To celebrate Te Papa’s tenth anniversary, the Friends of Te Papa commissioned artist Humphrey Ikin to create a lectern for Rongomaraeroa, Te Papa’s contemporary meeting house on Level 4. Humphrey Ikin is an artist working in wood, already represented in Te Papa’s collection with ‘Red Stave Chair‘. The lectern representsRead more

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Aside from ferns, my main research interest is the group of trees known as Pseudopanax, for which I collaborate with Lara Shepherd from the Allan Wilson Centre. Pseudopanax includes the lancewoods and five-fingers. Several of the species are popular in cultivation, including fierce lancewood (Pseudopanax ferox). This species is soRead more

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Te Papa’s collections have been built over nearly 150 years and range from miniscule lice and molluscs through to caravans, 22m long artworks and colossal squid.   The collection is estimated to be approximately 2 million artworks, photographs, objects and specimens. Headaches A collection this diverse can create a number ofRead more

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In: Collections Online

New Zealand’s plants have a bit of a reputation for pronounced promiscuity. There is supposedly a high rate of hybridisation, or individuals of one species breeding with individuals of a different species. I’m not entirely sure that this reputation is nationally deserved. Nevertheless, a striking example of hybridisation occurs inRead more

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Jim Barr and Mary Barr asked a good question about digitisation priorities in their blog. There are 3 parts to digitising Te Papa’s Collection. Information about the artwork or object – information about all the art collection was released on Collections Online last year Photography – do we have a digital photograph? CopyrightRead more

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  The other night we hung the two McCahons we bought last year – Scared and Mondrian’s last chrysanthemum. They’ve gone up in Toi Te Papa. In the mid-1970s Colin McCahon did a lot of paintings on a thick high quality paper called Steinbach. Legend has it that McCahon’s dealerRead more

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An infestation of a giant horsetail, Equisetum hyemale, has been found near Levin. It was spotted by eagle-eyed Department of Conservation staff. They gave us a specimen for Te Papa’s herbarium collection of dried plants.   No horsetail species occur naturally in New Zealand, but several have been purposefully orRead more

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One of my previous posts discussed a recent study on New Zealand’s only endemic spider regarded as dangerous to people, the katipo. I thought readers might be interested to learn a little more about what’s behind the bad reputation of katipo and its’ close relatives. As I said then, katipoRead more

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Most hen & chickens ferns in cultivation are the false hen & chickens fern, Asplenium ×lucrosum, rather than Asplenium bulbiferum.  The two are easily distinguished. Asplenium ×lucrosum is a sterile hybrid between Asplenium bulbiferum and Asplenium dimorphum.  The “×” preceding “lucrosum” indicates it is a hybrid. The two parent speciesRead more

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To the left is a war memorial that I discovered in Nelson. It is on the grounds of St Marys Catholic Church in Manuka Street. I don’t know anything about this memorial and it’s not listed on the register of war memorials on NZHistory.net.nz. Any information about it would be gratefully recieved. ItRead more

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In February I was in Collingwood, a small town in Golden Bay at the top of the South Island. Like many towns and cities around New Zealand, Collingwood has war memorials dedicated to local men who died in both world wars.  My grandfather, who was born in Collingwood, was only eightRead more

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