Free museum entry for New Zealanders and people living in New Zealand
Open every day 10am-6pm
(except Christmas Day)
Free museum entry for New Zealanders and people living in New Zealand
In 1907, the Colonial Museum was renamed the Dominion Museum and took on a broader national focus. In 1936, a new building opened in Buckle Street to house the Dominion Museum and new National Art Gallery. In 1972, the Dominion Museum became the National Museum.
Summer researchers Lucia Adams and Margo Montes de Oca uncovered more archival history about the influence and curatorial eye that Nancy Adams brought to the museum and specifically the gardens by the old Dominion Museum building in Buckle Street.
In 1907, the Colonial Museum was renamed the Dominion Museum and took on a broader national focus.
The idea of developing a public art gallery in Wellington was gathering support, and the Science and Art Act of 1913 paved the way for a national art gallery in the same building. However, it was only in 1930 that this idea started to become a reality, under the National Gallery and Dominion Museum Act.
The names listed here are part of a research project investigating the women who were employed by New Zealand’s National Museum and National Art Gallery during their first 100 years. Many of these women were highly recognised in their respective fields such as Amy Castle, Nancy Adams, Margaret Crozier, Ursula Tewsley, and Susan Davis.
James McDonald was a photographer and artist for the Dominion Museum from 1905 to 1926. During the early 1920s, he accompanied anthropologist Elsdon Best on ethnographic trips up the Whanganui River and to the North Island’s East Coast and Rotorua.
Read more about the former National/Dominion Museum and National Art Gallery on the Wellington City Council website.
Notable architects Gummer and Ford won the contract to design the National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum through a national competition. Read more about the historical building on Heritage New Zealand’s website.
These are of the bas-reliefs that adorned the front of the Dominion Museum and National Art Gallery in Buckle Street. They include painting, geology, ethnology, a flowing scroll, sculpture, entomology, and architecture.
See this article on Paper's Past.
A landmark book about four remarkable museum expeditions that contributed to a recovery of Māori society
For the 40th anniversary of Te Maori, Moana Parata talks about how that exhibition and Te Māori: Te Hokinga Mai The Return Home had an impact on her own mahi (work) as Kaitiaki Taonga Collection Manager Humanities at Te Papa Tongarewa.
We meet Keri-Mei Zagrobelna (Te Āti Awa, Te Whānau-a-Apanui), a jewellery maker in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. Keri-Mei talks about her history with the collections at Te Papa, which spans all the way back to the work of her kuia.
Founded in Thorndon in 1865 by Sir James Hector, the Colonial Museum was Te Papa’s predecessor. Discover its early stories and people, and how past collecting practices continue to shape – and sometimes hinder – provenance research today.
Learn about Te Papa, apply for a job, and more.
Discover how we came to be, from the opening of the Colonial Museum in 1865 to Te Papa today.
