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Te Papa Blog

Discover stories from Te Papa’s experts, including curators, scientists, historians, collection managers, and educators.

 

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Rare books

The only island holiday we’re getting this year – spending time in the rare books collection

Amanda Sykes and Alice Hinton, Master of Museum and Heritage Practice program student at Wellington’s Victoria University, spent three weeks working on a placement at Te Papa’s Research library. Here they describe their work and adventures while here.Read more

2020-09-18
By: Martin Lewis
On: 18 Sep 2020
In: Art, Behind the scenes, Collections Online, History, Māori, Pacific, Science

Fabulous beasts and where they lurk in our library

A steampunk Pokémon sea dragon, mutant whales, and a sabre-toothed devil bunny of the Aztecs. Librarian Martin Lewis (aka @RareBookGuy) presents his favourite curious creatures while researching this month.Read more

2018-10-29
By: Martin Lewis
On: 29 Oct 2018
In: Art, Behind the scenes

Illustrations of the Grand Canyon – our retiring librarian’s favourite rare book

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

2018-04-26
By: Christine Kiddey
On: 26 Apr 2018
In: Behind the scenes
A hand points to a bite mark in a book

‘Please do not bite the books’ and other comical library rules

Would you walk into a library with a dirty face? Take a bite out of one of the books? Or LIE to the librarian?  Librarian Martin Lewis (@rarebookguy) reveals comical library rules from history and shares his five commandments to ensure happy books and librarians.  No dirty faces and no lies inRead more

2017-10-11
By: Martin Lewis
On: 11 Oct 2017
In: Behind the scenes, History

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