Canterbury Museum’s new website

Canterbury Museum has launched a new website. Visitors to canterburymuseum.com will discover a site with a modern and easy to navigate interface that allows the Museum’s exhibitions and events to be more effectively promoted.

Information about the Museum’s Documentary Research Centre can be found under Collections and Research where you can also download forms to order images from the collections. Recent acquisitions are profiled on the site and the Museum’s collecting themes are explained.

The new site also includes a floor plan, latest news, and information to help teachers and community groups plan their visit. The enhancement of the website is an ongoing project, more features and areas of information will be added on a regular basis, so be sure to keep coming back to see what’s new.

 

Te Hokinga Mai Exhibition at Robert McDougall Gallery

Ngaī Tahu Whānui, people of Te Waipounamu (South Island), and Canterbury Museum are proud to present Te Hokinga Mai.

The return home of the Te Papa developed exhibition Mō Tātou: The Ngāi Tahu Whānui Exhibition is celebrated with the complementary exhibition Mō Kā Uri: Taonga from Canterbury Museum. Mō Kā Uri showcases Canterbury Museum‟s rich collection of Ngāi Tahu taonga alongside contemporary artwork by leading Ngāi Tahu artists.

Many of the artefacts on display as part of Mō Kā Uri are being exhibited for the first time.

Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu Kaiwhakahaere Mark Solomon says the exhibition is a celebration of Ngāi Tahu culture, both past and present, with a focus on Waitaha (the Canterbury region) and Tai Poutini (the West Coast).

“More than a million people have seen part of the exhibition and now it is time to share Te Hokinga Mai, which is especially for the people of Canterbury and the West Coast. It tells the stories of our history, celebrates our contemporary artists and looks forward to our future.”

Canterbury Museum Director Anthony Wright says Te Hokinga Mai is the biggest cultural exhibit of Ngāi Tahu arts ever and with the addition of Mō Kā Uri, is considerably larger than the Te Papa exhibition.

“For the first time, more than 200 objects of cultural importance spanning more than 600 years of Southern Māori tradition and lifestyle will be on display,” Anthony Wright says.

The name Te Hokinga Mai (“the return home‟) pays homage to the Te Māori exhibition, and celebrates the 25th anniversary of this iconic exhibition‟s return home after its successful tour of the United States. The Robert McDougall Gallery was the first venue to show Te Māori on its return to Aotearoa.

Te Hokinga Mai

Featuring
Mō Tātou: The Ngāi Tahu Whānui Exhibition
Mō Kā Uri: Taonga from Canterbury Museum
20 February – 20 June 2010

 

Banks’ Florilegium on display

Plate 432, Clianthus puniceus, Banks' Florilegium, reproduced courtesy of Macmillan Brown Library, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

As part of the Christchurch Festival of Flowers, Macmillan Brown Library has provided a rare opportunity to view Banks’ Florilegium.  This magnificent set of prints  come from the copperplate engravings of plants collected by Joseph Banks on Captain Cook’s Endeavour voyage.  were donated to the  University of Canterbury by the late artist William Sutton and are part of the Macmillan Brown Library collection .

The 2009 Festival of Flowers, in partnership with the Canterbury Museum, will provide a rare opportunity to view a selection of copperplate engravings of plants collected by Joseph Banks on Captain James Cook’s 1769-1771 voyage on the H.M.S. Endeavour. The copperplate engravings, usually held at the Macmillan Brown Library at the University of Canterbury, were gifted to the library by painter William Sutton.

The 20th Anniversary of the Festival of Flowers will be the first time Set 6 of 100 has been publicly exhibited. The exhibition will also feature Landcare Research’s oldest plant samples collected by Banks and Solander during Captain Cook’s first voyage.

Banks’ Florilegium, curated by Melinda Johnston, will provide locals and visitors to the city an opportunity to delve further into the method, botanical accuracy and history of the Florilegium collection in the one-of-a-kind surroundings of the Robert McDougall Gallery at the Canterbury Museum. The Gallery will also be the venue for lectures provided by UC Community Education on a range of topics related to the exhibition.

 

Out of the Darkroom

Dr Alfred Charles Barker (1819-1873)

Canterbury Museum was recently gifted a significant collection relating to Dr Alfred Charles Barker (1819-1873) who was ship’s surgeon on board the Charlotte Jane, but is better known for his remarkable photography.

The collection includes photographs of family and Canterbury scenes, diaries on board the Charlotte Jane and correspondence between various family members. The Barker children’s letters to their uncle Matthias during the 1860s provide an engaging record of childhood in colonial Canterbury. Letters from Alfred’s son Samuel Delabere Barker’s describe a perilous journey in Africa during the 1870s, his shaky handwriting showing the effects of malaria.

An exhibition titled Out of the Darkroom: Dr A.C. Barker, Photographer and Family Man will open at the Museum on 4 April 2009, showcasing items from the new collection. Public tours of the exhibition will run as part of Archives Week in May. These will be held in the Visitor Lounge on 6 May, 10.00am and 11.30am and 12 May, 6.00 – 7.00pm. Free admission, bookings are essential: phone 366 9429 ext 817 or email discovery@canterburymuseum.com.

 

Upcoming Event

Cantage and Aoraki LIANZA are teaming up to bring you a tour of Christ’s College Library and the Canterbury Museum Documentary Research Centre. This presents a unique opportunity to have a behind the scenes peek at two very interesting organisations.

When – Wednesday 18 February

Time – Canterbury Museum Documentary Research Centre tour starts at 4.30, Christ’s College Library tour starts at 5.30.

The tour is free, and you can come along to both places, or just one. Meet outside the main entrance on Rolleston Avenue.

Please register your interest with me erin.kimber@canterbury.ac.nz or jane.mordecai@tvnz.co.nz