Bay of Islands Features in Library Exhibition

Bay of Islands Features in Library Exhibition

An historical perspective of the Bay of Islands is the theme of Auckland Central City Library’s latest special collections exhibition.

Surgeon, John Savage, called at the Bay of Islands in 1805 on board the whaler ‘Ferret’. His book, “Some account of New Zealand particularly the Bay of Islands” is one of the many eyewitness accounts of the early years of the Bay on show at the library.

In the early nineteenth century the Bay of Island’s importance as a harbour where ships could shelter and obtain supplies from local Maori made it the focus of European settlement and missionary activity.

The exhibition views events in the Bay of Islands through the eyes of those who were there - from Cook’s first voyage and naming of the Bay of Islands in 1769, through to the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 and Hone Heke’s rejection of it in the 1845 War in the North.

Original letters and diaries handwritten by naturalist Joseph Banks; missionaries Samuel Marsden and James Kemp; officials James Busby and Felton Mathew; as well as Hone Heke are all features of the exhibition. These are complemented by accounts in books, and by maps and a watercolour of Kororareka (Russell) by J.B.C. Hoyte.

The exhibition runs from 22 July until 14 October 2000.

ENDS

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