Auckland Libraries Research

Auckland Libraries Research Discover collections and services from Auckland Libraries' Research and Heritage Collections.

Read our blog: https://heritageetal.blogspot.com/
For queries: https://www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/Pages/research-enquiry.aspx The Auckland Research Centres are based at four locations around Auckland and provide local history, family history and whakapapa research support. Our teams at Central, North, West and South are able to provide expert knowledge and resources to help you on your research

journey. Sir George Grey Special Collections, based at the Central Library, is one of New Zealand's major heritage collections. This valuable resource is available to view by the public without appointment. Come in and talk to us about your research needs!


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Remember December 1984? DD Smash, Herbs, and the Mockers were giving a free concert at Aotea Square to mark the end of t...
28/05/2026

Remember December 1984? DD Smash, Herbs, and the Mockers were giving a free concert at Aotea Square to mark the end of the school year. It was organised by TripleM 89FM radio as "Thank God It's Over." Ten thousand gathered for the event, which ended up going down in music history as the Queen Street Riot. It happened soon after DD Smash took the stage, with stores looted, windows smashed, and police coming under scrutiny for their methods of dealing with it. Dave Dobbyn was charged with behaviour likely to cause violence against people or property but the charges were dismissed against him after a three day trial. Ultimately, a Commission of Inquiry concluded there were multiple contributing factors including unemployment and the rift between police and youth exacerbated by the Springbok tour a few years earlier. Read more about this event on our Heritage et Al blog.
https://heritageetal.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-1984-queen-street-riot.html

DD Smash concert, Aotea Square, 1984
Photographer: Bruce Jarvis
Image reference: Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1704-3290-04

📑🗃️Manuscript Mondays No. 2Henderson was an up-and-coming town in the 1950s. It had become a borough in 1946 and Second ...
25/05/2026

📑🗃️Manuscript Mondays No. 2
Henderson was an up-and-coming town in the 1950s. It had become a borough in 1946 and Second World War veterans and their families were streaming into the rural foothills of the Waitākere Ranges. Commercial businesses were spreading out from the Great North Road to surrounding side streets. Such activity required an organised response leading to the creation of the Henderson Businessmen’s Association in 1957.

In 1985, Auckland Public Libraries was gifted an assortment of items from the association by its former promotions co-ordinator, Heather Menzies. It was sorted at the Auckland Town Hall by volunteers and then transferred to the library, where it sat until 2015. At that time, a second deposit was made and it was decided to merge the collections and transfer them both to the West Auckland Research Centre at Waitākere Central Library.

The older part of the collection mostly comprises business records, such as minute books, letters, financial records, and subscription and member lists. However, it also includes some video recordings, a scrapbook, and some fun ephemera, such as the window decal featured below.

The latter donation jumps to the 1990s and the Henderson 150 Celebration. It includes research material on various suburbs, oral histories, and fun ephemera, as well as some more typical business documents, correspondence, and reports, most about various revitalisation projects.

Interested in exploring the Henderson Businessmen’s Association collection or other manuscript collections held by Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections? You can arrange a viewing here: https://www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/Pages/research-booking.aspx.

Image: Window decal for the Henderson Businessmen’s Association, NZMS-0976-B08. https://kura.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/digital/collection/manuscripts/id/39147

Western Springs has hosted top acts over the decades for Kiwi music fans, but one of the first was Johnny Cash back in 1...
21/05/2026

Western Springs has hosted top acts over the decades for Kiwi music fans, but one of the first was Johnny Cash back in 1971 when he was at the height of his fame. The Man in Black was touring with his wife, June Carter Cash, the Carter Family, Carl Perkins, and the Statler Brothers. Johnny opened with his big hit, A Boy Named Sue, and a couple of hours later the concert ended with all the performers up on stage. Twelve thousand fans were at the Springs that night, and the following year, nearly twice that (an estimated 22,000) were on hand to experience Led Zeppelin.
Photographer: Bruce Jarvis

Image reference: Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1704-0816B-27A

📖📍Asked and Answered #16Asked and Answered posts are inspired by research queries submitted to Auckland Libraries.Lopde...
19/05/2026

📖📍Asked and Answered #16
Asked and Answered posts are inspired by research queries submitted to Auckland Libraries.

Lopdell House photographs by Titirangi photographer Bernard Schofield.

Today we’d like to highlight a set of photographs of Lopdell House in Titirangi from 1975, by Titirangi photographer Bernard Schofield. They capture moments in time fifty-one years ago.

Lopdell House first opened as the Hotel Titirangi in 1930. Since then, it has operated as a residential school for the deaf, and then later a residential training centre for teachers from 1960-1982.

The collection has been digitised in early 2026 and is currently undergoing indexing by Research staff. They are not available online yet but soon will be.

If you’d like to see more photographs of Lopdell House, check out this link to photographs in our Kura database: https://bit.ly/4uSMobJ

You can also see a listing of publications in our library catalogue about Lopdell House here https://bit.ly/4fbVdZN . These books are not available to borrow, but can be viewed by appointment on the second floor of Waitākere Central Library (Henderson). Please click here: https://bit.ly/4dtP747 to access the Research booking form.

There are also several publications available about the broader subject of the history of Titirangi: https://bit.ly/4uP3OG3 . Some of these are available to borrow.

Bernard Scofield’s set of 1975 photographs cover a range of subjects, so watch this space for further postings.

Two photographs selected from the 1975 collection are shown below:

Today we launch a new series: Manuscript Mondays! 📚✨Our first featured collection is the Auckland Quoin Club, a graphica...
18/05/2026

Today we launch a new series: Manuscript Mondays! 📚✨

Our first featured collection is the Auckland Quoin Club, a graphical arts society established in 1916 and dedicated to etching, lithography, colour printing, and woodcut. Its name came from the world of letterpress printing, where a ‘quoin’ was a wedge used to lock type into place.

The club brought together a remarkable mix of Auckland creatives and professionals, including jewellers, civil engineers, lithographers, commercial artists, sculptors, and architects. Among its founding members was John Barr, chief librarian of the Auckland Free Library.

Meeting in the Mining Chambers in Mills Lane, the Quoin Club held three exhibitions during its lifetime before dissolving in 1932.

Today, the club’s surviving records are spread across several institutions, including the University of Auckland, Alexander Turnbull Library, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, and Auckland Council Libraries. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections holds the club’s business records, including a visitors’ book, cash book, minute book, ledger, and rent book. These were donated to the Auckland Public Library in 1936 by former member Edward S. Kohn. It can be found on Kura Heritage Collections Online under the record numbers NZMS-0039 to NZMS-0043 (https://bit.ly/42FX7KE).

Interested in exploring the Quoin Club collection or other manuscript collections held in Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections? You can arrange a viewing here: https://www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/Pages/research-booking.aspx.

Image: Quoin Club lithographic logo on the cover of a club annual, 1917. Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki 1990/32. https://bit.ly/4uhKXnl

It must have been a hard night at the Hi Di**le Griddle, but then the Karangahape Road establishment was the place to go...
14/05/2026

It must have been a hard night at the Hi Di**le Griddle, but then the Karangahape Road establishment was the place to go for an evening in the 50s and 60s, back when American-style food from Chicken in the Basket, Hamburgers, curly fries, to all kinds of steak was exciting fare for Auckland diners. The Hi Di**le Griddle employed regular entertainers, and Nat King Cole reportedly dropped by when he was in New Zealand. The dance floor and stage were small but a host of local musos played there, including Paul Lestre, famous in those dinner and dance years. In 1959, he even released an LP, nicely titled, "A Nite at the Hi Di**le Griddle with the Paul Lestre Group."

Rykenberg Photography
Image refererence: Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1269-E0146-26

George Psalmanazar was an imposter who tried to hoodwink the 18th century with a fabricated history of Taiwan - then kno...
14/05/2026

George Psalmanazar was an imposter who tried to hoodwink the 18th century with a fabricated history of Taiwan - then known as Formosa in Europe. Psalmanazar claimed he was kidnapped from his native Taiwan as a child when he was, in fact, a blue-eyed and blond-haired French fraud.

This is the map of Taiwan included in the fabricated history that he published. His description of life in Formosa included locals drinking viper’s blood for breakfast and numerous other scandalous inventions that made his book a publishing sensation.

Psalmanazar also wrote a memoir confessing his scam which he published posthumously.

If you’re interested in seeing these books and some other made-up maps next Thursday 21 May from 2pm-3pm we’re hosting a free up-close session at the Central Library.
📅Register for free here: https://bit.ly/4eKZ0wW

IMPORTANT NOTICE PLEASE SEE BELOW📍🚨For the next few weeks Research Central will have limited access to some of its famil...
11/05/2026

IMPORTANT NOTICE PLEASE SEE BELOW📍🚨

For the next few weeks Research Central will have limited access to some of its family history databases and cd collections to make way for some safety improvements to the building. While we navigate these necessary changes, some items may be unavailable for the duration.

If you have any questions about the availability of a collection you are interested in, please feel free to get in touch here: https://bit.ly/4dmdhhf ahead of your visit. We will be able to advise whether access is possible or if we can locate alternate options for you in the meantime.

Image credit:
Research Centre, Central City Library, Lorne Street, Auckland Central, 1998. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 669-184.
Kevin Durrant.

Did you learn the recorder as a child? Do you still play? Henry VIII reportedly loved to play, and owned dozens of them,...
07/05/2026

Did you learn the recorder as a child? Do you still play? Henry VIII reportedly loved to play, and owned dozens of them, and the recorder business was at one time a major musical industry: they were relatively low cost, portable and hardy. In 1986, New Zealand's first international recorder conference took place in Auckland, with the aim of raising the standard of playing through a week of concerts and classes involving local and overseas tutors. And earlier, back in 1973, the NZ Society of Recorder Players celebrated 20 years as a group with one of the players affirming the value in playing the recorder as "a group of people that have come together just to have some fun." The Society formally dissolved last year, and Auckland Libraries holds their records in our Heritage Collections. (NZMS-4104), linked below.
https://kura.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/digital/collection/manuscripts/id/40227/rec/2

Rykenberg Photography
Home portraits of the Drupsteen family, 1961
Image reference: Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1269-L0614-07

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