Here's something new! I'm writing a history column for Library Life magazine, which is published online every second month by LIANZA. I'll add my History Corner columns to my blog as they're published.
Originally published in Library Life, April 2019
1841: NEW ZEALAND’S FIRST PUBLIC LIBRARY
Public libraries have been a vital part of New Zealand life since before the first wave of New Zealand Company colonists set foot on our shores. Our first public library, the Port Nicholson Exchange and Public Library, was opened in a raupo hut by these settlers in Wellington in 1841, using donated books brought specially from Britain. The New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator reports that the colonists hoped their new library would be a place ‘for the diffusion of scientific knowledge,’ while the Exchange Room was for ‘affording facilities to professional gentlemen, merchants, and traders generally, of access to the public newspapers, and other similar works, as well as a rendezvous for the transaction of mercantile and other business.’
Dr. Frederick Knox was hired as the country’s first librarian. His family has another claim to fame – Dr. Knox’s brother, Robert, had purchased cadavers from Edinburgh’s infamous body-snatchers Burke and Hare during the West Port Murders in 1828. Frederick Knox had gained some of his cataloguing expertise from working in his brother’s private anatomical museum. Dr. Frederick Knox immigrated to New Zealand in 1840 with his wife and five children. He bought his love for natural history to the new library, establishing a small natural history museum alongside the books.
Despite such promising beginnings, The Port Nicholson Exchange and Public Library was beset with problems and ultimately stayed open for only one year. Located on the corner of modern Molesworth St and Lambton Quay, the library was too far from its patrons, who mostly lived in Te Aro. It also priced itself out of the market, charging £5 for membership (more than $950 in today’s money) plus an extra £2 (about $366) for an annual subscription. Competition in the form of the affordable and better-situated Wellington Exchange stole many of the library’s customers. By April 1842, with even its original members refusing to pay their subscriptions, the library was forced to shut. Its collection was passed on to the newly-established Wellington Mechanics’ Institute, who operated the library until they too were forced to shut down in 1843. The settlers’ books, and Dr. Knox’s museum specimens, were stored away for future use.
Originally published in Library Life, April 2019
1841: NEW ZEALAND’S FIRST PUBLIC LIBRARY
Public libraries have been a vital part of New Zealand life since before the first wave of New Zealand Company colonists set foot on our shores. Our first public library, the Port Nicholson Exchange and Public Library, was opened in a raupo hut by these settlers in Wellington in 1841, using donated books brought specially from Britain. The New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator reports that the colonists hoped their new library would be a place ‘for the diffusion of scientific knowledge,’ while the Exchange Room was for ‘affording facilities to professional gentlemen, merchants, and traders generally, of access to the public newspapers, and other similar works, as well as a rendezvous for the transaction of mercantile and other business.’
Dr. Frederick Knox was hired as the country’s first librarian. His family has another claim to fame – Dr. Knox’s brother, Robert, had purchased cadavers from Edinburgh’s infamous body-snatchers Burke and Hare during the West Port Murders in 1828. Frederick Knox had gained some of his cataloguing expertise from working in his brother’s private anatomical museum. Dr. Frederick Knox immigrated to New Zealand in 1840 with his wife and five children. He bought his love for natural history to the new library, establishing a small natural history museum alongside the books.
Despite such promising beginnings, The Port Nicholson Exchange and Public Library was beset with problems and ultimately stayed open for only one year. Located on the corner of modern Molesworth St and Lambton Quay, the library was too far from its patrons, who mostly lived in Te Aro. It also priced itself out of the market, charging £5 for membership (more than $950 in today’s money) plus an extra £2 (about $366) for an annual subscription. Competition in the form of the affordable and better-situated Wellington Exchange stole many of the library’s customers. By April 1842, with even its original members refusing to pay their subscriptions, the library was forced to shut. Its collection was passed on to the newly-established Wellington Mechanics’ Institute, who operated the library until they too were forced to shut down in 1843. The settlers’ books, and Dr. Knox’s museum specimens, were stored away for future use.
Comments
Post a Comment