Auckland Institute and Museum, known as Auckland Museum Institute since 1996 and the Royal Society of New Zealand Auckland Branch, is a learned society in New Zealand.
History Formed as the Auckland Philosophical Society on 6 November 1867, for "the promotion of art, science, and literature by means of a museum and library, lectures, and meetings of the members", with a view to incorporation with the newly created New Zealand Institute and adopting the Auckland Museum, Museum Library Home Page the Society was fittingly renamed the Auckland Institute in March 1868 and formally incorporated with the New Zealand Institute on 10 June 1868.
In October 1869, upon the resolution of the Auckland Provincial Council, John Williamson, Superintendent of the Province of Auckland, transferred the 17-year-old Auckland Museum and its contents to the Auckland Institute, on the guarantee that the Institute "will adopt the proper measures (1) for the preservation of its present contents, (2) for a free admission of the public at convenient times." He also obtained a grant of the old Post Office site in Princes Street for the Institute. By 1871 the Institute was known as Auckland Institute and Museum; which first appeared on their annual reports in 1880–81.
By the mid-1880s, Auckland Institute and Museum Council had felt for some time that the Institute's real property, held divided under different trustees, was unsatisfactory or unsecure. Discouraged by serious technical difficulties apparent in the idea of "incorporating" either the whole body of the Institute or the Institute's Council, as revealed through consultation and development with their solicitors, they formed the proposal to have the whole property held by one body of trustees, who would themselves be under the direction of the Institute's Council. Auckland Institute and Museum established their board of trustees, the Auckland Institute and Museum Trust Board, under the Religious, Charitable, and Educational Trust Boards Incorporation Act, 1884, managed by trustees appointed under the Auckland Museum Endowment Act, 1882, at a Special General Meeting in its Princes Street museum buildings on 5 October 1885.
In memory of the noble sacrifices made during the Great War, Auckland War Memorial Museum was opened to the public on 28 November 1929. In the opening address, the Chairman of the Citizens War Memorial Committee, Alfred Seymour Bankart, said to the Governor General, Sir Charles Fergusson: Your Excellency, the Memorial takes two forms, the Museum building and the cenotaph, both embodying the same spirit. They are to be entrusted to the care of different bodies—the Court of Honour and Cenotaph to the Mayor and Councillors of the City of Auckland, and the Museum building to the trustees of the Auckland Institute and Museum. Accordingly, Fergusson presented the Cenotaph to the Mayor of Auckland, George Baildon, accepting on behalf of the citizens, and the Auckland War Memorial Museum building to the President of the Auckland Institute and Museum, Hubert Earle Vaile.
In 1996 the Auckland War Memorial Museum Act 1996 separated the Institute from governance of the War Memorial Museum. Today the Auckland Museum Institute is charged with the support of the Museum and Museum Trust Board by providing advocacy, promoting the use and understanding of the Museum's collections and activities and supporting the function of the War Memorial aspect of the Museum. Since 1996, it has focused on its historic roles as 'Learned Society', operating Friends of the Auckland Museum, and appointing body for four Museum Trust Board members.
Sections The Institute's first independent special interest group, the Medical Section for the promotion of medical science, formed in 1869. The Anthropology and Maori Studies Section followed in 1922; Astronomical Section, Auckland Astronomical Society, in 1923–24; Conchology Section, Auckland Shell Club, in 1931; Maritime Section, Auckland Maritime Society, in 1958; and Costume & Textile Section, Costume and Textile Association of New Zealand, in 2002. Auckland Astronomical Society pursued the establishment of Stardome Observatory. Auckland Maritime Society pursued the establishment of the New Zealand Maritime Museum.
Current sections are: Conchology Section: Auckland Shell Club Costume & Textile Section: Costume and Textile Association of New Zealand
Networks Auckland Museum Institute is a partner in the Monuments Men and Women Museum Network, launched in 2021 by the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art.
Officers Presidents
1867–1869: Frederick Whitaker 1869–1870: Thomas Bannatyne Gillies 1870–1871: Arthur Guyon Purchas 1871–1873: Theophilus Heale 1873–1874: Thomas Bannatyne Gillies 1874–1875: Sir George Alfred Arney 1875–1876: Josiah Clifton Firth 1876–1877: Thomas Bannatyne Gillies 1877–1878: Robert Clapham Barstow 1878–1879: Theophilus Heale 1879–1881: Arthur Guyon Purchas 1881–1882: Thomas Peacock 1882–1883: Edmund Augustus MacKechnie 1883–1884: William Garden Cowie 1884–1885: Hugh Garden Seth-Smith 1885–1886: James Alexander Pond 1886–1887: Frederick Douglas Brown 1887–1888: Algernon Phillips Withiel Thomas 1888–1889: Stephenson Percy Smith 1889–1890: Josiah Martin 1890–1891: James Stewart 1891–1893: Frederick Douglas Brown 1893–1894: Charles Alexander MacLean Pond 1894–1895: John Henry Upton 1895–1896: Algernon Phillips Withiel Thomas 1896–1897: Donald Petrie 1897–1898: Ernest Roberton 1898–1899: Henry Arnold Talbot-Tubbs 1899–1900: John Batger 1900–1901: Hugh William Segar 1901–1902: James Stewart 1902–1903: Ernest Roberton 1903–1906: Algernon Phillips Withiel Thomas 1906–1907: Frederick Douglas Brown 1907–1909: Ernest Valentine Miller 1909–1910: Charles William Egerton 1910–1911: Robert Briffault 1911–1912: John Henry Upton 1912–1913: Hugh William Segar 1913–1915: Christopher James Parr 1915–1917: Sir Edwin Mitchelson 1917–1926: Sir James Henry Gunson 1926–1931: Hubert Earle Vaile 1931–1933: Alfred George Lunn 1933–1934: Hugh William Segar 1934–1935: Sir Cecil Leys 1935–1936: Arthur Thomas Pycroft 1936–1938: Sir Carrick Hey Robertson 1938–1940: Charles Reginald Ford 1940–1941: William Aiken Fairclough 1942–1944: A. H. Johnstone 1944–1947: J. C. Rennie 1947–1949: Thomas Bloodworth 1949–1952: Francis Leveson-Gower West 1952–1955: Lindsay Heathcote Briggs 1955–1958: John William Kealy 1958–1961: J. H. Rose 1961–1964: John Seabrook 1964–1967: Stanley George Brooker 1967–1970: Harold Cecil Holland 1970–1973: Arthur Robert Hughes 1973–1976: G. W. Frater 1976–1980: John Dunstan Atkinson 1980–1983: Richard Henry Lindo Ferguson 1983–1986: R. E. Thomas 1986–1989: Sheila Weight 1989–1992: William Allan Laxon 1992–1995: Harold V. Coop 1995–1996: Alfred Richard Bellamy 1996–1998: Sheila Weight 1998–1999: 1999–2000: 2000–2001: Chris Patterson 2001–2002: Lawre Taylor 2002–2003: Arthur Haughey 2003–2008: Michael Rowe 2008–2012: Rae Nield 2012–2014: Roger Lins 2014–2020: John McIntyre 2020–2024: Roger Lins 2024–2025: Hamish McGhie
Publications
See also
Royal Society of New Zealand Auckland War Memorial Museum Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art
References