Alexander Turnbull Library

Turnbull Library Record, Volume 11, Issue 2, 1 October 1978, Page 135

Alexander Turnbull Library

J. E. Traue

Report by the Chief Librarian for the Year 1977178 The Alexander Turnbull Library collects, maintains and makes available within the Library research materials on New Zealand, the Pacific, English literature, John Milton and his times, early printed books, and the development of the art of printing. It is responsible for the national collection of library materials relating to New Zealand and for the production of the New Zealand National Bibliography. BUILDING THE RESEARCH COLLECTIONS Several major purchases and donations have strengthened the New Zealand, Pacific, and early printed books collections but the overall growth rate of the collections has steadied. The Library continues to receive under the compulsory deposit provisions of the Copyright Act administered by the General Assembly Library a comprehensive range of materials published in New Zealand. Fewer items have been purchased but total expenditure increased due to a number of expensive purchases by the Alexander Turnbull Library Endowment Trust. The number of donors declined from 672 to 484. Manuscript collections added during the year fell slightly in numbers.

The research collections on Pacific exploration were strengthened by the purchase in London of 131 drawings made by William Ellis on Captain Cook’s third voyage in 1776-1779. The drawings are described and their importance for scholarly research assessed in a 32-pagc symposium in the Turnbull Library Record for October 1977. The purchase was made by the Endowment Trust aided by a generous grant from the Lottery Board of Control, a grant from the Macarthy Trust Board and a private donation. The Library also acquired, again through the Endowment Trust with substantial assistance from the Lottery Board of Control, two important early New Zealand watercolours. One, painted in 1827 or 1828 by Augustus Earle, is a view of the Bay of Islands looking across from near Paihia towards the site of Old Russell and the mouth of the Kawakawa River. The second by G. F. Angas, dated 1844, is a view of the Rev. Ashwell’s mission station at Pepepe on the Waikato River.

The collection of early printed books was further strengthened by the deposit in the Library by the Bible Society in New Zealand of 166 volumes of Bibles and related works printed before 1801. With

the Howard bequest of 50 sixteenth century Bibles and prayer books received a few years ago the Library now has the core of a collection capable of sustaining serious research in a number of fields. Other donations during the year included a collection of early printed books from a wide range of British and continental printers presented by Mr A. C. Brassington, a collection of the late Eugene Grayland’s private press work presented by Mrs Valerie Grayland, a rare eighteenth century coloured mezzotint ‘The Poa’ from Sir Alister Mclntosh and a collection of New Zealand paintings and illustrations from Lady Mclntosh. The archive of New Zealand artists received donations of papers, photographs and early studies from Paul Beadle, Charles Tole, Ida Eise, Lois White and Helen Brown. Important donations to the photograph collections included 567 glass plates, mostly stereoscopic, taken by Isaac Jeffares in the early 1900 s and 80 negatives by the Levin photographer W. Thorley. The Library purchased from the artist, Mrs Evelyn Page, a portrait of New Zealand’s most famous historian John Cawtc Beaglehole, om.

The transfer of New Zealand historical manuscripts from the General Assembly Library to the Alexander Turnbull Library is now complete. Major collections included in this transfer are the papers of Sir John Hall, the Richmond-Atkinson family, Sir Julius Vogel, Andrew Sinclair, William Rolleston, Gordon Coates and Sir Sidney Holland. The Library acknowledges with thanks the cooperation of the General Assembly Library in the transfer of these manuscripts and other items. Additions to the manuscript collections continue to be announced through the Turnbull Library Record and Archifacts. The Library is once again indebted to those who have contributed by donation to the growth of the collections and acknowledges their generosity. A full list of donors is published in the Turnbull Library Record. The role of the Alexander Turnbull Library Endowment Trust in purchasing highly priced books, manuscripts, maps and pictures for the Library and in making funds available for related activities is noted elsewhere.

CONSERVING THE COLLECTIONS The research collections in the Alexander Turnbull Library constitute a national asset with a value to the community far in excess even of their monetary value. The collections relating to New Zealand will be called upon more and more in the future to assist both scholar and citizen to understand and interpret our society. The delicate balance which had been achieved between present use and future conservation has been upset in the last two

years by an unprecedented rise in demand on the collections. The fastest growing demand is for quality copies of illustrative material for re-publication. The demands being made, especially on the art collections, the collections of illustrated books and periodicals, and the photograph collections, while they have increased the need for more conservation measures, have absorbed what staffing could have been available for such conservation. The result has been that it has not been possible to maintain a planned conservation programme and instead the staff are forced into a situation of responding only to urgent demand. This is an inefficient use of scarce resources and a constant source of irritation to users and staff. In order to maintain the present minimal levels of conservation measures are under consideration to reduce overall demand to the level of the staffing resources available by adopting some form of rationing of the Library’s services. During the year government made available additional resources to enable an expanded microfilming programme to be implemented. The major effort will be to microfilm older New Zealand newspapers known to be in danger of deterioration. The new Microfilm Unit has been transferred from the control of the Turnbull Library to that of the Administration Section, National Library.

THE USE OF THE COLLECTIONS Over the past few years the Library has been identifying its various publics, defining its objectives, and shaping its services to meet these objectives. Although the Library’s collections and services remain available freely to all members of the public, the major emphasis that has been placed on the Library’s role as a research institution has resulted in a perceptible shift in the pattern of demand. A trend has emerged for more research workers to use the Library for long periods and for general demand, as reflected by the number of telephone requests and reference letters, to level off. The Library is pursuing a policy of diverting away from the Library those demands which can be met by other institutions and concentrating on providing these specialist services for which the Library, because of its collections and its trained staff, is uniquely qualified.

The increasing demand on the Maori language collections has made it necessary to develop skills in written and spoken Maori and two staff members have been sent to special language courses at the Wellington Polytechnic during the past year. The growing research use of the collections has been recognised by the Endowment Trust which has decided to establish a special Turnbull Research Fund to make awards and grants to support

scholarly research in the Library’s three main areas of excellence, New Zealand, the Pacific, and English literature and bibliography. Exhibitions in the Library were once again held to a minimum but measures were taken to improve their effectiveness. Two exhibitions, the special display mounted for the 250th anniversary of the birth of Captain Cook and ‘The Coming of the Karlakarlar: a Chronicle of Swedish Settlement in New Zealand’ were designed as travelling exhibitions and will be toured throughout New Zealand and an exhibition on pioneer homes is to form the basis of a book. The Swedish exhibition was a new departure for the Library in outside sponsorship: the costs of designing the exhibition for touring are to be met by the Swedish government. In conjunction with the publication of the 1977 Endowment Trust prints the Library mounted an exhibition on the life and paintings of Charles Heaphy, VC.

During the year the Library lent items to the Auckland City Art Gallery for ‘The Two Worlds of Omai’, to the Waikato Art Museum for a travelling exhibition on Von Tempsky, and to the Sarjeant Gallery in Wanganui, the Manawatu Museum and the Te Awamutu Rose Festival of the Arts. In addition two examples of the bookbinding of Edgar Mansfield were loaned to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and contributions were sent to a Katherine Mansfield exhibition at The Hague and a Captain Cook exhibition at the Kauai Museum, Hawaii.

Publications included two issues of the Turnbull Library Record published by the Friends of the Turnbull Library, the 1977 print series of three watercolours by Charles Heaphy, VC, published by the Endowment Trust, and the regular monthly issues of the New Zealand National Bibliography and its 1976 cumulation. The instruction manual and forms for the National Register of Archives and Manuscripts in New Zealand have been distributed and work has begun on editing the returns. Detailed accounts of the Library’s acquisitions and of other activities are recorded regularly in the Turnbull Library Record.

Publications by the Staff, 1977178 BARTON, P. L. Aotearoa Takes Shape; an Exhibition of Maps and Charts from the Collection of the Alexander Turnbull Library Illustrating the Supposed Great Southern Continent, the Destruction of this Myth and the Emergence and Mapping of New Zealand. Wellington, Alexander Turnbull Library, 1977. 18 p.

“A Bibliography of Material Relating to the Surveying and Mapping of New Zealand” Special Libraries’ Association. Geography and Map Division. Bulletin, 109 (Sept. 1977) 24-32; Globe 8 (1977) 14-22; New Zealand Cartographic Journal 7: 1 (April 1977) 28-33, 7: 2 (Nov. 1977) 19-23. DELL, S. Ephemera. In Archives and Manuscripts, a New Zealand Seminar. Wellington, NZLA, 1977, 68-72. “Three Von Tempsky letters”. Turnbull Library Record, 10: 2 (October 1977) 54-56.

“Turnbull’s Tuckerbag: a Survey of Australian Manuscripts in the Alexander Turnbull Library.” Turnbull Library Record, 10: 1 (May 1977) 17-37. GROVER, R. F. “The Autumn of the Patriarch by G. G. Marquez” (review) New Zealand Bookworld 41 (Nov. 1977) 24-25. “History the Way you Want it” Comment n.s. 2 (Feb. 1978) 5-6. MURRAY-OLIVER, A. A. St. C. M. “A Collection of Drawings made by William Ellis on Cook’s Third Voyage.” Turnbull Library Record 10: 2 (Oct. 1977) 5-9. “The Ellis Drawings: an Inventory”. Turnbull Library Record 10:2 (Oct. 1977) 28-37.

PAUL, J. E. A Continuing Commentary. In Canaday, F. H. Triumph in Color; the Life and Art of Molly Morpeth Canaday . . . With Art Commentary by Janet Paul. Canaan, N. H., Phoenix Publishing, 1977. vii, 152 p. “The Turnbull Library Record 1940-1976: a Record”. Turnbull Library Record 10: 1 (March 1977) 38-44. “Twelve Watercolours of Glaciers in the Province of Canterbury: an Account of the Collaboration Between Julius von Haast and John Gully in the 1860 s.” Art New Zealand 8 (1977/78) 56-59. STARKE, J. S. Finding Aids. In Archives and Manuscripts; a New Zealand Seminar. Wellington, NZLA, 1977, 82-85. SULLIVAN, J. “Limbies Exhibition” (review) Photoforum 40 (Oct.-Nov. 1977) 39. Traue, J. E. Who’s Who in New Zealand, 11th edition. Wellington, Reed, 1978. 300 p. WILSTED, T. “Face to Face Across the Counter: Archivists and Historians in New Zealand.” Archives and Manuscripts 7: 1 (August 1977) 3-18. Starting an Archives or Manuscripts Collection: Some Basic Procedures. In Archives and Manuscripts: a New Zealand Seminar. Wellington, NZLA, 1977,34-36. Underneath the Archives. New Zealand Listener 87: 1982 (17 Dec. 1977) 8.