Canterbury Museum

Canterbury Museum Visit Canterbury Museum Pop-Up to enjoy collection highlights and temporary exhibitions while our Rolleston Avenue buildings are being redeveloped.
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LINKS: linktr.ee/canterburymuseum The Canterbury Museum at CoCA pop-up is the place to see an ongoing display of collection highlights and visitor favourites from the permanent galleries while the Rolleston Avenue site is redeveloped. Taonga (treasures) on display represents the breadth and depth of the Museum collection ranging from taxidermied animals through to historic objects from the Antarct

ic, Mountfort and Early Settlers galleries. Visitors can see beautiful taonga Māori and Pasifika alongside tools used by mana whenua for mahinga kai (food gathering). Two firm visitor favourites – the horse from 'The Christchurch Street' and Ivan Mauger’s gold bike – are also be back on display.

The annual free entry weekend at the hugely popular ‘Quake City’ exhibition in Christchurch is back.‘Quake City’, which ...
31/07/2026

The annual free entry weekend at the hugely popular ‘Quake City’ exhibition in Christchurch is back.

‘Quake City’, which tells stories from the Canterbury earthquakes, will be free to visit on Saturday 8 August and Sunday 9 August. The free weekend has become a popular annual fixture in Christchurch. Canterbury Museum’s special exhibition takes visitors through the first earthquake of 4 September 2010, the widespread destruction and rescue efforts of 22 February 2011 through to the recovery and ongoing rebuild of the city.

The exhibition features some of the defining objects of this time – from the top of the Christ Church Cathedral spire to the railway station clocks that stopped when the 2010 earthquake struck. Hear the incredible human stories of survival and endurance, discover the fascinating science behind earthquakes and resilient buildings, and see how Cantabrians responded to the earthquakes and their aftermath.

Read more: www.canterburymuseum.com/visit/whats-on/quake-city-free-weekend-2

Who remembers when central Christchurch looked like this? 📸❤️🏛️This view from the corner of High, Colombo and Hereford S...
29/07/2026

Who remembers when central Christchurch looked like this? 📸❤️🏛️

This view from the corner of High, Colombo and Hereford Streets was taken by former Museum Pictorial History Curator Joan Woodward. Joan was an avid photographer who captured many fabulous photos of street life in 1980s Christchurch. Her collection of negatives and photographs became part of the Museum collection in 1997. Since then, they have become even more precious after the Canterbury earthquakes destroyed many of the landmarks she photographed.

In just this one photograph, taken in about 1993, Joan has immortalised the Hanafins Building, the Holiday Inn and the Trust Bank building – all Christchurch icons that were lost to the earthquakes. What memories does this photo evoke for you? Share your stories below. 👇

Over the next few months, we will be celebrating Joan’s work and bringing back many precious memories for Christchurch people. Stay tuned for more photos of bygone Christchurch lovingly captured by Joan.

Image: A view looking southeast down High Street from Hereford Street. Canterbury Museum 2015.190.30

28/07/2026

Ancient NZ was wild.🦜🐊🦤Crocodiles, a giant parrot and a relative of the dodo lived in Aotearoa 16 million years ago. Follow the link in the bio to watch the full talk by Senior Curator Natural History Paul Scofield.

Once everyone had left the old Christchurch Girls High School building on Cranmer Square, it started to give up its secr...
24/07/2026

Once everyone had left the old Christchurch Girls High School building on Cranmer Square, it started to give up its secrets. 🏫🕰️🧱📸

The Gothic building served as a school for over a century from 1881 to July 1985, when the school moved to a new building on the other side of Hagley Park.

On the morning of 9 July 1986, 830 staff and pupils from the school marched from the old building on Armagh Street to the new facility on Matai Street. The march was led by principal Joan Prisk and head girl Deborah Woodley.

Once the old building was empty, the new occupants discovered former students had left their mark. On a small balcony overlooking the square, pupils had scratched their names into the old brick, with some names dating back 40 years. It was a challenging spot to reach as the door to the balcony had been locked for many years and it was directly above the principal’s office.

Sadly, all this accumulated memory has been lost. The building was demolished after the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes and the site is now a car park.

Do you have any memories of this old building? Are you a former pupil who scratched your name into the brick? How did you reach the balcony? Share your memories below. 👇


Images:

A photograph of the school in April 1986, just a few months before the big move. Canterbury Museum 2019.10.6140

The tram passing Christchurch Girls High School. Canterbury Museum 2019.10.27516

Melvin Vaniman was a daredevil photographer. 📸🪜😲The American photographer is shown here atop his 30-metre homemade pole,...
22/07/2026

Melvin Vaniman was a daredevil photographer. 📸🪜😲

The American photographer is shown here atop his 30-metre homemade pole, which he scaled to capture panoramic views of New Zealand in 1902 and 1903. Once at the top of his precarious-looking vantage point, he would use a camera he built to capture wide images of 1900s New Zealand. Canterbury Museum has 11 of Melvin’s photographs in the collection that were taken using this hair-raising technique, including one of Islington meat works.

Melvin later returned to America and became fascinated by powered flight. He attempted to cross the Atlantic in a record-setting flight on an airship of his own design in 1910. His second balloon expedition in 1912 did not last as long. His airship exploded off the shore of Atlantic City in front of a crowd of 20,000 people just a few minutes after take-off. The ‘Scientific American’ was there to capture the ill-fated adventure:

“America’s only airship vanished in a flash of smoke at 6.30 in the morning of July 2nd, and with it perished America’s only aeronautic engineer.”



Images:
Islington Freezing Works in about 1902. Canterbury Museum PIC89/22.1
Melvin in action above the freezing works in Belfast. ‘Weekly Press’, 28 May 1902

16/07/2026

More people summit Mount Everest every year than visit the Subantarctic Islands. Canterbury Museum’s Ashley Boot tells stories of adventure and discovery from her trip to these far-flung islands in the Southern Ocean, including seeing a pod of orcas hunting their prey.
Follow the link in the bio to watch the whole talk or click here:
https://youtu.be/BaPM1l60aJM

When was this photo taken?🔥📸🕵️🕰️There’s a lot to enjoy in this image of firefighters taking on the old Christchurch Muni...
15/07/2026

When was this photo taken?🔥📸🕵️🕰️

There’s a lot to enjoy in this image of firefighters taking on the old Christchurch Municipal Chambers. Thankfully, it appears to be an exercise for firefighters rather than an actual emergency. Can you see the fireman standing on a window ledge with a sheet waiting below to catch him? How about the young lad watching the proceedings from across the street? You can also see Canterbury Museum in the distance on the left of the image, a few blocks west at the end of Worcester Boulevard.

But when was the photo taken? We can narrow it down to a few decades, as the Municipal Chambers were completed on 24 March 1887 and the fire brigade retired their horses in favour of trucks in 1913. Can any eagle-eyed readers spot anything else that might pinpoint a date? Post below. 👇

Image: The Christchurch Municipal Chambers building. Canterbury Museum 1960.137.3

13/07/2026

Discover hidden gold.
Senior Curator Julia Bradshaw’s latest book ‘Digging Deep’ is about the many remarkable women who took part in New Zealand’s gold rush. It tells the stories of the women who mined for gold, ran hotels and stores, worked as barmaids and raised children in the country's gold rush era.

Link in bio or click below to buy the book:
https://shorturl.at/1XbqO

Celebrate Matariki at the ‘Canterbury Museum Pop-Up’.The rise of the Matariki star cluster marks the start of the Māori ...
09/07/2026

Celebrate Matariki at the ‘Canterbury Museum Pop-Up’.

The rise of the Matariki star cluster marks the start of the Māori New Year, a time to celebrate and come together with whānau, friends and communities. Can you find Matariki in the night sky?

Come to the Pop-Up this weekend to search for glowing constellations hidden in the galleries and learn how to spot Matariki in the night sky.

Read more: www.canterburymuseum.com/visit/whats-on/matariki-trail

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