From the MTG: Working in collections is fascinating

Earthquake damage, King St, Hastings, gifted by Ken Ward (Georgia), collection of Hawke's Bay Museums Trust, Ruawharo Tā-ū-rangi, 2019/20/11. Public Domain

Working in the collections team at MTG Hawke's Bay Tai Ahuriri, I have been fortunate over the years to encounter a myriad of treasures in the Hawke's Bay Museums Trust collection.

People often comment to me that it must be interesting working with the collections and it is certainly fascinating to have an insight into the history of the region, be it in relation to our social history, art, costume and textile, taonga, or archives and photographs.

Initially working at front of house, I then moved into the collections team at the time of the museum's closure in 2010, as part of the packing team and have continued in the role of collection assistant.

There is never a dull moment in this job. Since the museum reopened in 2013, my responsibilities have included processing many of our new acquisitions.

I also assist our curators and exhibitions team by locating and preparing objects for exhibition, and participating in the installation of them. This has provided me with the opportunity to see many fascinating items across the various collections.

In recent years, I have researched items that are not always on public view when preparing for our collections talks and social media posts and learnt some of the stories behind their history.

Of particular interest to me is the photographic collection and the subjects who look back at us from daguerreotypes, glass plate negatives, cabinet photographs, studio portraits, or small carte de visite photographs.

Portraits of early founders of our region, sports teams, individuals or family portraits at times identified, but often simply faces from the past. Unfortunately, as in all museums, many items accepted in earlier years had little recorded information about them.

The importance of documenting a person or an item's history becomes all too apparent when you work in a museum, as the story behind the photograph or object brings it to life again.

We also hold many photographs of the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake and I never tire of looking at them.

Despite it being 91 years since the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake, the museum still receives offers of images of this significant event in our history, many of them still unique, and some from overseas donors, as in the case of a small photograph album of earthquake images that has had an interesting journey.

In 2019, a donor from Georgia, USA, offered the album to the museum. It contains an inscription on the inside cover that reads "Smithy from Tom, 3.2.1931". A letter from Tom found inside the album includes information about the locations, and he notes that the Hastings photographs are of scenes taken immediately after the first shake.

The donor, who has an interest in old books, had spent a lot of time in Cape Town, South Africa, during his travels. On finding the album in a second-hand shop, he purchased it with a view to finding out more about its history.

A friend in London told him the name of town featured in the photographs and years later, when downsizing his collection, he offered the album to the museum as he realised its significance to the region.

Unfortunately, the identities of 'Smithy' and 'Tom' are unknown, however retaining the letter from Tom with the album, and the story of how it came to be in the donor's possession, adds to the provenance of this well-travelled album that may have otherwise been lost to us.

This is just one of the interesting stories behind the thousands of the items we hold in the Hawke's Bay Museums Trust collection.

Paintings, decorative arts, costume and textiles, taonga and social history items - every day brings new surprises or challenges. Therefore, in answer to the question of how it must be interesting working with collections, the answer is a definite "Yes!"

Linda Macan is a Collection Assistant at MTG Hawke's Bay