Accompanying the portrait wall in Tūrangawaewae: Art and New Zealand are digital interactives that allow you to dive deeper into the conservation efforts that prepared the paintings for exhibition, and reveal hidden histories. Conservator Paintings Linda Waters writes about what the back of a painting can tell you.Read more
Navigating brittle bones and teeth the size of rice, Thomas Schultz, Collection Manager Science, reflects on putting a Hector’s dolphin back together for an exhibition that would tour North America for ten years.Read more
A rare sighting has been made by one of our hosts Perry Hyde, and the rest of the crew of the JOIDES Resolution.Read more
“A woman on a bicycle – legs astride – threatened 19th-century definitions of feminine respectability.” History Curator Claire Regnault dives into the contentious history of ladies on bicycles.Read more
Today is Pink Shirt Day, “a day about working together to stop bullying by celebrating diversity”. Collections Data Technician Gareth Watkins talks about the significance of the day, and finding strength in our collections.Read more
Toropapa has been confusing botanists for over 100 years because they show extreme variation in leaf shape – even between plants considered to be the same species from a single location.Read more
After a decade in North America, our Whales | Tohorā exhibition is making its way back south through the Pacific. For anyone who can’t recall the exhibition – it finished showing at Te Papa in May 2008. Here’s a brief recap from Pat Stodart, Touring Exhibition Manager.Read more
Have you used digital labels in our exhibitions? We use them to tell stories about our objects on screens, instead of just text on walls. Our User Experience team Karyn Brice and Kate Wanless share what they’ve learnt over the last year, and how these insights have helped create our most successful digital label ever.Read more
Transfixed by BodyCartography Project’s Walk with me tour of Toi Art, Head of Exhibition Renewal Frith Williams wrote down her thoughts in the middle of the night, “so I could remember it later.” Here’s what she wrote.Read more
During the last week, there have been many conversations circulating through different media and social networks about our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern wearing a kākahu (cloak) at the recent Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Kaitiaki Māori Collection Manager Mark Sykes explains the differences between kahu huruhuru, kahu kiwi, kahu kuri, and korowai.Read more
Here, Christine chooses her favourite rare book – and it’s possibly an unexpected one: Atlas to Accompany the Tertiary history of the Grand Cañon district.Read more
To mark Anzac Day, and the third anniversary of the opening of Gallipoli: The scale of our war, the exhibition’s lead curator Kirstie Ross shares the story nurse of Lottie Le Gallais’ other brother Owen, who was buried alive during the Battle of the Somme in September 1916.Read more
Iwi development manager Migoto Eria looks at the relationship between Heretaunga chief Hēnare Tōmoana and his wife Ākenehi Pātoka, who signed the suffrage petition in 1893, and reflects on the synergy between wahine (women) and whenua (land).Read more
A faded embroidery shines again with the help of Photoshop. Textiles conservator Anne Peranteau discusses the process of digitally restoring colour to a faded Egyptian souvenir from World War II.Read more
Te Papa curator Colin Miskelly has recently returned from volunteering for the Department of Conservation on the Chatham Islands. His inordinate fondness for weevils led to some new discoveries about one of Rangatira Island’s more cryptic yet spectacular inhabitants.Read more
