Otago Settlers Museum
Encyclopedia
The Otago Settlers Museum is a regional history museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

 in Dunedin
Dunedin
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...

, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. Its brief covers the territory of the old Otago Province
Otago Province
The Otago Province was a province of New Zealand until the abolition of provincial government in 1876.-Area:The capital of the province was Dunedin...

, that is, New Zealand from the Waitaki River
Waitaki River
The Waitaki River is a large river in the South Island of New Zealand, some 110 km long. It is the major river of the Mackenzie Basin.It is a braided river which flows through Lake Benmore, Lake Aviemore and Lake Waitaki. These are ultimately fed by three large glacial lakes, Pukaki, Tekapo,...

 south. It is New Zealand's oldest and most extensive history museum. It is located in the heart of the city close to other prominent buildings such as the Dunedin Railway Station
Dunedin Railway Station
Possibly the best-known building in the southern half of New Zealand's South Island, Dunedin Railway Station is a jewel in the country's architectural crown. Designed by George Troup, the station is the fourth building to have served as Dunedin's railway station...

, some 500 metres from the city centre (The Octagon
The Octagon, Dunedin
The Octagon is the city centre of Dunedin, in the South Island of New Zealand.-Features:The Octagon is an eight sided plaza bisected by the city's main street, which is called George Street to the northeast and Princes Street to the southwest...

).

History

Founded in 1898, the 50th anniversary of the Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 settlement of Otago
Otago
Otago is a region of New Zealand in the south of the South Island. The region covers an area of approximately making it the country's second largest region. The population of Otago is...

, by the Otago Early Settlers' Association, by 1908 the museum was located in a building in Queen's Gardens Dunedin, designed by John Burnside. Originally concerned only with European settlers, initially just those who arrived between 1848 and the first of the Otago gold rushes in 1861, the institution gradually enlarged its scope to include later arrivals and eventually Māori. At that point the word 'early' was dropped from the name of the Museum and the Association. Its collections evolved reflecting these changes but remain focused on the historical period, i.e. since James Cook
James Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...

's first visit to southern New Zealand in 1770.

In 1927 the museum took over the adjoining building, also designed by Burnside, vacated by the Dunedin Public Art Gallery
Dunedin Public Art Gallery
The Dunedin Public Art Gallery holds the main public art collection of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand. Located in The Octagon in the heart of the city, it is close to the city's public library, municipal chambers, and other facilities such as the Regent Theatre.-History:The gallery was founded by...

. The institution sometimes struggled financially finding little support from the city council. Comparable museums in two other New Zealand cities, Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

 and Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...

, were closed after the second world war and their collections dispersed. The country's interest in its own history was at a low ebb. The period 1949 to 1977 has been called 'Decline and Fall?' and the museum might have died. The buildings were extensive, the collections considerable and varied, comprehending furniture, apparel, technology - including household appliances and vehicles - as well as archives and works of art. Maintenance and even heating presented formidable challenges.

In 1978 a new Director, Seddon Bennington
Seddon Bennington
Seddon L. Bennington was a New Zealand museum executive. Bennington served as the chief executive of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, the national museum of New Zealand, from January 2003 until his death in 2009, and had also been the director of the Carnegie Science Center in...

, embarked on a programme of renewal. A later Director, Elizabeth Hinds, continued the museum's resurgence. The Dunedin City Council provided grants increasingly covering costs and in 1991 took over the museum's ownership and operation. A neighbouring building, formerly the New Zealand Railways Bus Station, designed in 1939 by James Hodge White (1896-1970), was acquired. This structure, one of Dunedin's more notable examples of art deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...

 architecture, is now used to house vintage transport and related machinery. It lies directly to the south of the old museum, to which it was linked in 1994 by a concourse designed by Francis Whittaker. In 1995 the directorship of the museum was combined with that of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, an innovation which was controversial. In 2008 this was reversed and the city council re-established the museum's separate directorship.

In 2006 the city council decided to proceed with extensive additions to the north and east of the Burnside complex to consolidate the collections on a single site and to provide better conditions for their storage and exhibition. Further extensions are planned, including a controversial observation tower at the museum's northern end.

On 4 April 2008 a burst water main caused flooding and damage to the museum costing $45,000 to repair. No artefacts were found to be irreparable.

The museum's E class
NZR E class (1872)
The NZR E class of Double Fairlie steam locomotives were two different types of Fairlie locomotive, and were the first classes to take that designation, followed by the E class Mallet compound locomotive of 1906 and then the E class battery electric locomotive of 1922...

 Fairlie
Fairlie
A Fairlie is a type of articulated steam locomotive that has the driving wheels on bogies. The locomotive may be double-ended or single ended...

 steam locomotive
Steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...

 Josephine is popular. It is the oldest preserved steam locomotive in New Zealand, dating from 1872, and when it was saved for preservation in the late 1920s, it became New Zealand's first preserved locomotive, decades before the heritage movement truly began in this country. The museum also possesses the youngest preserved steam locomotive in New Zealand, JA
NZR Ja class
The NZR JA class were a type of 4-8-2 steam locomotive used on the New Zealand railway network. The class was built in two batches, with the second batch possessing some differences from the first...

 1274. It entered service in December 1956 and was both the last steam locomotive built by the New Zealand Railways Department
New Zealand Railways Department
The New Zealand Railways Department, NZR or NZGR and often known as the "Railways", was a government department charged with owning and maintaining New Zealand's railway infrastructure and operating the railway system. The Department was created in 1880 and was reformed in 1981 into the New...

 (at Dunedin's Hillside Workshops) and the last new steam locomotive built for operation on the national network. It was officially withdrawn in November 1971 and was saved for preservation, moving to the museum a few years later.

Among the museum's collection of paintings are works by the surveyor of Dunedin Charles Kettle
Charles Kettle
Charles Henry Kettle surveyed the city of Dunedin in New Zealand, imposing a bold design on a challenging landscape. He was aiming to create a Romantic effect and incidentally produced the world's steepest street, Baldwin Street....

, the surveyor John Buchanan, artist Alfred Henry O'Keeffe
Alfred Henry O'Keeffe
Alfred Henry O'Keeffe , was a notable New Zealand artist and art teacher, who spent the majority of his life in Dunedin. During the first quarter of the twentieth century, he was one of the few New Zealand artists to engage with new ideas while staying in New Zealand. At this time most adventurous...

 and a notable group by George O'Brien
George O'Brien (painter)
George O'Brien was an engineer of aristocratic background who turned to art in 19th century Australasia, dying in poverty but leaving a body of remarkable work.-Biography:...

. The museum also houses a research centre and is home to an extensive collection of photographs of European pioneers. A bust of a former Provincial Superintendent James Macandrew
James Macandrew
James Macandrew was a New Zealand ship-owner and politician. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1853 to 1887 and as the last Superintendent of Otago Province.-Early life:...

 is located outside the Burnside building.

Chinese garden

A traditional Chinese garden has been constructed on land immediately behind the museum's transport wing, and opened to the public on 8 July 2008. It is one of very few such gardens outside China. This garden is partly a gift of Dunedin's sister city, Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

, and has been designed in consultation with landscape architects from that city.

Sources

  • Brosnahan, S.G. (1998) To Fame Undying The Otago Settlers Association and its Museum 1898-1998 Dunedin, NZ: Otago Settlers Association. ISBN 0-473-05211-3.

External links

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