Post researched and written by David Murray, Archivist The suitcases made by Disabled Servicemens Products were popular luggage items for many years, and occasionally still turn up in secondhand shops. Sometimes made from leather, but more usually from a type of fibreboard called Vulcanite, examples can often be identified by a red and gold label […]

Blog post prepared by Emma Scott, Library Assistant – Periodicals The Mail Minor, Oamaru, September 13 1940, v.2:no.37, p.1 While working on a project for the Hocken Collections in 2010, my colleague and I came across a delightful supplement to the Oamaru Mail that ran from 1939 to 1942 called: The Mail Minor: for the […]

‘I am going to be shifted from Somes Island in a few weeks. I don’t like to go away from the old place. I enjoy the sea and watching ships steaming pass [sic] the island. Although it is rather windy and unhealthy, its scenery soothes our weary hearts to some extent.’ (excerpt from a letter […]

Archivists who work in “collecting archives” sometimes have a bit of a love/hate relationship with rare book and manuscript auctions. On the one hand they can be a tremendous source of exciting and significant material. On other they may be a drain on scarce funds, and often collections of related material are split into separate […]

Behind the downstairs reference desk at the Hocken are some shelves where each week’s newly acquired books are kept for staff to familiarise themselves with what is newly published. In the lead up to Anzac Day each year there are often books relating to New Zealand’s experience of war, and in particular the First and […]

“Thank you so much for your lovely cheery letter. My family which is large all took turns in reading it. Although we are lonesome for our two marine sons Walter and Richard, we are consoled to know that such lovely people like yourself and Tom Hickey (Richards friend) do cheer them up.” So begins a […]