Post researched and written by Christopher Meech, Head Curator Publications, Hocken Collections Every now and then a find quite unexpected and novel comes through the doors at Hocken. A small book titled Original Poetry, by Mrs C. Fulton, to which are added a few Poems by her Father Mr James Dods[1], is such a remarkable find. This modest publication has […]

Post researched and prepared by HUMS 301 Intern Rebecca White To commemorate the end of Dunedin Pride Month 2022 I thought it was fitting to highlight some of our LGBTQ+ holdings here at the Hocken and discuss past and present issues surrounding collection and availability of such archival materials. At the Hocken Archives we hold […]

Post researched and written by Curator of Photographs Anna Petersen Illumination is a topical subject in Dunedin at present as the City Council continues to roll out the new LED lights, designed to cut down on energy consumption and enhance our night sky.  As we also enter the season of light, it seems a good […]

Post researched and written by Curator of Photographs Anna Petersen The Geoff Adams collection of slides, prints and negatives in the Hocken Photographs Collection stand out for their colourful, rather racy nature.  Predominantly portraits of actors, artists, singers, TV broadcasters, dancers and sportsmen, they were all taken in London during the mid-1960s and tell of […]

Post researched and written by Ali Clarke, Hocken Collections Assistant In the Blackie family farmhouse, beside the Matau branch of the Clutha River, near Kaitangata, was a large table. Into a drawer in that table went all sorts of pieces of paper, from tickets and receipts to letters and notebooks. Over more than a century […]

Blog post researched and written by Emma Scott, Hocken Collections Assistant. Two weeks ago we were kindly donated “The Home Circle: an Instructive & Entertaining Magazine for the Family  & Fireside”. This was the first time any of the Publications Collections Assistants had seen this particular periodical before, so it was a very special discovery. […]

By Amanda Mills, Hocken Liaison Librarian, Curator Music and AV It is with great sadness that we acknowledge the passing of Roy Colbert. Colbert’s contribution to the local music scenes in Dunedin can not be understated – his 2nd hand music store ‘Records Records’ (formerly located in the Terrace Houses in Stuart Street) was the […]

Post compiled by Dr Anna Petersen, Curator of Photographs Now that such high quality digital copies of historic photographs are possible, people sometimes question why preserving the original matters.  There are actually many reasons that can be given to justify this core business at the Hocken but this blog post will just touch on a […]

Post by Amanda Mills, Music and AV Liaison Librarian One of the most fun things we get to do at the Hocken is open new material, so in celebration of Music Month, we thought we would share some of our new popular music acquisitions with an unboxing video. Most of the discs are from Flying […]

Post by Emma Scott, Library Assistant – Periodicals Tucked away within our publications collection are approximately 149 zines spanning from the 1970s to the present day. For those of you who haven’t come across a zine before, zines are self published publications that are on a variety of different topics. Many of the zines in […]