Discover Sir George Grey’s Collection online

Discover Sir George Grey’s Collection online

A new website commissioned by Auckland Libraries as a tribute to the collection Sir George Grey gifted to the people of Auckland, is now live.

The original Auckland City Library opened in 1880, thanks to the generosity of Sir George Grey who had the foresight to gift his diverse book collection to the people of Auckland .

This collection included some 14,000 items including rare books, manuscripts and letters, which today has both national and international significance.

To be known as the Grey Collection, the new site www.georgegrey.org.nz, is an excellent source of historical information and digitised heritage material.

The site is a showcase of the items gifted by Sir George containing beautiful digitised heritage images and a biographical timeline of the life and times of Sir George. The Grey Collection also features 10 E-books - titles such as the Rossdhu Book of Hours, a medieval prayer book and the Robert Park Sketchbook.

Links to two key online resources about Sir George are also on the site.

The first is Shades of Grey, an exhibition currently on at Central City Library ( 44-46 Lorne Street ) focussing on Sir George, the man and his many facets as politician, philanthropist, explorer and linguist. The exhibition runs until 29 January 2011 but if you can’t get there you can view it online.

The other is Manuscripts Online, a database providing access to Auckland Libraries’ manuscript collections, including the Grey Letters database. Here you can access four manuscript collections from the Sir George Grey Special Collections: Grey letters (non-New Zealand); Grey New Zealand letters; Non-New Zealand Manuscript Collection and New Zealand Manuscript Collection.

The Grey New Zealand letters collection contains approximately 1800 letters from New Zealanders to Sir George Grey. Digital images of all these letters have recently been added to Manuscripts Online. Detailed summaries have also been provided, and the summaries are key word searchable.

The digitisation of our manuscripts is an ongoing project. We plan to add more digital images of items in the database very soon, along with full transcriptions of about 1900 letters.

Running alongside the Shades of Grey exhibition are two special presentations:

Ngā Reta Māori – Māori Letters
12-1pm Thursday, 11 November 2010 at the Whare Wānanga, Central City Library.
Presented by Heritage Māori librarian, Rob Eruera.
For those interested in the interaction between Māori and Sir George Grey, this presentation delves into the Grey New Zealand Māori Autograph Series – a collection of Māori correspondence of national significance from the 1842-1897 period.

The Rossdhu Book of Hours
12-1pm Thursday 18 November 2010 at the Whare Wānanga, Central City Library.
Presented by preservation manager David Ashman and manuscripts librarian Kate de Courcy.
This medieval manuscript was recently on loan to the village of Luss in Scotland where it was viewed by thousands of visitors, including Prince Charles.
Learn about the extraordinary efforts David went to in preparation for the Rossdhu’s journey. Find out from Kate what makes this book so precious.
Both presentations are free although bookings are essential Please phone 377 0209.

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