Policing the boundaries: Establishing the scope of New Zealand’s cultural collections in the 1930s

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26686/arch.11125

Keywords:

Art Museums, Cultural Property, National Art Gallery, Dominion Museum, Alexander Turnbull Library

Abstract

Explores how cooperative NZ's first cultural institutions (the Colonial Museum/Dominion Museum, the Alexander Turnbull Library, the National Art Gallery, and the General Assembly Library) were in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Discusses the difficulty experienced in establishing the boundaries of the national collections. Looks back on how material was divided between the Dominion Museum, the National Art Gallery, and the Alexander Turnbull Library when the museum and art gallery opened in 1936. Examines how 'art' was defined. Traces the journey of a painting currently held in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa's collection, William Beetham's 'Dr Isaac Featherston and the Te Atiawa chiefs (Hon Wi Tako Ngatata MLC and Honiana Te Puni)' (1857-58), between the institutions.

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Author Biography

Rebecca Rice, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

Rebecca Rice is Curator Historical New Zealand Art at Te Papa Tongarewa. Prior to this she was based at Victoria University of Wellington where she worked as a Fractional Lecturer in Art History and as Collection Officer for the Victoria University Art Collection. She completed her PhD in Art History in 2010, titled ‘The state collections of colonial New Zealand art: intertwined histories of collecting and display’. Rebecca writes regularly on colonial New Zealand art and exhibitions in both local and international publications.

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Published

2014-04-01

Issue

2014: April

Section

Articles