, manuscripts, photographs and charts from the seventeenth century to the early twentieth. Navigating unknown waters, escaping pirates, facing storms and shipwrecks, falling overboard or being left behind as castaways were all real risks for sailors. During these centuries navigational instruments improved, and accurate surveys made sailing safer, but the sea is always unpredictable.
From: George Anderson.
A new, authentic and complete collection of voyages round the world. 1784.
11 February - 30 April 2004
"I wish to announce today that the government has decided to make a formal apology to those Chinese people who paid the poll tax and suffered other discrimination imposed by statute and to their descendents" - the words of Rt Hon Helen Clark, NZ Prime Minister on 12th February 2002.
From 1881 to 1951, the New Zealand government imposed discriminatory legislation on Chinese immigrants and their families, including the requirement to pay a poll tax on entry to the country, and the withdrawal of the right to become an NZ citizen between 1908 and 1951. No other ethnic group was subjected to such restrictions or to a poll tax.
'A Barbarous Measure' explores the discrimination faced by Chinese immigrants through images and documents to tell the fascinating and little known story of a people struggling to gain equality and acceptance in a new land. The exhibition is on loan from the National Library of New Zealand.
2 October 2003 - 31 January 2004
While fashion designers look towards next season's collections, this exhibition provided glimpses of fashions' past and sketched a genealogy for today's thiriving local fashion culture. It displayed the styles New Zealanders have worn and aspired to in the past and up to the present day, whether they have been the very latest or behind the times, and whether they have been created in London Paris New York, or New Zealand. A Certain Style exhibition was a visual history which revealed, in a series of thematic snapshots, the changing 'looks' of New Zealanders as featured in photographs and documents from our Heritage Collections.
The exhibition’s content was, in part, determined by Auckland City Libraries’ extensive photograph collections, especially those of two important Auckland photographers, Hermann Schmidt and celebrated fashion photographer Clifton Firth. Alongside the studio images taken by these two photographers, other images and documents were displayed which provided visitors with varied and rich historical record of how men, women and children dressed (or were encouraged to dress) in city streets and whilst enjoying leisure activities, 'out on the town' or at the beach, in the bush and at the races.
View exhibition list (pdf 114kb)
29 May - 28 September 2003
The exhibition looked at various ways in which individual and family histories have been recorded over the years. It drew on books, maps, letters, diaries, photographs and ephemera from the Central City Library's special collections, plus some items borrowed from private collections and Auckland City Archives.
The material shown ranged from the logbooks and superb maps by a 19th-century Pacific sailor William Henry Webster, through to a painting of the arrival in 1842 of the ships Jane Gifford and Duchess of Argyle, which brought the first Scottish immigrants to Auckland. There were also Victorian portrait photographs of unnamed Maori and Pakeha, which the library hoped members of the public might have been able to identify. Find out more about how to research your own family history, visit the family history section of the heritage floor (level 2) of the Central City Library.
31 March - 27 May 2003
Robin Hyde is being increasingly acknowledged as one of New Zealand's finest writers. She wrote poetry, short stories, novels, historical fiction, autobiographical pieces, and worked as a journalist. She once wrote: 'I get my politics direct from Shelley and Shakespeare, with an occasional hint from the Holy Ghost'. This exhibition presented a life of Robin Hyde through images, manuscripts and published works. It was on loan from the National Library Gallery.
13 Feburary - 23 March 2003
Auckland City Libraries has a rich collection of research materials, accumulated over the 120 years of the Library's existence. Sir George Grey's founding collection of rare books and manuscripts has inspired other valuable donations over the years. At the same time the Library has made judicious purchases to supplement and enhance those donations. It has also benefited from the breadth of its general collections by the transfer of items to Special Collections as they increase in rarity and value.
This exhibition featured recent additions to the collections and highlighted the different specialities: rare books, manuscripts, ephemera, photographs and maps. Some of the items shown were purchased and some were donated. The Library wishes to thank the donors who have been so generous with their gifts.
29 October 2002 - 31 January 2003
Over the years the Christmas festival has changed by gathering a variety of traditions and customs to itself. In the early medieval period the Christian religious festival of Christmas (Christ's Mass) absorbed the midwinter pagan festivals of Europe, although many of those pagan rituals continued to survive.
However many of the traditions that we associate with Christmas, such as Christmas cards, the Christmas tree, Santa Claus, present giving, and the focus on children, date from the 19th century.
This exhibition featured the development of those customs, both religious, and secular. It also looked at the growth of the New Zealand traditions of a midsummer Christmas.
View exhibition list (pdf 98kb)
8th July - 12th October 2002
24 July 2002 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of the great French writer Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo.
The exhibition “Celebrating Dumas: His life & legacy” showcased items from the Reed Dumas collection, the largest collection of books by and about Dumas outside France. Among the items on view were manuscripts in Dumas' writing, an extended letter by Dumas' daughter exhibited for the first time, the first edition of The Three Musketeers, and posters of films made from Dumas' works.
Frank W. Reed and his Dumas collection by Donald Kerr.
To read more about Frank Reed and his passion for Alexandre Dumas and his works, a limited edition reprint was specially commissioned to mark Dumas' bicentenary. It is available for $19.95 from the Auckland Library Heritage Trust, c/- Auckland City Libraries, PO Box 4138, Auckland 1030, New Zealand.
9 May - 28 June 2002
This exhibition had a particular appeal to those interested in graphic design and the visual style of 20th century advertising and showcased a range of advertisements and advertising art dating from around 1900 to the mid-1970s. Ads for food, fashion, cars, entertainment, appliances, and more from widely-circulated New Zealand periodicals such as the Mirror and the New Zealand Woman's Weekly were displayed.
View exhibition list (pdf 64kb)
26 January - 27 April 2002
Auckland's early years were shown through contemporary documents, letters, diaries, early printed accounts, maps, drawings and photographs.
The exhibition covered the period from occupation by Ngāti Whātua and sale to Governor Hobson as the site for the new capital in 1840, to 1865, when the capital shifted to Wellington. It also showed the physical changes to central Auckland that have occurred since its beginnings. Items featured included:
View exhibition list (pdf 117kb)
6 November 2001 - 22nd January 2002
Based on a selection of bookplates from the Hilda Wiseman's Bookplate Collection this exhibition coincided with the publication of In Another Dimension: Auckland Bookplates 1920-1960 by Ian Thwaites.
The modern bookplate is generally pictorial, revealing the personal tastes, hobbies and individuality of the owner. The pictorial bookplate also allows the designer full rein in scope and artistic design. It is this creative aspect and the individuality the design reflects that makes the bookplate so appealing.
Well over one hundred modern bookplates from New Zealand, Australia, England, America and Europe were shown. Book plates owned by the following were shown in this exhibition: Jane Mander (NZ writer), Pat Lawlor (NZ journalist), Alexander Turnbull (NZ book collector), Bob Lowry (NZ printer), Patrick White (Australian writer), Adrian Feint (Australian artist), Douglas Mawson (Australian explorer), May Robson, Lord Gowrie, Adolf Hitler, and Benito Mussolini.
The artists represented include Leo Bensemann, Stephen Champ, Ron Holloway, Mervyn Taylor, Trevor Lloyd, Lionel and Norman Lindsay, Eric Gill, Mark Severin, Rockwell Kent, Ruth Saunders, and of course Hilda Wiseman.
1 October - 31 October 2001
Firefly, Blackbird Remembered and Assemblage Art are the names of some of the works from the Association of Book Crafts (NZ) Ntional Bnding Cmpetition 2001.There were two categories. The set book for entrants was . Each participant was asked to bind a set book (A Press Achieved: The Emergence of Auckland Univeristy Press 1927-1972 by Denis McEldowney) in a style appropriate to its size and content. The open category allowed the binders free rein. In this section the results were entirely dependent on the resources and imagination of each binder and often challenged our conception of the book.
A small selection of private press bindings held by Special Collections were also displayed.
3 July - 22 September 2001
A selected number of written and photographic accounts by European travellers to China and Japan from materials held in Special Collections at Auckland Central City Library. By revealing Chinese civilisation to Europe through his writings, Marco Polo created the impetus for the Age of Discovery. The West's convergence with the East was gradual. Both China and nearby Japan were not new lands; they were known by report and reputation. Missionary efforts by the Jesuits and trading networks promoted further contact. During early visits, European travellers found many things to observe and learn. Initially, few Westerners dared to claim that they had grasped the complexities of Chinese and Japanese life, yet by the 19th century, treaties helped cement political and economic ties. Such relations also facilitated closer cultural understanding.
Earliest item on display: 1533 Italian edition of Marco Polo's travels to Cathay (China)
Most recent item on display: typical 'tourist' photograph album of the early 1900s.
View exhibition list (pdf 71kb)
3 April - 23 June 2001
Nineteenth century ideals of taste are not always compatible with ours. The Victorian fondness for decoration, garish colour, sentimental subject matter, and mixing historical styles can easily induce a sense of overload. But at its best this profusion of influences can be exciting and dynamic, overflowing with confidence and exuberance.
This exhibition concentrated on the visual style of the Victorians as expressed in their books, albums, scrapbooks and ephemera.
View exhibition list (pdf 106kb)
23 December 2000 - 17 March 2001
Have you seen the letter X yet?
Visitors to the exhibition commented "I loved what you put for X". "Great except for letter X". Other visitor favourites were the wombat, the lion, and the vipers, and of course the opossum "with the zipped up mouth". The exhibition featured a fascinating collection of animal illustrations from the 15th century to the present day. From anteaters to zebras, there were animals for every letter of the alphabet and even images of mythical animals.
View exhibition list (pdf 108kb)
'A Dance to the Music of Time': The Works of Anthony Powell
21 October - 16 December 2000
The exhibition marked the end of a literary life by displaying the books and other writings by Anthony Powell, who died on 28 March 2000. It also formally acknowledged the donation of this collection to Auckland City Libraries by John Stacpoole. The Stacpoole-Powell Collection contains many first editions, variant issues, reviews and associated Powell materials.Further details of the Stacpoole Collection of Anthony Powell material ....
View exhibition list (pdf 79kb)
22 July - 14 October 2000
This exhibition viewed events in the Bay of Islands through the eyes of those who were there, from Cook's first voyage and naming of the Bay of Islands in 1769, through to the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 and Hone Heke's rejection of it in the 1845 War in the North.
Original letters and diaries handwritten by Naturalist Joseph Banks, missionaries Samuel Marsden and James Kemp, officials James Busby and Felton Mathew, as well as Hone Heke were featured in this exhibition. These were complemented by accounts in books, and by maps and a watercolour of Kororareka (Russell) by J.B.C. Hoyte seen here.
View exhibition list (pdf 58kb)
