Mīharo Wonder: 100 Years of the Alexander Turnbull Library

What does the word ‘wonder’ — or ‘mīharo’ — mean to you? It could be something that evokes awe, fascination or curiosity; to make you think, speculate, meditate upon.

The ATL100 exhibition Mīharo Wonder will inspire you to do all of these.

 

A century of collecting

Putting together an exhibition that celebrates 100 years of collecting and does justice to the sheer extent of those collections is a challenge.

We could have favoured the most popular items, or we could have chosen them on a chronological basis or by monetary value. Instead, the wonder was our yardstick,

Mīharo Wonder is, therefore, a somewhat personal response to the collections. We sifted through thousands of items, distilling our selection to an amount reasonable to fit comfortably in a largish room.

 

What’s in the exhibition?

To us, wonder is found not only in the biggest, smallest, oldest, most lavish or extravagant. It is the miracle of real lives lived, of everyday people making sense of their lives and the world around them. 

There is wonder in the tiny hand-sewn buttons made by French prisoners on the island of St Helena between 1803 and 1806. Who were they, and how did these daintiest of things arrive in New Zealand?

It is in the representation of New Zealand history as a kauri tree, almost 2.5 metres high and 1.5 metres wide, drawn with a pen by a Mr James Meek, aged 62 years, who began in July 1876 and finished a day shy of the new year. How did he feel when at last he put down his pen and looked at his creation?

It is even in the diaries of an itinerant Wairarapa swagman, who kept and carried them for 30 years from 1888, recording in blunt pencil each day’s weather and his movements under those changing skies.

We have chosen items that declared themselves to our eye, heart and mind. We know they’ll speak to yours too.

- Peter Ireland and Dr Fiona Oliver, exhibition curators