CENTENNIAL 1840 - 1940
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CENTENNIAL 1840 - 1940
ALEXANDER HORSBURGH TURNBULL
THE SON OF A WELLINGTON MERCHANT WAS BORN
ON SEPT. 14, 1868 AND WAS EDUCATED AT
DULWICH COLLEGE, LONDON, ENGLAND. HE SPENT
HIS EARLY YEARS IN THE LONDON OFFICE OF
HIS FATHER'S FIRM AND BEGAN COLLECTING
NEW ZEALAND BOOKS WHEN A YOUNG MAN.
FINALLY TAKING UP HIS RESIDENCE IN
NEW ZEALAND HE WIDENED HIS BOOK
COLLECTING INTERESTS TO INCLUDE
ENGLISH LITERATURE AND
EARY VOYAGES.
THE ALEXANDER TURNBUL LIBRARY,
BOWEN STREET, WELLINGTON. IT WAS BUILT IN
1916 AS THE RESIDENCE OF ALEXANDER TURNBULL.
MR. TURNBULL WHO
REMAINED A BACHELOR
DIED IN 1918 LEAVING
HIS VALUABLE COLLECTION
TO THE STATE.
AT THAT TIME THERE
WERE ABOUT 60,000
BOOKS IN HIS LIBRARY
INCLUDING MANY RARE
AND VALUABLE EDITIONS.
THE LIBRARY CONTAINS ONE
OF THE FINEST MILTON
COLLECTIONS OUTSIDE
THE BRITISH MUSEUM.
BESIDES MANY EXAMPLES OF
EARLY PRINTED BOOKS THERE ARE
FIRST EDITIONS OF ROBINSON CRUSOE
AND COUNTLESS OTHER LANDMARKS
IN ENGLISH LITERATURE INCLUDING
A 1632 FOLIO EDITION OF SHAKESPEARE
THERE IS A LOG BY CAPT. COOK
WHEN ON H.M.S. "EAGLE" AND ALSO OTHER
EARLY LOGS AND BOOKS ON DISCOVERY AND
HISTORY IN THE PACIFIC ISLANDS SECTION.
THE COLLECTION WHICH IS NOW ADMINISTERED
BY THE DEPARTMENT OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS HAS
TODAY MORE THAN 80,000 VOLUMES AND IS KEPT
UP TO DATE IN NEW ZEALAND AND OTHER SECTIONS.
THE FIRST MOTOR CARS BROUGHT TO
NEW ZEALAND WERE LANDED AT WELLINGTON FROM
THE S.S. "ROTOMAHANA" ON FEB. 19, 1898. THESE WERE
TWO "BENZ" CARS IMPORTED FROM PARIS BY MR WILLIAM
McLEAN AND WERE CHRISTENED "LIGHTNING" AND "PETROLETTE"
EACH CAR WEIGHED OVER HALF A TON, WAS CHAIN
DRIVEN AND HAD A TOP SPEED OF ABOUT 20 M.P.H.
IN 1898 THE McLEAN MOTOR
CAR ACT WAS PASSEDLIMITING
THE SPEED OF MOTOR CARS TO
12 MILES PER HOUR AND
MAKING IT NECESSARY
TO CARRY A BELL AS
WARNING OF
APPROACH!
TODAY THERE ARE OVER 300,000 MOTOR
VEHICLES IN THIS COUNTRY, - APPROXIMATELY
1 TO EVERY 5 PERSONS, - THE SECOND HIGHEST
RATION IN THE WORLD, THE FIGURES IN THE U.S.A.
BEING ABOUT 1 TO EVERY 3 PERSONS.
New Zealand in Review: an illustrated digest of interesting information, historical, geographical and otherwise, relating to New Zealand / compiled and illustrated by James Berry.
British-born James Berry (1906-1979) emigrated to New Zealand in 1925 and spent the rest of his life as an internationally renowned and honoured commercial artist, stamp, coin and medal designer, and landscape painter. He worked in a number of advertising firms in Wellington before going freelance and spent seven years as staff artist with The Dominion newspaper. For the 1940 centennial celebrations, he produced this historical booklet which went into numerous reprints. Later he had a highly successful career as the designer of some of New Zealand's most famous stamps, coins and medals. Alexander Horsburgh Turnbull, illustrated here, was a seminal figure in the development of New Zealand's book landscape. In 1918, he gifted to the nation his substantial private collection of Pacific exploration literature, Milton, first edition fine-press books, and New Zealand printing and publishing. It formed the nucleus of the Alexander Turnbull Library, now a research centre in the heart of the National Library of New Zealand.
Further reading:
- Tye, J. R. 'Berry, Reginald George James 1906 - 1979'. Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, updated 11 December 2002 URL: http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/
- Rachel Barrowman, The Turnbull. A library and its world. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1995.