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A Polarising Sauce: The Essence of Anchovies In 2017, MOTAT received the donation of an unopened bottle of sauce carrying the title “Essence of Anchovies”. At first it may seem an unusual object for MOTAT's Collection, so let’s take a closer look at the unique history of this object.
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In Stitches: A Selection of Sewing Machines In use since the late 1700s, sewing machines have been a key component in both domestic and industrial technology. Contributing to the industrial revolution, providing uniforms for war, and altering domestic duties; sewing machines have evolved with social change throughout history. Often associated with the popular Singer name, sewing machines have become a symbol of women’s work, clothing production and factory jobs. It is interesting to note sewing machines were not manufactured in New Zealand but imported and sold under license by New Zealand retailers. The Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) Collection has a variety of sewing machines, which represent New Zealanders links with these, once essential, domestic appliance and reveal a unique side business for vehicle manufacturers.
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A New Topdressing Aircraft The Walsh Memorial Library hold eight logbooks of Banks Peninsula-born pilot Harold Lord Piper (1899–1965). Log books are an invaluable record for any pilot — tracing the different aircraft types flown, distances and conditions they flew in.
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Redressing the Balance – A Brief History of Letter Balances and the Penny Post During my recent research of MOTAT’s Weights and Measures Collection, the letter balances, or postal scales, stood out – when did they first become popular and how are they relevant to New Zealand’s history?
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Telecom Phone Cards A donation of Telecom phone cards from the late 1990s has filled a gap in our Telecommunications collection.
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‘You’ve kicked me’: Tram Conductresses Auckland’s tramway was initially a public/private venture by the British Electric Traction Company in London and the Auckland Borough Councils but was taken over by the Auckland City Corporation in 1919. It flourished for 40 years but street tramways fell out of favour and were replaced by diesel and trolleybuses in a modernisation programme after the Second World War. Auckland’s last trams ran on 30 December 1956 (although they run regularly at MOTAT).
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Open Wide: A Short History of the Murder House in New Zealand Many businesses such as dentists and hairdressers have been overwhelmed with bookings after the return to ‘normal’ life post Covid-19 lockdown here in New Zealand. It makes you wonder: a rush to the dentist is usually unheard of because, for many, the idea of the dentist conjures up images of pain and cold, clinical sights and smells. But where did this anxiety come from? This article aims to delve into the history of the School Dental Service (SDS), the school dental clinics also known by my parent’s generation as the ‘murder house’, and bring our worst fears into the light. Did it succeed in improving children’s oral health? Was the ‘murder house’ really a place of trauma and pain?
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Leo White: The Man Behind The Whites Aviation Collection The Whites Aviation Collection spans some 70 years of history with categories covering the early aero clubs, trans-Tasman flights, the formation of the early airlines in New Zealand and other aviation events up to the 1970's.
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Time Flies When Having Fun During an exploration of timepieces within MOTAT’s Collection, we rediscovered several unique and kooky clocks. Here’s what author Emily Hames found…
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Preserving Time During the unprecedented times of the COVID-19 pandemic, a trend that re-emerged was the appreciation of a more slow-paced life. This resulted from having more time at home due to people’s movements being restricted to their neighbourhoods. People had more time to spend in the garden and exercise through, walks, running, biking and/or scooter rides within their bubbles. With the lack of takeaway options, home cooked meals and baking became more common;, this also included the act of preserving food.
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Some Assembly Required: A Brief History of Early Ford Assembly in New Zealand In the 1930s, New Zealand had a thriving car assembly industry. While this is no longer the case today, New Zealand still has one of the highest car ownership rates in the world. In 1939, New Zealand was second only to the USA for car ownership.
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Contemporary Collecting: The Pear-1 Ventilator Prototype A look at one object, the Pear-1 ventilator prototype, acquired by MOTAT as part of quick response collecting during New Zealand's 2020 Level 4 lockdown - why this object?
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A Platform for the Future: Auckland Rapid Transit The plan for Auckland’s electric metro rail that included an underground CBD loop from 50 years ago.
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Short Sunderland NZ4115 MOTAT's Short Sunderland NZ4115 was officially presented to MOTAT in September 1966 and arrived the summer of 1967. Read on for more about its history and delivery to MOTAT.
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‘We were novelties’: TEAL Solent Flying Boat Stewardesses MOTAT has the last remaining Mark IV Short Solent flying boat in the world in its collection. In the Walsh Memorial Library’s recorded sound archive, there are a number of interviews recorded by members of the Solent Preservation Society in the 1990s. In the late 2000s we recorded some interviews with stewardesses who flew on the Solents between Auckland and Wellington and Sydney, and from Auckland up to the Pacific to Tonga and Fiji, and on the Coral Route which went via Fiji, Samoa and the Cook Islands to Tahiti. The Auckland-Sydney route started in 1949, the Wellington-Sydney one in 1950. In 1951 the Coral Route began — at first monthly and then fortnightly.
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The Flying Kiwi: A Photo Essay The Walsh Memorial Library currently has a selection of objects and archival material on display to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Cliff Tait’s round the world flight in New Zealand manufactured, AESL Airtourer 115 “Miss Jacy.” The Library cares for the extensive photographic collection compiled by Cliff during this flight, which saw him away from his family from May — August 1969, something we’re all learned to grapple with during the COVID pandemic.
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Lime e-scooters: Shared Micromobility Hits Auckland's Streets. Lime played a pivotal role in the introduction of shared-use scooters to New Zealand in 2018.
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Going Viral: Polio and the Iron Lung New Zealand has a long history of epidemics and pandemics - from the influenza epidemic that was reported by Māori in Foveaux Strait in 1817-20, to today’s COVID-19 pandemic. Protocols such as social distancing and the closure of schools and public venues has previously been seen in New Zealand’s history, affecting Kiwis throughout the early 20th Century due to a reoccurring epidemic - the Polio (poliomyelitis) virus.
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The Magic of Cinema With cinemas opening up their digital doors to share the classics, Walsh Memorial Library's pictorial collection gives a look back at the glitz and glam of Auckland’s cinema in the early-mid 20th century.
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Amateur Radio Operations Aid the 1933 Tasman Crossing by the Southern Cross Aviation tours captured the imagination of the New Zealand public, with Tasman crossings increasingly carried out in the 1930s after the first successful crossing in 1928 by Sir Charles Kingsford Smith. In January 1933 Kingsford Smith made another crossing, flying between Sydney and New Plymouth in Fokker F.VII ‘Southern Cross’ with co-pilot Patrick Gordon Taylor and radio operator John Stannage.
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