Post researched and written by Debbie Gale – Archivist The exciting discovery of an accomplished watercolour sketchbook within the archives of the Dominican Sisters of Aotearoa New Zealand held by the Hocken, was first assumed to be the work of a pupil at one of the Dominican Schools.  Instead, it has been found on closer […]

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 […]

Post by Amanda Mills, Liaison Librarian – Music and Audio-Visual The Dunedin Sound is a phrase used widely to describe a particular sound in independent music (most often on the Flying Nun label) that emerged from Dunedin in the 1980s. Currently, there are a number of people who claim ownership of the phrase ‘Dunedin Sound’, […]

Na, Dr Anne Marie Jackson (Ngāti Whatua,  Te Roroa, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Wai, Ngāti Kahu) Lecturer – Te Kura Parawhakawai, the School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences) Jeanette Wikaira (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Pukenga, Ngāti Tamatera – Te Uare Taoka o Hakena, Hocken Collections. Every year for Te Wiki o te Reo Māori the Hocken develops […]

Post researched and written by Amanda Mills, Liaison Librarian Music and Audio Visual Music touches our lives in many ways, and often stays with communities and individuals for decades, even centuries after it was first written.  Sadly, this is not often the case with music written for, and around, The Great War of 1914-1918 (WWI). […]

Blog post prepared by Katherine Milburn, Liaison Librarian – Ephemera Recently, whilst moving the posters collection from the upstairs pictorial collections stack to new cabinets downstairs, a fantastic assortment of old Hollywood film posters was rediscovered. There are just over 60 posters ranging in date from the 1931 Marx Brothers’ film “Monkey Business” to the […]

Post prepared by Amanda Mills, Liaison Librarian – Music and AV Music Month has rolled around once again! This year, to draw attention to the recordings and music-themed material we have in the collections, we have created six posters that illustrate our interesting (and often decorative) holdings. The posters are currently displayed in the University […]

On 23 December 1953 Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh arrived in New Zealand for a royal tour. It was a big deal for the country, and it’s been estimated that three quarters of New Zealanders saw the young Queen. A new addition to the Hocken Collections is a memento of that time […]

Today we’d be surprised to see tea marketed to teenagers.  However, in the 1960s, the New Zealand Tea Council made a concerted effort to engage with youth culture, promoting their product with brightly coloured ‘mini-magazines’ which included posters they described as ‘tea-riffic’ and ‘psychedelic.’  These posters were reported to have ‘caused a sensation right around […]